Easy Jam Tart Recipe

Even though it's been over a week since the Jubilee, I've only just got round to looking at the pictures I took over the weekend.

Unfortunately it rained and dampened the spirit a bit but it was nice to see some people preparing for a slightly wet street party and not given into the elements. I also had a great view of hot air balloons flying over Bath and saw an amazing fireworks display from my bedroom window.
To get into the Jubilee mood, I did the tutorial for the nails (the next post below) before the weekend also baked red,white and blue cupcakes and jam tarts. 

I've made the tarts previously and they seemed to be very popular so I thought i'd share the recipe with you.

What you’ll need;

Ingredients:

- 250g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 100g cubed butter
- 2-3 tbsp cold water
- Strawberry jam (or any fruit jam you have. I used blueberry jam as well strawberry and it was just popular) or lemon curd.

Preheat the oven to180°C and lightly grease a 12 cupcake tin with a little butter.

For the pastry;

Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl.


Once chilled;
 - Be careful not to overfill the cases as the jam will spill out when hot and burn/stick to the tin (as I found out on my first attempt)

Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm.

Add the water to the mixture and using a cold knife stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes, up to 30 minutes.

The dough can also be made in a food processor by mixing the flour, butter and salt in the bowl of the processor on a pulse setting. When the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, add the water, slowly, through the funnel until the dough comes together in a ball. Wrap in Cling film and chill as above.

Unwrap the pastry onto a lightly floured work surface and roll roughly to a 0.5cm thickness. Using a tart cutter, cut circles from the pastry just slightly bigger than the holes in the prepared tart mould. Gently press one disc into each hole.

Place a heaped teaspoon of jam or lemon curd into the pastry lined tins.

Repeat until all the pastry is used up – you can squish the pastry trimmings back together and reroll several times, so don’t worry, just make sure you rest the pastry circles before cooking.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Tips and Tricks;

If they’re looking a little empty, add a little jam towards the end or just after they’ve been taking out of the oven.

- For alternative fillings try adding Nutella, peanut butter,  different flavoured jams or experiment with cheese.

- If you don’t have a cutter use a large glass and pinch the edges once in the tin.

- They are great for British  or even Alice in Wonderland theme parties. Just add heart shaped pastry to the top and you have Queen of Hearts, Jam Tarts.

- And lastly do not eat while hot or you may burn your your mouth, (the jam stays hot for a long time).

British Nail Art - Using Scotch Tape

I've not really been fazed by the the Olympics being in London this year but this week we had the Olympic Torch pass near where I work. With it being the Diamond Jubilee next weekend and seeing the torch in the flesh, I did actually feel a little more excited and quite patriotic.

I've also been writing for a website created to help promote Jubilee events happening in Bristol and one of the posts I'd written for the website, I thought I would share here in honour of all things British.
I decided go down the popular nail route and go a bit red, white and blue with my nails and paint the Union Jack.

Now I'm not particularly good at painting in straight lines so I thought I would try a technique I've seen around on the blogosphere and try using Scotch tape.

The results actually were much better than I thought they would be, especially for a fist attempt. But i think the results are quite largely dependant on what kind of nail polish and tape you use.
But give it a go and I think it would work really well using pastel shades, neon or even try doing the American flag.
I'll post the written instructions later this week.(UPDATE: which are now below)

• Buy some tape on a dispenser –  Scotch Tape or Magic Tape seem to be the best. It’s not too clear or too thick, comes on a dispenser and I know it worked for me. However, feel free to try any kind of tape and see what results you get.
•  Paint two thick strips, one white and one red. Make the strips a tiny bit longer than your nails – you’ll be cutting them shorter.
•  While that’s drying paint your nails a shade of blue.
•  Once all nail polish has dried, cut strips of white and red from the tape (make the white strips larger than the red so you can see them beneath.)
•  If you find the tape is sticking to everything in between using it (as I did) hang each strip off the edge of a piece of grease proof paper, or anything that won’t pull apart when you take the tape off to use.
•  Once you’ve cut your strips, you can start to make your flag shape (I had a picture of the Union Jack in front of me for reference, just in case)
•  Start by making a cross with the white strips and then diagonally lay another set of white strips over the top of your first cross.
•  Then do the same with the thinner red strips.
•  Don’t worry if the strips over lay onto your fingers or the top of the nail. Just trim the sides with nail scissors then fold the top ones over the back of the nail and use a nail file, filing downwards until they come away.
•  Once you’ve done that you should have something that resembles the Union Jack and then to finish, put a clear top coat on top.

You don’t have to stick to the traditional blue, white and red. Try pastel shades, neon or match them to whatever you intend to wear.
 If you find that it looks too 3D for your liking (which will depend on what thickness of tape you used), paint the white and just use the red strips or vice versa.