Homemade Jam Tarts (just like your mum used to make)

This recipe for homemade jam tarts originally featured on The Culinary Jumble and was posted in May 2017. The recipe has been slightly adapted but the images remain the same. 

When I was a kid, my mum used to make homemade jam tarts out of leftover pastry. She’d fill them with jam (whatever flavour she had) and over-bake them within an inch of their lives, resulting in dry pastry topped with almost completely evaporated sickly sweet jam. Yet, we loved them. 

My mum’s dinners were the best in the world (they still are), but she didn’t fare as well in the baking department. She will tell you that her self, bless her. Her disastrous Yorkshire puddings and flat-as-a-pancake cakes were the but of many a family joke. But her roast dinners? Out of this world!

Ask most people in the UK, and I am pretty sure they’ll have similar memories about homemade jam tarts. Okay, maybe not the dry part, but certainly using up leftover pastry to make them. Is it just a British thing though? 

One of my friends mentioned jam tarts a while back and it made me remember the ones we had. So, I decided to make my own. I went for gluten free pastry from scratch (see notes) and topped them with homemade jam. However, you can use regular or spelt flour, instead.

The recipe is fairly low in fat (definitely in comparison with regular pastry dishes) and when using my homemade berry chia jam, has no refined sugar. That said, I did drizzle a little white chocolate over the top, but this was really just for aesthetic purposes (to make a pretty contrast in my photos). It also adds a tiny touch of sweet which is the perfect complement to the tart jam. It isn’t necessary though, and the tarts would be just as good without it.

The measurements below made six homemade jam tarts. I used a heart-shaped pan, but a regular muffin pan would work just as well.

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Homemade Jam Tarts

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Servings 6 tarts

Ingredients

Pastry

• 120g flour (see note 1)
• 45g cold butter (I used salted)
• 1 egg
• water (if needed)

Filling

• around 6 tablespoons homemade jam (see note 2)
• white chocolate to drizzle (optional)

Instructions

• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 6 hole muffin pan.
• Pour the flour into a large bowl. Chop the butter and then add to the flour. Rub in with your fingers (or use a mixing machine) until you're left with fairly fine crumbs.
• Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add to the flour mixture. Stir until everything is combined. If the pastry hasn't pulled together, add a touch of water a little at a time until it does (be careful: you can always add more water but it is harder to correct if you add too much).
• Roll out the pastry (you may find it easier to use some baking paper because you do want to get the pastry nice and thin). Cut out hearts (or whatever shape you are using) that are slightly larger than the tin you're putting them in.
• Place each pastry cut out in the greased muffin pan and using your fingers, gently push the pastry up the sides to cover the whole area. Pop in the fridge for around 30 minutes to rest a little.
• Using a fork, poke holes in the pastry and then bake blind (see note 3) for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and fill each one with around 1 tablespoon of jam (you may need more depending on how large your tarts are). Don't fill all the way to the top of the pastry as the jam bubbles up when hot.
• Bake for around 10-15 minutes, just until the pastry is starting to nicely brown.
• Remove from the oven and either leave them as they are or drizzle a little white chocolate over the top. Eat them still a little warm or serve cold. Enjoy!

Notes

1. I used gluten free flour for my original recipe. However, you can use spelt or regular flour. Just do a straight swap (although you made need a touch more water if using spelt flour)
2. I used homemade chia jam for my filling but you could use any.
3. If you are unsure about baking blind, have a read of the Kitchn's tips.