A true British classic, these Simple Jam Tarts made with crisp shortcrust pastry couldn’t be easier to make. With just two ingredients, they’re perfect for a fuss-free treat, whether you fancy a quick snack, want to use up leftover pastry or bake something simple with kids.
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Jam tarts are such a childhood classic for me and also something I used to make when I babysat for toddlers and small children. It always seemed like such an easy go-to and fun activity with a tasty outcome. Whether you make the shortcrust pastry from scratch or buy it ready rolled and whether you buy a jar of jam or use homemade, these tarts always go down a treat.
You do of course need to be rather careful when taking the tarts out of the oven. Especially if there curious and impatient little hands around. The jam will be molten hot when it comes out of the oven and so you do need to give them a few minutes to cool before touching them to prevent burns.
Jam tarts are always something that we tended to make with scraps of pastry from other bakes. You don’t really need to make a full tray of them. Simply use up the pastry that you have with as much jam as you need. You also can use any type of pastry you like, it doesn’t even need to be shortcrust.
How to Serve Jam Tarts
You really don’t need to do anything to the jam tarts. You can simply grab one and eat it as a snack as it is. But I do love them served slightly warm as the jam gets nice and gooey. A few seconds in the microwave is all they need.
Jam tarts always make an excellent addition to any kind of afternoon tea, kids birthday party spread or picnic type affair. Along with sausage rolls, some simple sandwiches, scotch eggs, some crisps and dips like a smooth creamy hummus and other sweet treats like butterfly fairy cakes and chocolate brownies.
It goes without saying that a cup of tea is an essential accompaniment too!
Jam Tart Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
You can make the shortcrust pastry from scratch using my easy all butter recipe which is linked below. You can also buy it ready made in a block or ready-rolled. The latter is of course the absolute easiest convenience option. But don’t overlook the idea of making your own a shortcrust pastry. It’s incredibly quick and simple to make.
As I mentioned, jam tarts are often something that I make with leftover pastry from other recipes. So don’t feel like you need to make pastry specially. Just use what you have on hand.
Shortcrust pastry is very forgiving to use, just make sure to use a little flour as needed to help you roll it out nice and thin. Unlike puff pastry, you can re-roll is as many times as you need without having to like about preserving the layering.
All Butter Shortcrust Pastry Recipe
Jam
You really can use any kind of jam that you prefer to make this recipe. I prefer smooth jams with no lumps of fruit in them. All of the jam recipes in my collection are smooth and any of them work fantastically in jam tarts.
Any flavour of jam can be used and will taste delicious in the tarts. You can even make every single tart a different flavour if you wanted to. So don’t feel like you have to be tired to only using one type.
Smooth & Seedless Jam Recipes
Here you’ll find all of my fabulous jam recipes in one easy place. With no pesky pips, my recipes are all written to make small batches but can easily be scaled up to make larger quantities.
Featuring mixed berry, plum, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, and raspberry, fig and dark cherry jams plus some ideas how to use it.
Be Flexible
This recipe is really a very basic framework that you can endlessly adapt. Choose your pastry, choose your filling. Just use my guidance in terms of quantities, sizes, techniques and cooking times.
As well as being able to use any jam that you like, you can also use other preserves to make very similar tarts. Marmalade, ginger jam and fruit curds are all good choices. Even savoury preserves like chutney work wonderfully. Mixing a little dried mustard powder and some finely grated cheese into homemade shortcrust pastry would make those savoury tarts even more amazing.
My lemon tarts are my simple alternative to this jam recipe.
Baked Lemon Curd Tarts with Shortcrust Pastry
You can use any kind of pastry you like. Although it is worth noting that if you use puff pastry, you might find it easier to use a deeper tin to bake them. This is so the jam doesn’t go anywhere as it puffs up during baking. Use my puff pastry mince pies recipe as a guide.
Suet pastry work surprisingly well And naturally gives jam roly-poly vibes. I don’t generally use a sweet pastry when making jam tarts as the jam is really sweet enough. But if that is what you have on hand of course you can use it.
Vegetarian or Vegan Jam Tarts
Unless you are using some kind of jam which contains an animal gelatin, this recipe is going to be naturally vegetarian. Such jams are going to be very rare but if you are buying from the shop, it might be worth checking the label just in case.
Vegan jam tarts are also very easy to make. Most standard store-bought pastry here in the UK is naturally vegan. Do check the ingredients, but on the whole this should be an easy vegan option. Again, as long as the jam doesn’t have any rogue ingredients the, tarts are easy to make vegan.
