When I made my birthday tart the other day, following a recipe from Tessa Kiros’ Twelve
, it advised making double the amount of pastry required so that you can stick the extra pastry in the freezer for another day, which I duly did knowing full well that I’d be defrosting it again before I knew it as it doesn’t take much to get me in the mood for home made jam tarts, specially since I’ve been eating alot of the mother-in-law’s recently (the acknowledged, defined expert on home made jam tarts) and there was also a particularly yummy looking picture in Jane Brocket’s The Gentle Art of Domesticity, a very eatable looking plate of tarts with a pastry heart topping each one. So using Brocket’s recipe as a guide, although I was using Tessa Kiros’ pastry and I didn’t have a heart cutter small enough so I used a star cutter instead, I proceeded. Oh heck, at the end of it the only thing I actually followed completely from Brocket’s recipe was the oven temperature and timings, Brocket suggested leaving the rolled out empty tart cases to chill in the fridge for half an hour, nope, no time for that. She suggested cooking the pastry toppers separately after the tarts and then putting them on the tarts, nope no time for that either. I basically rolled out my pastry, used crinkled edged cutters (unlike Brocket), as a tart always looks nicer with a crinkled edge, after placing the rounds in the baking tray, I put the jam straight in and then topped with a star straight away before putting it all in an oven at 200 C for 15 minutes. During this whole procedure Mr. Lacer was hovering around the kitchen (bit difficult in a tiny galley one) showing far more than the usual interest in my baking, you see I’ve already mentioned the mother-in-law’s tarts which Mr. Lacer thinks (probably quite rightly) are the pinnacle and when the wife tries to take on the mother-in-law in her culinary speciality, well the husband is going to take an interest. He was even prodding the uncooked pastry, going “Mmm, I think it’s too damp” (he hasn’t baked since he left primary school!) and I had to consult him on whether the mother-in-law chilled her empty jam tart cases (the answer – no). And Girl Lacer was adding to the atmosphere by asking me the left field question of “Mummy, what is light made of?” (whilst Mr. Lacer sniggered as the question wasn’t directed at him), so I had to ponder whether to introduce my 4 year old to either the particle theory or the wave theory of light whilst filling the cases with jam and settled for photons (kind of apt considering I was making star jam tarts). Fifteen tense minute later, this was the result . . .
Ok, my tarts didn’t look as pretty as Brocket’s (I think I put too much jam in, although the jam is always the best bit) but they certainly didn’t suffer from my ’short-cuts’. And Mr. Lacer’s opinion? He of course thought they were nice, but too much pastry. I thought they were nice but again not my mother-in-laws, for a start I think she actually uses a cheaper brand of jam than I used (and mine wasn’t expensive, it was only corner shop stuff) but when I bit into the tart you could still feel the texture of the strawberries (which of course is actually nice and desirable) but I think if I’m for trying to emulate the mother-in-law’s tarts here, I need to find a brand that has just been shown the strawberry during processing, i.e. a really really cheap brand.
So the question is, do I want to make them again? Of course I will, much as I also like Mr. Kipling jam tarts, home made ones are always nicer (and have you seen the long chemistry list of ingredients on the back of the Mr.Kipling’s jam tart packaging? You know proper pastry normally has butter (I have to use Pure because of Boy Lacer’s cow’s milk intolerance), so I naturally assumed Mr. Kipling’s jam tarts would have butter in, nope, I was quite surprised at that – in a negative way). I probably won’t do the fancy star thing again, except maybe at Christmas or if I can find a heart cutter small enough maybe at Valentine’s (mmm, now that’s a mission, it’ll be Valentine’s day before you know and Mr. Lacer does love his jam tarts, even though they’re not his mothers (if it’s any consolation by the way he says I cook chicken far better than his mother does!)) and I am still on a mission for the perfect sweet pastry recipe.
