Macaroon Jam Tarts

How to make old-fashioned British macaroon jam tarts with a moist almond filling. Easy recipe with shortcrust pastry.

Old-Fashioned Jam Tart Recipe

What is a Macaroon Jam Tart? The other day, I re-discovered an old faithful British baking guide during a New Year's 'it's-about-time-I-tidied-that-mess-up' moment. Out fell a dusty 40th edition Be-Ro Flour Home Recipes book which Mum had handed me in 1992 before I left for France. It would be a great Scottish reminder to make the odd scone or shortbread now and again.

These British old-fashioned jam tarts are basically jam tartlets filled with an almond cream. If you've ever tasted them in Britain, you'll immediately be whisked back in time. Our Scottish bakeries sold them as individual tarts and they included a hidden dollop of raspberry jam.

They had the same taste as a Bakewell Tart - except they were always served as tartlets. My thoughts also turned to Mr Kipling: we all knew from his low and croaky, yet reassuring, UK advert voiceover, "Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes".

British Macaroons

Since these childhood macaroon memories in the UK, however, I'd never have dreamed I'd marry a Frenchman, move to Paris and end up writing two French macaron cookbooks! I say macaron, since these days there's still some confusion between the French macaron and macaroon. Yet the British macaroon is not the same as in France. So, what's the difference? The

• French macaron is made with ground almonds, sugar and egg whites.
• coconut macaroon (rocher coco in French) is made with coconut, sugar and egg whites.
• British Macaroon is completely different. Let me explain.

There are two kinds of British macaroons:

• In Scotland, there is the popular Scottish macaroon bar. It has a very sweet fondant centre of mainly icing sugar mixed with a little potato, then rolled in chocolate and toasted coconut. See my recipe for Scottish macaroon bar snowballs.
• Then there are these macaroon jam tarts. I have no idea, however, why they are called macaroon. Perhaps because they contain an almond filling? That's the only relation to a macaron or macaroon, as the word originally comes from the Italian word for paste, referring to the almond, maccarone.

Macaroon Jam Tarts with Shortcrust Pastry

So I first took the basic short pastry recipe from the Be-Ro flour book. It's the most basic and simple form of pastry and is insanely easy to work with, using water and no egg. However, its taste is so bland and doesn't do these jam tarts justice, in my humble opinion.

Instead, use this pâte sucrée or shortcrust pastry we use in France. It's worth taking the time for the real old-fashioned taste of jam tarts! It's also the perfect pastry to make mince pies with this quick no-suet mincemeat recipe. If you don't have time, cheat with ready-made shortcrust. You could use ready-made puff pastry but shortcrust is best for these jam tarts.

How to Make Old-Fashioned British Macaroon Jam Tarts

First make my easy step-by-step recipe for pâte sucrée (shortcrust pastry).

Either by hand or stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar together, add the egg and flour, salt and vanilla powder until it forms a ball.

Cut out 9-10 7cm circles (2 ½ - 3 inches), or circles slightly bigger than the size of the tartlet cavities.

Why Do We Prick Them with a Fork Before Putting in the Jam?

Press the shortcrust pastry dough into the pattie/tartlet or muffin tins.

Prick with a fork before putting in the jam. The reason why we do this is to stop the dough from rising in the oven. However, this isn't necessary if your dough is chilled. If placed in the fridge before adding the jam filling, then this can be skipped.

Mix together the ground almonds, sugar, almond extract and egg to a paste. Add a teaspoon of your favourite jam in each then top with the almond mix.

No wastage with leftover pastry: cut thin strips for crosses and place on top of the jam and almond filling.

Bake for 15-20 minutes then leave them to cool on a wire rack. There's no need to chill them (unless you live in a hot climate or are in the middle of a heat-wave!)

Just leave on the counter until ready to eat later in the day. If chilled, remove from the fridge 20 minutes before serving to bring out their flavours.

Macaroon Jam Tarts: Fruity Fillings

For the jam fillings in each tart, any of these jams makes exceedingly good macaroon jam tarts:

• apricot and lavender jam,
• Corsican fig jam,
• rhubarb & rose jam, and
• spiced plum jam.

More Almond Tarts

If you love these macaroon jam tarts with an almond filling, then you'll love more of these almond tarts:

• French Saint-Germain Cake: it's more of a tart with a moist, creamy almond filling with extra almond slivers and topped with a rum glaze.
• Almond and Pear (Bourdaloue) Tart
• Strawberry and Almond Tart
• Galette des Rois (King Cake): traditionally served in January at Epiphany in France, it's puff pastry stuffed with an almond cream filling and a little rum.