Make Allergy Friendly Jam Tarts
This recipe is free from egg and nuts. However if you are using a shortcrust pastry recipe that isn’t mine or using store bought pastry, you should check the ingredients. Especially for egg which is often added to pastry.
Gluten Free: Use a gluten-free pastry. You can either home make the pastry using a gluten-free flour blend. Or gluten-free pastry is fairly easy to find in the shops. If you can’t find any in the chiller section, check the freezers. Ready rolled is harder to come by than the block forms. But it isn’t difficult to roll out so don’t let that put you off.
Dairy Free: I don’t use any kind of egg wash or dairy wash on these tarts because they don’t really need it. So the only dairy that you might encounter when making this recipe is if you buy or use pastry containing butter or dairy. As I mentioned above, most standard store-bought pastry in the UK is dairy free so you should be fine using this.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.
Equipment Notes for Jam Tarts
Funnily enough the type of baking tin that I used for these jam tarts was actually my biggest headache. Historically there are two main types of tins used for baking individual tarts and cakes – muffin tins which are much larger and bun tins which have shallower holes.
Bun tins are much harder to find than they once were. I did buy a shallow muffin tin tray which worked out perfectly for these tarts. The first shallow tray that I tried was actually too shallow and the tarts came out more like biscuits with the jam puffing up and going everywhere.
if you don’t have a shallow muffin tin you can use a regular muffin tin but still using a smallish amount of pastry and a little jam. If you look at my shortcrust pastry mince pies recipe you will see that I use this method here.
Other than the baking tray, you don’t need anything else much in the way of specialist equipment. You can use a roll of cling film to roll out the pastry if you don’t have a rolling pin. You can use a thin edged glass to cut out the pastry rounds if you don’t have cookie cutters. And you simply need a couple of teaspoons to dollop the jam into the pastry cases.
A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.
Get Ahead
Jam tarts keep really well for up to roundly a week. You don’t need to keep them in the fridge and you can make them a good few days in advance if needed. You might find that the pastry does start to go a little on the softer side so bear this in mind if you’re not a fan.
Other than just making and baking the tarts in advance, there aren’t really many ways you can get ahead with this recipe. Although if you are making the pastry from scratch you can do this several days in advance.
Simple Jam Tarts Tips
Try to roll the pastry nice and thin. This will give you nice and delicate tarts and a good ratio of jam to pastry .
Don’t be alarmed but how little jam it looks like you’re putting into each tart. It never looks like there’s going to be enough but please trust me. If you add more you will end up with an explosion of jam in the oven and all over your tin. The jam does puff up as it cooks and will fill the pastry cases.
Do be careful when the tarts come out of the oven. That jam might look harmless but it will be mega hot and will burn if you touch it. Because the tarts are quite small, they will cool down quite fast so you don’t need to employ too much patience.
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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More recipes using Jam
The Recipe
Simple Jam Tarts with Shortcrust Pastry
Equipment
- 12 hole Bun Tin/Shallow Muffin Tin
- Spoon
Ingredients
- 250 g Shortcrust Pastry
- 225 g Jam
- Flour - as needed for rolling the pastry
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200c | 390f or equivalent.
- Roll out around 250g Shortcrust Pastry until it is quite thin. After each roll, turn the pastry round and/or over. This will make it easier to roll evenly and prevent sticking. You may need to use a little flour if the pastry sticks to the surface at all.
- Use a cookie cutter that is just a little larger than the holes in your bun or muffin tin. Cut as many rounds out as you can from the pastry. I like to use the fluted side of the cookie cutter but you can use the straight if you prefer.
- Carefully move the rounds into the bun tin. Gently press the pastry into the holes trying not to create bit folds on the sides.
- Re-roll the leftover pastry and cut more rounds until you have enough to fill the tray.
- Put around 200g Jam into a bowl and give it a quick stir – I find this makes it easier to split between the tarts.
- Spoon just around 1 tsp Jam into each tart. Use a second spoon to push the jam off the first spoon. I didn't have enough hands to photograph this!
- Note – you need much less jam than you think – it will puff up and bubble as the tarts cook. It is surprising but please believe me!
- Bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
- Allow the tarts to sit for a minute before carefully moving them to a cooling rack. Be careful not to touch the jam as it will be extremely hot and can burn badly.
Nicole says
Thank you for the reminder of just how good a simple jam tart can be! I haven’t made jam tarts for about 20 years but followed your recipe and these are definitely the best jam tarts I’ve ever tasted.
Karen says
I love a jam tart and they’re so easy to bake at home. I made a batch of these with the kids. We used different jams so we had different colours, they were delicious.