If you follow my posts and read the French ones, you know by
now that I always keep a batch of shortcrust dough in the freezer ready to be
used. It’s not a big deal to make it either, or to buy it, there are some good
ready-made options out there, it’s just that I know it’s so easy to make that
there is no need to buy it, which is why I still make it. Besides it comes a
lot cheaper and I can customize it the way I want.
Since my husband is always after the pudding (classic question after each dinner: "what's for pudding?"), a concept that I
have also adopted since I married a Brit. In Morocco, you just need a
fruit for a dessert, a fruit salad or a flan in the best case scenario. We already
eat too much bread in our meals; do you see us adding puddings? Not to mention
the pastries for afternoon breaks…
Anyway, I got him to eat bread like a Moroccan and he got me
to adopt the pudding, at least once a day!
These jam tarts are a version of the easy sweets you can
make ahead. It works with any kind of thick jam, we happen to like the red
berries and I happen to have a home-made blueberry jam with ½ vanilla pod. So I
kind of cleaned both jars.
Ingredients
For 6 tarts, medium size
Prep: 10 min – baking: 20 min
Shortcrust dough
- 250g of flour
- 125g of butter in cubes, slightly soften
- ½ tsp of salt
- 1 to 2 tbsp of sugar
- 1 egg yolk, beaten with
- 3 tbsp of cold milk, approx
- 1 tbsp of almond powder (if used, reduce it from the flour weight)
Filling (suggestions)
- Blueberry jam (2 tbsp/ tart)
- Raspberry jam (2 tbsp/ tart)
- ¼ cup desiccated coconut
- ¼ cup of almond flakes
Preparation
In a lightly floured parchment paper, roll the shortcrust dough
to 3 mm thickness.
Making the shortcrust dough
Mix the flour with sugar and salt. Rub with cold butter
until you reach a crumbly consistency. Bring the dough together by adding the
egg yolk liquefied with milk. DO NOT OVERWORK the dough so it does not become
elastic. Flatten the dough, cling film it and put it in the fridge for 30 min
approximately.
Making the tarts
Using any round-shaped cutter (a bowl is the best for me),
cut circles that should be bigger than the bottom of the moulds to be used for
the tarts, so you can cover the boards as well.
Gently press one disc into each mould, prick the dough and place
a heaped teaspoon or enough jam to cover the base. Do not over-fill it, I
suggest half-way is the best.
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| Blueberry jam tart, before baking |
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| Bluebbery jam tart before baking, with almond flakes |
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 min or until golden
brown. Let cool completely before tasting or you may burn your mouth.
Besides, it’s no good to eat hot buttery crust, you don’t get to enjoy it.
I have sprinkled coconuts on the blueberry jam tarts once
they were cool, some of them had almond flakes on top as well.
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| Blueberry jam tart with coconut, after baking |
I have also sprinkled almond flakes on the raspberry jam tarts
for a bit of crunch, and decorated it with a fresh raspberry and some icing
sugar.
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| Blueberry jam tart, after baking |
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| Blueberry jam tarts and one raspberry tart. |
