Easy Jam Tarts With Basil Pastry

If you are looking for a Easy Jam Tarts recipe then this is perfect, it takes very little time to make but taste incredible. With the strawberry jam I have added basil to the pastry for a subtle flavour but this is completely optional.

I wanted to make some easy jam tarts one evening in the week so time was limited. I had a moment of nostalgia thinking about the jam tarts and lemon curd tarts that my Grandma used to make, they tasted incredible!

I have not made too much pastry in the past and wanted to do a little experiment with flavours. I was determined to do strawberry flavoured jam tarts and thought the best place to inject some additional flavour would be in the pastry. I needed to make sure I added a dried ingredient as wet could result in it impacting on the pastry, therefore a dried herb was the best option.

The key is finding a herb that matches with the strawberry flavour, I therefore went for basil as I know this goes really well. I did also considered Rosemary but thought that could overpower it, maybe another batch!!

If you decide to do an alternative fruit then try looking for herbs that go well, for example orange you could go for something like star anise, cinnamon or nutmeg. If I was to go for something like lemon then you could combine it with mint or even inject some lime flavour into the pastry.

Many people are a little worried about making pastry but believe me with this easy jam tarts recipe you should be able to make perfect pastry each and every time!

The first thing I did was sieved out the flour into a bowl and added the sugar along with the butter. You could stick these into a food processor but I do prefer to get stuck in with my hands and give it a nice good mix. You want to continue mixing until all of the butter has combined with the flour and looks like breadcrumbs.

I then added in 3 teaspoons of basil, it might seem like a lot but once it’s all mixed in it’s not too bad. Just remember if you lower the amount of ingredients to also take the basil into account. Give everything a good mix to make sure the basil is evenly spread throughout the flour mixture.

Why Did I Use Dried Basil in this Easy Jam Tarts Recipe?

As I mentioned before it’s important to watch the amount of liquid that goes into the pastry as it will impact on how it turns out. The fresh basil can tend to hold a lot of liquid like other greens such as spinach, just using the dried herb ensures you’re not risking any additional liquid coming out when it’s in the oven.

Crack an egg into the flour and give it a good stir till combined, you may need to add a little milk to help bind it. It is also worth getting your hands in and really mixing it together, try not to overwork the pastry though.

Once combined wrap it in some clingfilm and pop in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees

Take our and lay on a floured surface and roll out till it’s roughly 0.5cm thick. Use a circular cutter to cut out circles and place these into a muffin tin, this easy jam tarts recipe will make roughly 24 individual tarts.

Use a teaspoon and spoon in 1 heaped spoonful of strawberry jam into each tart, you can replace the strawberry jam with any other flavour jam, marmalade or lemon curd. At the point of cooking I made both strawberry jam and lemon curd.

Once place all the yummy jam into the tarts the trays want to be popped into the middle of the oven and cooked for roughly 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Depending on your oven size you may want to do this in batches.

When cooked take out of the oven and allow to cool slightly in the muffin tin, this will help strengthen the pastry. After about 5 minutes carefully remove from the muffin tin and place on a wire rack until cool. It’s important to allow them to fully cool as it will help to set the jam again, also be very careful as the jam will be VERY hot when you take it out of the oven.

This Easy Jam Tarts Recipe really is incredibly simple to make, takes very little time and is perfect for a little nostalgia. It also makes a perfect bit of baking to do with children as it uses very few ingredients.

I would love to know what you think about this easy jam tarts recipe, please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

If you have any friends or family that you think would like it, please do share it using the links below – I REALLY would appreciate it 🙂

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