Berries and Almond Tart

This is one of my favourite tarts for using any seasonal soft fruits. I've used raspberries and blueberries here but you could use blackberries, apricots, nectarines and plums or any combination. I took this tart to a friends barbecue where we watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I was lucky enough to watch one of the technical rehearsals for the opening ceremony (I'm a volunteer London Ambassador for the paralympics and was offered a ticket as many volunteers were) but there was so much to see it was great to watch it all over again. Hearing the live drumming in the stadium though was phenomenal and just couldn't be captured on tv. Anyway back to the barbecue - I also took the brownies from the previous post as I was on pud duty and all went down well.
Adding an egg or egg yolk to the pastry makes it much easier to handle as it doesn't crack when you roll it out. You can make it in the food processor or by hand or if time is short buy a sheet of ready-rolled shortcrust.

Serves 8
Takes about 1 hour plus chilling pastry
Sweet easy-roll pastry
200g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
120g butter, cut into cubes
1 medium egg yolk
11/2 tbsp cold water
Filling
75g butter, softened
75g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
75g ground almonds
3 tbsp raspberry jam
250g fresh berries such as mixed raspberries and blueberries
25g flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to dust

1 To make the pastry, place the flour salt and sugar in a food processor or bowl. Add the butter and pulse in the processor or rub in by hand until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

2 Add the egg yolk and water and pulse in the processor until the mixture just comes together to form a ball. If making by hand mix in the egg yolk and water with a round bladed knife and then bring together with your hand to form a dough. Knead the pastry very little until just smooth, wrap in cling film and chill for 15-30 mins.

3 Heat the oven to 190C, 170C fan, Gas 5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface, just larger than a 23cm flan tin. Place the pastry in the tin lightly pressing it into the corners and up the sides without stretching it. Trim off any surplus pastry by rolling the rolling pin across the top of the tin. Line the pastry with a sheet of baking parchment and spread baking beans or dried beans over the top. Bake for 10 mins. Remove the paper and beans and bake for  further 5 mins.

4 While the pastry is cooking, make the filling. Beat together the butter and caster sugar until soft and creamy. Beat in the eggs and then stir in the ground almonds. Spread the jam over the pastry base and dot with small spoonfuls of the almond mixture. Spread it out roughly then scatter over the fruit and almonds. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C, 160C, Gas 4 and bake for 30-35 mins until the top is golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm or cold with dollop of creme fraiche.