How to make Jam, Day 5 - A recipe for Mini Strawberry Jam Tarts

What you will need:

200g plain flour (plus some for dusting)

100g butter

50g caster sugar

2tblsp water

Rolling pin

4.5cm circular pastry cutter

Petit four tray (5cm holes)

For the filling you will need Cherry's Homemade Strawberry Jam or a good quality shop bought variety

It’s the fifth and final day of jam week! This is the first time I’ve attempted a themed week and I’ve gotta say it’s been really enjoyable. As the person writing and creating each of the day’s post it’s been awesome to really explore a topic and make it relevant for five days in a row as opposed to merely touching on something and moving swiftly along (”these are not the droids you’re looking for!”)

So, as our usual Bake Fest Friday - “Something Sweet For the Weekend” I’ve got a classic recipe that tastes great at this time of year and of course is full to the brim with JAM!

Makes 45 mini jam tarts and uses approx 1 jar of Cherry’s jam. You can find a weight conversion chart here.

Heat the oven to 190 c

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl, and then add the butter and the sugar.
Using your fingertips crumble the ingredients together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add two tablespoons of water to the mixture and knead together until it forms a ball.
Wrap the pastry ball in cling film and pop it into the fridge for around 30minutes.

After 30 minutes…

Take the pastry out of the fridge and remove it from the cling film.
Then dust some flour over it and roll the pastry out onto a flat surface until it is about 0.5cm thick.
The pastry cutter size I used for the mini Jam tarts was 4.5cm in diameter and I used a 15 hole silicon petit four tray to bake them in. I find silicon baking trays are great to use as there is no need to grease them before hand and they are very easy to wash up afterwards!
Once the tray is filled with the little corrugated circles, pop them in the oven for around five minutes.
After the five minutes remove from the oven, and with a teaspoon start filling the pastry shells with your jam.Try not to over fill the tarts as once the jam starts to bubble in the oven it will become runny and start to spill over the pastry, leaving the tarts looking messy.
Pop the tarts back in the oven an let them bake for a further 12-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Once cooled serve to friends and family or just eat the whole lot yourself! Ha!