Queen of Hearts jam tarts

Ingredients

• 225 g of plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting
• 115 g of butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• raspberry jam, or jam or your choice
• caster sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Butter or grease a multi-hole tart tin

2. 2

   First, make the pastry. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

3. 3

   Use a knife to mix in 1-2 tbsp of cold water, a little at a time, stirring with the knife until the mixture comes together and you can form a ball with your hands. Wrap the pastry in a piece of cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes – this will make it easier to roll out

4. 4

   Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out to a 3-5mm thickness, dusting your work surface and rolling pin with flour to prevent sticking. Dip your biscuit cutter in flour then cut out as many circles as you can – you may need to gather the bits of pastry up and roll them out again to make 12 circles. Make sure you leave a little of the pastry scraps for the heart shaped pastry lids

5. 5

   Once you have the desired amount of pastry cases, roll out the pastry scraps and cut out the required amount of hearts, using a mini heart shaped biscuit/cookie cutter

6. 6

   Lay the rounds of pastry in the greased tart tin and press them gently into place. Prick the base of each tart once with a fork

7. 7

   Carefully put 1 heaped teaspoon of jam into each tart, top them off with a pastry heart and bake for 10-12 minutes

8. 8

   Leave the tarts to cool for a few minutes then use a palette knife to gently lift the tarts out of the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Arrange them on an attractive serving plate and sprinkle with caster sugar