The Last Minute Baker

Blue eggs from the farmers' market. Take that, Martha!

Yup; I waited until the last minute again to execute The Daring Bakers' challenge. Which could only mean more spastic kitchen adventures for me. Good times, indeed.

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

The recipe calls for ingredients in weight measurements. I hemmed and hawed and reluctantly bought an inexpensive kitchen scale (made more inexpensive by my 20% off coupon) from Bed, Bath & Beyond yesterday. I set all of my ingredients out on the counter this morning, and popped the scale out of the box.

The scale was broken.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’d say what I did: “Well that just figures.” (I may have said something else, too, but no need to share that particular gem.)

The later part of the morning was spent trying to figure out exactly how much flour 225 grams is. I was flashing back to high school math. Not good. “If 30 grams = ¼ cup, then 225 grams = 1 ¾ cups + a schtickle.”

And that’s what I wrote on the recipe.

We were instructed to add a layer of jam, preferably homemade, under the frangipane. So this morning I also made peach jam. Don’t get too excited…by “made peach jam” I mean chopped and heated two ripe peaches and some sugar (a schtickle?) until it looked like this:

I layered crust and the jam in the pan and got all fancy with the leftover crust I trimmed off.

My crust set up nicely, but felt a little tough…I’m not sure my fuzzy math helped. It was still dotted with butter (important for flakey goodness) so I’m hopeful.

OK…we’re out of the oven. Not so bad:

And, better dusted with powdered sugar:

I’m bringing it to a big housewarming party in about five minutes tonight and if it’s not a hit I’ll totally deny I brought it.

Check out a couple of my favorite bloggers Mille Fiori Favoriti and Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives for their incredible projects. Both have the recipe posted.

Update: Yum! Not a slice left. I would have actually added a bit more fruit, but the frangipane set up perfectly -- definitely more tart than pudding. Someone at the party even asked what bakery it came from. Fabulous!