Today I’m sharing my recipe for homemade sweet pastry and using it to make amazing homemade jam tarts!
I’m not a huge fan of mince pies but last year I really wanted to make some so I searched high and low for a baking tray that had either a smooth rounded base for the tarts or a patterned fancy base. I couldn’t find what I wanted do I ended up just using my big old Yorkshire pudding tin but it just wasn’t the same.
When I was shopping in Homesense a couple of weeks ago (I shared my pretty homesense finds here) I found the perfect tin so I grabbed it. Now I can’t wait until Christmas to use it and it’s clearly way too early for mince pies so I thought I’d have a go at making some homemade jam tarts.
Making them reminded me of baking with my Nana as we used to often make jam tarts together. I don’t think mine were as good as hers but they come a close second in my opinion!
How to make homemade jam tarts
250g plain flour
125g butter, chilled, chopped
75g sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon chilled water
Pre-heat your oven to 180 c
Combine the flour, butter and sugar together in a food processor. You’re looking for the stage when the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs so keep going until you get to that point.
Add the egg yolk (see the easiest way to separate an egg here)and chilled water.
Mix again for a short time until dough just starts to come together.
Turn your pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it’s smooth – try and knead it as little as possible to get the smooth dough though as too much handling can do something bad to your pastry. No idea what but that’s what my Nana used to tell be so I’m just passing on some Nana knowledge here!
Next you need to flatten your ball of pastry slightly and wrap it up in baking paper.
Pop it in the fridge for half an hour.
Here’s the bit where I go rogue with jam tarts or anything similar. I just cut out the rounds and pop them into my baking tray and add the jam. I then pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until I see the pastry start to go a light golden colour.
What you should do really with sweet pastry, especially for larger tarts is to add your pastry as you would, cut some greaseproof paper to the right size enough to cover the bottom of your tart and then fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice. You would then cook it 180 c for 10 minutes, remove the weights and the paper and bake for a further 5 to 10 minutes or until pastry is golden. Then, once it was cool you can add your filling and cook until that’s cooked.
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