Bake Off - Tart week

This week Paul and Mary were on pastry patrol. As luck would have it I am drilled in the ways of pastry. When my ice cold hands have my Nanny Barbara's wooden pin in them, I am armed. My mum's voice is there..turn the pastry not the pin, turn the pastry not the pin. These ladies knew their stuff.

For what it's worth this is what I have learned. Cold hands, cold butter, very cold water, cold kitchen. Handle everything as little as possible. Use a food processor if you have one (I don't). Rest the pastry before rolling, rest it after rolling. I know a secret butter substitute too, but that isn't my secret to share.

I had to tackle Mary's Treacle tart with woven lattice top. I can't imagine I will ever bother weaving pastry into a lattice top ever again, but having witnessed the tearful shame of vicar's wife Sarah Jane and her shortcut twists, I didn't dare cut corners.

I took my time over the pastry and had some chilled water in the fridge, so it went well. The filling couldn't be more straightforward - almost an entire bottle of golden syrup, breadcrumbs and the zest and juice of two lemons. I was dubious about the amount of lemon, the recipe suggests you reduce it if you want less citrus flavour, but, intrigued I decided to put it all in.

At this point I realised my usual tart tin was two inches larger than it should have been and shallow, not deep. I toyed with the idea of taking the pastry out but I don't have a 7 inch tart tin so it would have been a cake tin. Not ideal. I ploughed on.

The lattice was a total faff. According to the recipe I had to roll out the trimmings, eggwash the whole piece and chill it before cutting. I decided to pre-assemble it on baking paper, as Dr. Knitwear did. What I didn't remember was that I would have to flip it twice so the eggwashed side was on the top of the tart. Also as my lattice strips had to be at least nine inches in length due to my oversized tin, it all got a bit wobbly.

The broken edge is due to mishandling by my official GBBO photographer. Him and his big hands. I wove the last piece of lattice in just before baking, so it got the eggwash that the rest didn't. My tasting panel are every bit as brutal and honest as Paul and Mary. They all declared it a success and everyone had seconds. We unanimously felt the lemon overpowered the syrup flavour.

Oh and James is our favourite. And not just for his highland jumpers.