Jam Tarts

Jam tarts are one of the easiest treats to make and the absolute best use of leftover pastry. I made the peach and blackberry tart and made several of these with the extra pastry trimmings after making the tart crust.

Just combine your leftover pastry, roll it out and cut out several pieces of pastry with a large fluted biscuit cutter.  I have a special jam tart pan from England, but you could also make them as mini tarts, or place the pastry in the bottom of a muffin tin.

Grease the pan with Pam or butter, place the pastry rounds in the pan and fill them with a teaspoon of nice jam or preserves. I usually used homemade grape or strawberry jam, but haven't made any since I moved, so I settled for some nice organic jam from the market.  I bake them for around 10 minutes at 375 degrees or until the jam is bubbly and the pastry starts to brown slightly.

They are amazing warm from the oven with a cold glass of milk or a teatime treat!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Curd!

Curd is such a strange name for this thick and velvety lemon spread. I would much prefer to call it lemon butter as it's so smooth and buttery (and because it's made with about a stick of butter) with perfectly tart and perfectly sweet lemon taste. I've made lemon curd previously and have had it at a few tea rooms since so I thought I'd try to make some again and see if it turned out as well as the one we tried at the Crown & Crumpet last fall.

It's made on the stove top and I just used a saucepan vs. using a double boiler and made sure I didn't leave it on the heat without stirring for more than a few seconds. It's important to use real lemon juice and the recipe I made used the juice of about four fresh lemons. Once you squeeze the lemon juice, it's very easy to make and doesn't take long at all. I cooked the lemon juice, sugar and egg yolks (which help to thicken it) on the stove top until the sugar was dissolved. I took it off and added the butter a piece at a time until it was completely melted. Most recipes tell you to put the curd through a strainer and I just about skipped this step, but it was worth it to strain it to make the final product nice and smooth.

~~~~~~~~Then, I simply covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to cool. The plastic wrap keeps it from hardening and forming a skin on top and it worked out well.

The next morning we used the curd as a spread (along with strawberry preserves) for scones at breakfast. It was a hit! Audrey loved it too!

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The recipe made about two cups of lemon curd and we had so much leftover so I decided to make some lemon curd tartlets. I cut the pastry dough with a round scalloped cookie cutter and used a mini muffin pan with a this handy tart tool to push them nicely in the pan to form the tart shell. I baked the pastry for about 10 minutes and let them cool.

Then, I put a teaspoon or so of lemon curd in each tart shell and topped with a yummy fresh raspberry. I've made these tartlets using a rum custard before and have used pomegranate seeds and raspberries for decoration. What a versatile spring treat from breakfast to dessert!