Last week the Petits Chefs worked on a favourite recipe of mine – Mini Jam Tarts with a Crumble Topping!
A previous iteration of the club (pre-pandemic when we had a proper space to work and much more equipment) made this recipe but I realised that I hadn’t actually written up the recipe properly so here was my chance. The current space we work in is not ideal (even less ideal than a STEM lab where I worked for close to 10 years previously) and I have limited equipment and storage now too so I am always looking for recipes that don’t use much equipment or many ingredients that are easy to make in the time we have (roughly an hour). It’s not easy and I don’t always get it right but we always learn something in the process so I’ll take that as a win!
Working with pastry is always a good experience for kids because they realise they have to slow down and treat the pastry very delicately. You have to have it warm enough to be pliable but not let it get too hot so that it becomes TOO pliable. The kids did a great job with this!
Rolling it to *just* the right thickness to cut into rounds to fit in a muffin tin (a disposable one in this case which was terrible as even spraying with baking spray, lots of the tarts stuck 🙁 ).
Then we filled those with a little bit (too much, in some cases!) of jam…
And then we topped that jam with a crumble topping – oats, flour, sugar, butter. The goal here is to not overfill the tart shells (and we didn’t always succeed but that’s ok!).
Because there are 12 of us, the kids like to make sure that recipes make *exactly* the amount it states in the yield, so that they get a certain amount of the finished product. I’m trying (unsuccessfully lol) to focus on the importance of the techniques I am teaching instead of the end product. So there were 24 mini tarts headed to the oven.
While they baked, I taught the kids how to make the pastry by hand – no photos of that as frantic cleaning and checking on the oven – in another room entirely – takes place during this time too. Because it’s a classroom, it needs to be back to normal at the end of the session, ready for the class the following morning. When it was the lab, I had the luxury of tidying and putting stuff away the following morning as no classes were in the room until later in the mornings. No photos of this but suffice to say “making pastry is just like play doh”. Everyone was amazed how easy it actually was to make by hand!
Our finished tarts were a little bit wonky (see first photo in post) but they passed the taste test apparently!
Here’s a better iteration (where they didn’t stick to the pans!), although some of that pastry is a little thick 😉
Want to make your own?
Mini jam crumble tarts
Mini jam tarts with crumble topping
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 3/4 cup (113 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (57g, 1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
For the filling:
- Approx. 1/2 cup jam (mixed flavours if you want different colours)
For the crumble:
- 1/4 cup (40 g) large flake oats
- 1/4 cup (38 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (40 g) dark brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons (58 g/ 1/2 stick) salted butter, melted then slightly cooled
Instructions
Make the pastry:
- Whisk the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
- Add the cubed butter and, using your fingertips lightly rub the butter into the flour until it resembles large breadcrumbs with some pieces the size of small peas. You can also use a pastry cutter for this job.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour mix and add the egg yolk and cream.
- Mix using a wooden spoon until the dough is firm enough to form a ball when you press the mixture together with your fingers - it might be a little crumbly but should come together when you squeeze it gently with your hands.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes (if possible).
Make the crumble:
- Mix the oats, flour, brown sugar and butter in a small bowl. Set aside until you are ready to use.
Roll and cut the pastry:
- Lightly grease a 12-cavity muffin tin.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (6mm). The easiest way to figure out if it’s rolled to the correct thickness is to roll the dough our and use your cookie cutters (3 1/2-inch (9 cm) diameter) to measure 10 rounds of dough. Cut those rounds, then reroll the scraps to cut the final 2 rounds.
- Place the disks in greased muffin tins and gently press in the centre to form pastry shells. Do not press too hard. Prick the bottom of each pastry shell with a fork and place the muffin tin in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 375˚F.
Fill and bake the tart shells:
- Place about 2 teaspoons of jam in the middle of each pastry round. It doesn’t look like a lot but it will bubble up and expand when it cooks.
- Divide the crumble evenly between the tarts.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the jam is bubbling.
- Remove the pans from the oven and let the tarts sit in the pans for about 15 minutes, or until the jam is no longer runny. Remove the tartlets from the pans and cool on wire racks. Serve at room temperature..
Notes
You can store these in an airtight container for up to 3 days—they will get soggy the longer you store them, though,
so best to eat them up!
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The rather non-professional appearance of the tarts adds to their appeal. I can smell them from here.