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JAM TARTLETS…..Pretty Ruby Petits Fours

2008/01/10 / 10 Comments
“The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today.”
Lewis Carroll

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JAM TARTLETS…Petits Fours

A Tart is defined as a single-layered base of pastry (plain or puff) with a sweet or savory filling baked in either a shallow tart pan that has straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom or a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet. The tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Broadly, the term ‘tart’ encompasses flans, quiches, and pies. Depending on the type of tart made they can be served as appetizers, entrees or desserts. Their size ranges from bite-size (hors d’oeuvre), individual-size (tartlet) to full-size (tart).’…quoted from ‘Joy of Baking‘…one of my favourite net-stops!

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Sweet tarts have fillings of fruit, jams, custards, flavored creams, or nuts.

What do miniature tuiles, eclairs, fancy cakes, macaroons, glazed or candied fruits, tartlets, ladyfingers, cigarettes, etc. have in common? They all belong to a category of small fancy cookies, pastries, or confections called “petits fours”. The name petit four seems to have originated from the name of the ovens (petit four meaning ‘small oven’) they were baked in. In the 18th century the ovens were made of brick and once the large cakes were baked, small cakes were placed in the ovens as they were cooling down.
Petits fours can be eaten in one or two bites and these fancy pastries are further divided into “sec” or “glacé”. “Sec” meaning “dry” and “glacé” meaning “iced or frosted”. …Joy of Baking again!

IMG 0938 ‘LIQUID RUBY PETITS FOURS’…

I made these sweet little ‘Liquid Ruby Petits Fours’, with a jam filling, for my daughter’s birthday…& in all the confusion & excitement, forgot to put them out! What a feast my kids had over the next few days; it was tartlets all the way!! Since this months CLICK event has a liquid theme – ‘LIQUID COMFORT’, I’ve thought of sending in this one above as an entry…its atoms move freely & it took the shape of the pastry! IMG 0833

Moving on from there, the recipe for the pastry cases / pie shells are from a sweet little book of contemporary recipes called ‘What’s Cooking Chocolate’ by Jacqueline Bellefontaine, which she uses to make mini chocolate tartlets. I made those & some of these as well, variety being the spice of my life!!

Here’s the recipe as adapted from her book…
Ingredients:

Flour – 1 1/2 cups

Butter – 1/3 cup ; chilled & cut into pieces
Castor Sugar – 1 tbsp
Chilled water – 3-4 tbspIMG 0460

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Method:
  • Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
  • Rub in the chilled butter with your fingertips to get a breadcrumb like mix.
  • Stir in the sugar.
  • Add enough water to make a soft dough.
  • Cover & chill for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
  • Roll out to 1/4-1/8″ thickness & line the pastry/tart shells or mini muffin trays with them.
  • Cover the pastry with foil, put in pie weights ( I used beans) & bake blind for 15 minutes approximately till light brown.
  • Cool completely on racks & store in an airtight tin until use. I made mine 3 days in advance.
  • Heat about 1/2 cup of jam with 1 tbsp water in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, until jam is runny.
  • Pour carefully into prepared tart shells, use sprinkles if you like, and leave to set.

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‘Ruby don’t take your love to town’…this song has been playing in my head all the while I have been putting this post together. Kenny Rogers at his very best!! Used to be one of my favourite numbers & am glad to renew the link!!
Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

10 Comments

  • Mansi Desai

    2008/01/10 at 11:31 pm Reply

    Looks great Deeba…for the pastry shell, do you use warm water or cold?

    oh, and do check out the new event on my blog..I’m hoping to get an entry from you:)

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/01/11 at 11:10 am Reply

    Hi Happy Cook…come over for tea one day!
    Latha…soon, very soon!
    Thanks Deepa
    Hi Mansi…chilled ater for the pastry shell. Will just edit that. Hve checked out yr event…count me in!
    Hi Suganya, just back from VY yummy page. Went back to research petit fours & updated my post too. :0)

  • Passionate baker...& beyond

    2008/01/11 at 11:10 am Reply

    Hi Happy Cook…come over for tea one day!
    Latha…soon, very soon!
    Thanks Deepa
    Hi Mansi…chilled ater for the pastry shell. Will just edit that. Hve checked out yr event…count me in!
    Hi Suganya, just back from VY yummy page. Went back to research petit fours & updated my post too. :0)

  • Pearlsofeast

    2008/03/25 at 7:48 am Reply

    I was very happy to ur blog. Infact we both share the same passion.I love cooking but baking tops the list. I love ur recipes. Will certainly try and let u know.

    Thanks
    Shibani

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

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