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Dessert

Bakewell Tarts

A sweet pastry tart with jam and a custard-like filling topped with optional icing or nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bakewell Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tin and pastry

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 °F (150 °C).

  2. Butter eight‑inch tin plates and line them with sweet pastry or puff pastry.

  3. To make the sweet pastry, mix flour, butter, caster sugar, and egg into a dough with minimal handling.

  4. Spread a spoonful of jam on the pastry in the tin.

Make the filling and bake

  1. In a bowl, beat together butter and caster sugar, then add eggs two at a time until well combined.

  2. Mix in the patent and plain flours until smooth, then pour over the jam.

  3. Bake for one hour until set and golden.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, optionally ice with water icing flavored with vanilla, or top with blanched almonds or green desiccated coconut.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to both the pastry and the filling.
Patent and plain flours
Provide the structure that holds the almond-free sponge filling together.
Caster sugar
Sweetens and helps the butter cream to a light, smooth texture.
Jam
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity beneath the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Underbaking leaves the egg-based filling wet and runny, while overbaking makes it dry and tough. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the centre should be firm to the touch before removing the tart.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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