Before going away recently, I made a Bakewell tart, had some leftover pastry…. and no time to do anything with it. What to do? Well.. I did what I tend to do with leftovers. Stick them in the freezer and forget about them! 😉

But things can only live in the freezer for so long… eventually they must fulfill their destiny…. This is the tale of some pastry that dreamed of being something tasty, and the collection of random bits of jam that tend to accumulate… anyone else have that problem?

The answer is Jam Tarts.

Step 1. Unleash the pastry from the freezer.

Step 2. Roll out and cut.

Step 3. Collect together jam/ marmalade oddments. AKA the collection of shame.

Step 4. Fill pastry cases. NB. You will need much less than you think as once it enters the blazing inferno of the oven it will be basically molten lava and bubble up galore!

Step 5. Realise you still have pastry left. Make some tops and twizzly bits… also realise that the ones with tops need some sort if indication as to filling…

Step 6. Bake at 180C/ 350F for 20 minutes.

Step 7. Realise that there was still too much filling….

Step 8. Leave to cool slightly, then set them free from their tin before they are welded with jam…..

…and done!

A traditional favourite, with little effort. The pastry survived the stay in the freezer reasonably well, it is perhaps slightly less tasty than pre freezer, but that could of course be the extra handling involved.

I often make jam tarts if I have leftover pastry, but usually at the same time as whatever else, be it bakewell tarts, lemon meringue pies….. This also works well I think.