Ingredients

Pastry
325g flour (225g white, 100g whole spelt)
170g butter
40g light Muscovado
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 Egg for brushing the pastry
1 jar raspberry jam

Topping
300g soft butter
250g muscovado sugar
400g ground almonds
65g whole spelt
4 eggs
8ml almond essence (1 ½ tsp)
40 ml Amaretto

75 – 100g Flaked almonds for sprinkling

Method

Pastry
1. Blitz all ingredients in food processor until they come together into a dough.
2. Roll out onto greased large baking tray (it will be quite thin).
3. Bake at 180°C for 15 – 20 min, then brush with beaten egg, and bake for a further 5 min until golden brown.

Topping
1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Mix in ground almonds, then one egg at a time, until smooth and creamy.
3. Fold in almond essence, amaretto and flour.
4. Spread jam on pastry base, leaving ca 2 cm edge free as it will spread more when you add the topping.
5. Spread topping mixture onto base. A pallet knife is useful for this.
6. Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake at 180°C for about 20 min until golden brown.

Tip: for those who want to avoid eggs : this recipe works very well with egg replacers.

WARNING: As with all the recipes that I have developed, my aim is to reduce the sugar and/or fat content down to what my family finds acceptable, so if you aren't used to this , you might not like my recipes.

Also I try to put in some wholemeal flour in, which you can of course replace by white flour.