tarts

It’s the simple things in life which bring us most pleasure! This is definitely the case when it comes to enjoying a jam and a lemon curd tart with a cup of tea. These tarts are very easy to make and taste delicious, especially if they are still a little warm from the oven.

We were making mince pies and I had some pastry left and my mum had given us a jar of her very lovely homemade lemon curd so these were begging to be made.  My eldest daughter loves lemon curd and my youngest loves jam, so I made some of each.

You can make the pastry with 50g of butter or you can use half butter and half lard, it will depend on what you have in the fridge or indeed whether you are catering for vegetarians. I used half lard and half butter this week as we always have lard in the fridge in the winter ready for making the birds some seed cake.

You can use whichever jam is your favourite.

This will make 12 tarts.

25 g (1oz) lard or vegetable fat
25g (1oz) butter
100g (40z) plain flour
cold water to mix ( about 2 tablespoons probably)

12 teaspoons of the jam or curd of your choice ( I used 6 teaspoons of raspberry jam and 6 teaspoons of lemon curd to make 6 tarts of each variety)

Method

I always make my pastry in my food processor because it means less handling and so a flakier pastry. Dice the butter and lard and place in the bowl of the food processor, add the flour and pulse the processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the cold water and pulse again until a dough just begins to form.  Take the dough out of the machine and shape into a flattened ball.  Wrap in a food bag or clingfilm and place in the fridge to chill for 20 mins.  Roll out on a floured worktop and stamp out rounds using a 7cm fluted cutter.  Press each round into a hole of a patty tin. Place a teaspoon of jam in each tart.  Don’t overfill as the jam will spread as it cooks.

Place in a preheated oven at 200°c (gas mark 6) for 15 -20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.  Leave to cool a little before placing on a wire tray.