The name says it all, doesn’t it? Jam tarts. Probably the most iconic food of children’s literature, immortalised in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and they were a staple favourite of Blyton, appearing in two books that spring to mind at the moment, Five Run Away Together, and The Treasure Hunters.
The dustjacket of Jane Brocket’s Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer cook book. Taken from Amazon.
Once again I take my recipe from Jane Brocket, who if you recall was the inspiration for the Ginger biscuits I made last year. Her book, Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer was inspired by the food in Blyton’s books, but also include delicious treats from other series. Her jam tarts are easy to make and instructions easy to follow, so this is the perfect recipe for children!
If you want to bake some Blyton delights, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough, and gosh it’s a little hard to get hold of, but worth it! My copy is a second hand job from Amazon and I suggest you look under the ‘used’ section as ‘new’ means shelling out forty pounds, even though it would be a welcome addition to any Blyton bookshelf.
The Recipe
You will need:
- 180 grams plain flour
- 60 grams icing sugar (however I used golden caster sugar which works just as well!)
- 120 grams butter
- 2 egg yolks or 1 egg yolk plus two tablespoons of water
- 1 jar (at LEAST 340 grams worth) of a jam of your choosing. I chose strawberry jam.
You will also need: 2 bun trays.
- Sift flour and (icing) sugar into a bowl. Quickly rub butter in and then add enough liquid [the eggs or the egg and water] to make the pastry come together. Then set aside to chill in fridge for at least half an hour.
- Pre heat oven to gas mark 6/200 degrees celsius.
- Roll out pastry on floured surface.
- Make [as many as] 16 to 18 rounds with a pastry cutter.
- Chill again in the fridge for thirty minutes
- When ready to bake, remove the trays from fridge and spoon a good teaspoon full of your chosen jam onto the centre of each pastry circle. Don’t be stingy but don’t over fill, either, otherwise the jam will bubble over.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. [I left for more like twenty minutes however as Brocket advises you to wait until the cases are golden brown before removing from oven]
- Allow tarts to cool in bun trays on wire racks before turning out of the tray.
Then your tarts should be ready to eat! Enjoy!
-
- The ingredients I used
-
- The pastry
-
- Pastry cases
-
- The jam! As you can see, I favoured strawberry!
-
- Jam tarts before baking
-
- Jam tarts after baking
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 
Thank you Stef – love raspberry jam tarts. My mother used to make me lots when I was young. I used to have them as a sweet – jam tarts and custard!
Francis
LikeLike
Funnily enough Francis, My mother said exactly the same thing!
LikeLike
Great mothers think alike!
LikeLike
Your recipe made me think about past times,
A jar of at lest 340g jam.
In my past a German jar was always 450g. My first thought was it relates to the imperial pound, but 1st an imperial pound is 454g and 2nd while it sound logical, even in imperial times Germany used the metric pound of 500g.
But then I guess merchants tried to be smart and used what promised more profit. Like today with EU regulation s its allowed to measure milk in grams instead of litre,
Since 1ccm milk weights more than 1ccm water, they measure it in weight instead of volume. In my youth I bought 500ml flavoured buttermilk nowadays you buy 500g flavoured buttermilk.
Enid Blyton always makes me dwelve in memories.
That reminds me when I turned 10 I baked a butter creme cake. It has a jam filling on the lowest level too 😉
LikeLike
Having had a quick check of jam on Tesco’s website, many of the jars are 454g, so still an imperial pound even if it’s labelled in metric!
LikeLike
I am pretty sure the 450g jars still exist but the tendency goes toward smaller jars while the price stays the same, they proclaim it’s of better quality though and ‘quality has its price’.
450g is most likely the companies own brand like ‘Tamara’ for Aldi North in Germany. ‘Bon Maman’ jars are 370g, I assume it’s a French brand, I mostly know it for their quince jelly. When I was maybe 6 or 7 years old we walked along the fence of the University hospital and on the other side was a quince tree. I was devastated when my mother told me I can’t have a pear from that tree and it’s only edible when cooked. ‘Bon Maman’ is so sweet that your teeth might get stuck in their jam.
Greetings
Moody
LikeLike