Jam Tarts

These easy tarts are one of my earliest childhood baking memories. My mom made these every christmas. They hardly ever made it out of the kitchen. Mom is disappointed she never got to plate them up and they look too pretty not to be displayed! My brothers and I try. 30 years later, she still hasn't been able to plate them up.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 - 2 1/2 cups

Sugar (coarsely ground) - 1 1/2 cups

Egg yolks - 4

Butter (softened, at room temperature) - 1/2 cup

Jam - pick your favorites! I used Raspberry, Blackberry and Orange.

Cashews (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a tart tray with butter.

2. In a big bowl, beat sugar, butter and the egg yolks till creamy, with an electric mixer.

3. Add the flour and bring the mixture together to form a dough. Add just enough flour to form a dough. It shouldn't crumble.

4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough in parts. Wrap leftover dough in a plastic wrap, or keep it covered to retain moisture. Dry dough becomes difficult to work with.

5. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out tart bases and transfer them onto the prepared tray. Use a butterknife to gently take them off the surface.

6. Drop a tsp of jam in each tart.

7. Roll out a small amount of dough and use the knife to cut out lines of around 1/2 cm width. Place them on the tarts to form a cross. Or, you can skip this and put a cashew on top, Or, leave it as it is.

8. Bake till the edges turn light brown. It should take around 10-15 minutes. Let it stay in the tray for 5 minutes, before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container.

If you're familiar with South Indian cooking, you can use idli trays in place of tart trays as well. Prepare the second tray while the first one is in the oven. This would help speed things up.