Blueberry Bakewell Slice

I have been promising for ages to post the recipe to my BLUEBERRY BAKEWELL SLICE that I made back in September. I decided to substitute the traditional raspberry for blueberries which started with making blueberry jam!

I opted to use frozen blueberries and while the recipe only called for 100g of either fresh or frozen I realised midway through that to produce enough for my dessert I would need to use about four times that quantity. So making the jam is relatively simple and just involves the blueberries, a tablespoon of caster sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan (as I've said many times, I prefer the stainless steel variety because they don't stick and are way easier to clean afterwards).

Heat gently until the berries begin to burst (i.e. soften up). Continue simmering to allow your mixture to thicken up. It's hard to describe exactly the consistency you're looking for but suffice it to say you'll feel (with your spoon/spatula) when the mixture is at appropriate thickness. Essentially it will be a cohesive jam-like consistency and at this point you want to remove it from the heat and strain it through a sieve into a heatproof container. Have a glass jar standing by too to transfer it to and leave to cool completely.

As for the base (pictured above) you'll want a rectangular baking tin, greased and floured in preparation and the following ingredients:

225g plain flour 60g icing (powdered) sugar pinch of salt 225g soft unsalted butter

Combine all ingredients in a good processor to form a cohesive dough and press into your tin. Bake for around 20 minutes (remember to preheat your oven to 180˚ C using an oven thermometer). Then leave to cool while you prepare the filling.

For the filling:

150g soft unsalted butter 4 eggs 150g caster sugar 150g ground almonds 250g fresh blueberries 50g flaked almonds

Melt the butter and then let it cool for around 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine the eggs, sugar and almonds in a food processor and blitz to a paste then pour in the melted butter while the mixer is still running.

Then what you want to do is spread your pre-prepared blueberry jam over the base, scatter over the fresh blueberries and then cover with the almond filling. For a final touch sprinkle over the flaked almonds and bake for 45 minutes.

Et voila...!