Easy Jam and Lemon Curd Tarts

Jam tarts on a serving tray ready to eat.

These Easy Jam and Lemon Curd Tarts have a shortcrust pastry base filled with raspberry jam and lemon curd. Perfect for tea parties and lunch boxes!

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword tartlets, tarts

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 20

Chill Time 15

Total Time 1 5

Servings tartlets

Calories 102kcal

Author Samantha Pickthall

Equipment

6cm round fluted/scalloped cookie cutter

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry Base

2 cups (300g) plain all purpose flour, scoop & leveled
1/2 cup icing/confectioners sugar
180 g unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
4 Tbsp cold water, cold tap water is fine

Fillings

1 jar raspberry jam, store-bought or homemade
1 jar lemon curd, homemade or store-bought

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Shortcrust Pastry Base

In a high-speed food processor, add flour and icing sugar. Pulse a couple of times to blend. NOTE: don't have a food processor? Read note one below for an alternative method.
Add the chilled cubed butter and pulse for 15 seconds until the mixture resembles a coarse crumb.
Through the vertical shoot, drizzle a tablespoon at a time of the chilled water while pulsing the mixture until it sticks together and forms a rough dough. If the dough is still too dry, add a little more water until it sticks together.
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured bench top or a large board. Bring the dough together and lightly knead it into a smooth ball of dough, ensuring not to over-knead, just until the dough comes together in a ball.
Flatten the dough into a thick disc and wrap it in plastic cling film. Transfer dough to the refrigerator and chill for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Liberally grease with butter a 12-hole shallow tart pan (patty pan) and set aside. You will bake the tart shells in batches as it makes 24 tarts. Use 2 patty pans if you have another.
Remove from the refrigerator and onto a lightly floured bench top or large board.
Roll the dough out to a large 40-45cm circle, approx. 4mm-5mm in thickness.
Using a 6cm fluted round cookie cutter, cut out the round bases.
Place them gently into the greased patty pan. Lightly push the sides of the dough down into the shallow wells.
Repeat with the remaining dough, re-rolling any excess to create more bases.
Fill each crust with 2 level teaspoons of the jam and lemon curd. Fill them up just below the top to avoid the filling from boiling over in the oven as the pastry crust will shrink slightly during baking.
TIP: Fill 12 crusts with jam and the other 12 with curd to have an equal amount of each. Or fill them just with jam or just with curd if desired.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until the pastry crust is lightly golden around the edges. It’s ok if some of the crusts still look pale.
Remove from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove the tarts from the pan and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. I like to use a butter knife to easily pop them out of the pan. Tarts will firm up once they cool.
Serve and Enjoy!
Store tartlets in a sealed Tupperware container, at room temperature for 2 days or refrigerated for 4-5 days.

Notes

Note one: Instead of using a food processor, combine the flour and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then using either your hands or a pastry cutter, rub the chilled cubed butter into the flour for a few minutes until it resembles a coarse crumb. Drizzle in the cold water one tablespoon at a time, mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon until it forms a rough dough. Then follow step four and onwards in the above method.

Note two: Use a shallow tart pan, also known as a patty pan, just like this one here. You can also use it to make fruit mince pies!

Note three: Make sure your butter is chilled and cut into cubes, doesn’t matter how big or small the cubes are. The water is best used cold but you can use tap water as well.

Note four: Don’t roll your shortcrust pastry too thin as they need to be strong enough to hold the fillings. Roll it out until it’s 4mm-5mm in thickness. If they're too thick, they won't hold enough filling.

Note five: Don’t fill your tart shells up to the top with the fillings. Fill them just below the top edge. This ensures the filling won’t bubble and boil over during baking, as the pastry crusts will shrink slightly in the oven.

Note six: Substitute the fillings for your choice of jam such as strawberry, blackberry, or apricot jam. Substitute the lemon curd for a passionfruit or orange curd. Or make them just all jam tarts or just all lemon curd tarts.

Note seven: Don’t have the time to make the pastry tart shells? No problems! Simply purchase pre-made mini tart shells from the store and fill them with jam and lemon curd. Do not use puff pastry tart shells as they puff up too much, making them too delicate to handle and they won’t hold as much filling.

Store tartlets in a sealed Tupperware container, at room temperature for 1-2 days then refrigerated for 3-4 days. Or refrigerate them the entire time if your home is humid or hot during the warmer months.

Freeze jam tarts and lemon curd tarts individually wrapped in plastic cling film and placed into a sealed Tupperware container and frozen for up to 3 months.

Thaw tarts at room temperature for several hours or overnight until defrosted.

Nutrition