Recipe: Bramble frangipane

As you all left such lovely comments and Petit Filoux asked so nicely, here is the recipe for this ever so scrummy bake. Mr M and I are both in agreement that it is even nicer the next day, served cold with a cup of tea (or coffee in his case).

The recipe came from a magazine tear. I've lengthened the timings as they really weren't long enough for the mixture to set and reduced the quantity of blackberries as 300g were more than enough.

350g shortcrust pastry
jam - I used one called hedgerow which I thought was rather quaint
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
200g ground almonds
300g blackberries (frozen were fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Line a baking tin (21 x 30 cm) with baking paper.
3. Roll out the shortcrust pastry, 1/2 cm thick, to fit the tin.
4. Pop the pastry in the tin and prick all over with a fork. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Bake in the oven until pale gold - about 10-15 minutes.
6. Cream the butter and sugar together.
7. Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, followed by the ground almonds.
8. Mix until smooth - the mixture was thicker than I was expecting.
9. Take the pastry out of the oven and spread with jam.
10. Spread the almond mixture over the jam - I found the easiest way to do this was to liberally dollop spoonfuls of the mixture over the base and use a fork to spread it out.
    
11. Tip the blackberries on top of the mixture and press down with the flat of your hand.
12. After 10 minutes in the oven, sprinkle the flaked almonds on top and pop back in the oven until golden (about 15 minutes).
13. Serve hot with a spoonful of clotted cream or wait until cool and have it with a pot of tea.