These smart jam tarts are all the bettter for using home-made berry jam.

Ingredients

• 400 gram block frozen sweet pastry, defrosted
• about ½ cup your favourite jam
• 100 grams butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 cup self-raising flour (or use half ground almonds and half self-raising flour)
• ¼ cup milk
• icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Roll the pastry out on a floured board to 3-4mm thickness. Cut out 7cm rounds and use to line 18 tartlet moulds.
2. Fill each with ½ teaspoon jam.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and then beat in the vanilla essence and egg. Fold in the sifted flour with the milk. Place about 1 tablespoon of mixture on top of the jam tarts. Use any remaining pastry scraps to make a thin cross on top.
4. Bake at 180°C for 18-20 minutes until well risen and golden. Delicious served warm.