Cherry Bakewell Slices - cooking recipe

Ingredients

350 g cherries
500 g shortcrust pastry
6 tablespoons cherry jam
175 g butter
175 g sugar
3 eggs
2 drops almond extract
150 g ground almonds
75 g self-raising flour
50 g almonds
icing sugar
cherries

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. Drain the cherries, then put on treble thickness kitchen paper.
Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 33x23cm shallow tin, allowing it to come 3cm up the sides.
Line the pastry with a piece of foil and weigh it down with rice. Bake for 10 minutes then remove the foil and rice and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
Spread the base with the preserve. Scatter the cherries over the base.
Beat the butter and caster sugar until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the extract. Fold in the ground almonds and flour.
Spread over the pastry base, then sprinkle with the flaked almonds. Bake for 40 minutes, covering loosely with foil after 25 minutes, to stop it browning too much.
Leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with cherries, if using.