Ingredients Required:
– 70g of softened, salted butter
– 70g of caster sugar
– 70g of ground almonds
– 4 tbsp of plain flour
– 1 yolk of an egg
– 250g of all butter puff pastry block
– A punnet of ripe Irish strawberries
– 1 tbsp of honey (for glazing)
Procedure:
1. Preheat your oven by setting it to 190 degrees. Inside it, put a heavy, flat baking tray to heat up.
2. Now, begin making the almond paste. For this, take the pre-allocated amounts of butter and sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend the two until they turn a pale shade. Now, include in the mix the almonds, flour and egg yolk. Whip all this into a paste and place it in the fridge for a while.
3. In the meantime, get started on the pastry. Sprinkle some flour on your kitchen counter and place the puff pastry block on it. Roll it out until it reaches roughly 1cm in thickness, making sure to maintain its rectangular shape. Trim off any excess from the sides to achieve a neat rectangle.
4. Lay out a parchment paper, larger in size than your pastry. Transfer the rolled-out pastry onto the paper. Take a fork and create a few holes across the pastry keeping a 2cm border all around intact. These holes will stop the pastry from puffing up in the centre. Over the punctured part of the pastry, layer a copious amount of the almond paste set aside in the fridge earlier.
5. Now, prepare your strawberries. Get rid of the green leaves, slice them lengthways to about 1cm thick and place a layer of these slices over the almond paste on the pastry.
6. The preheated tray in the oven is now ready. Carefully move the parchment with the pastry onto the warm tray. Put the tray back in the oven and allow it to bake for around 25 minutes, or until the pastry turns a golden brown.
7. Once baked, take out the tray and transfer the parchment/pastry onto a wire rack. While it is still warm, brush or sprinkle some honey across it for glazing. Give it some time to cool off before you cut it into slices for serving.