Seafood and fruit? Crazy talk!

I'm off to Lindsey's for tea this afternoon and I said I'd bake something and bring it with me. I also tried crab apple jelly for the first time recently and think it is marvellous stuff. So I thought I'd try an experiment - I have adapted a recipe for a raspberry and almond torte from Rouxbe as an experiment. We'll see how it turns out! In the mean time, here's the recipe I used:

Almond and Crab Apple Jelly Torte

Ingredients

• 1 Pre-made medium flan case (yes, yes, I'm lazy and don't have a flan ring)
• 145g Ground almonds
• 130g Caster sugar
• 115g Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Almond Essence
  
• 50g Crab apple jelly

Method

1. Cream the sugar, butter and almond essence together with a fork until fluffy.
2. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
3. Fold in the ground almonds.
4. Spread the crab apple jelly over the base of the flan case.
5. Spoon the almond mixture into the case and spread out into an even layer to the edge of the case.
6. Bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 50-60 minutes until golden brown and cooked through to the centre.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

It turned out that the flan case was much too small. I scraped the bottom of the case thinner and compressed it as much as I could when spreading on the crab apple jelly, but only about 2/3rds of the almond mixture would fit in the case. As an experiment, I poured the rest into a baking tray and stuck it in the oven below the torte to see what would happen. I gave it about 25 minutes and then pulled it out.
It actually turned out surprisingly well. Once I broke off the burnt bits around the edges (which actually isn't as much as the photo would suggest), the remaining biscuit was wonderfully almondy, sweet and chewy. Slightly oily, but then it is mostly almond, so that's to be expected I guess. But really a heck of a lot better than I expected!

The torte itself looks like it may have been less successful:
I'd forgotten that, being a smaller torte than the recipe suggested, it would take less time in the oven. Luckily, I checked it after 40 minutes or so, and the top was rather dark, so I thought it best to take it out of the oven. The hole in the top was from me poking it with a chopstick to try to check if it was done - but then I still don't actually know, as the almondy batter probably wasn't that sticky to begin with, so might not stick to a skewer. We shall see what it tastes like!