First thing first – Happy Easter!

It’s a long weekend here in Prague with tomorrow, Monday,  a national holiday.  This means I have enough time to get some Easter baking done!  I’ve already made two batches of jam tarts the other day.  They came out well I just have to post them here.

Tarts are unbelievably easy to prepare.  Unbelievably so because they are very pretty you’d think they would involve a lot of kung-fu techniques in the kitchen when in fact the only thing you might have to spend time a bit is the dough.  You can actually cheat and buy ready-made doughs available at pastry shops but for me, baking has to be done from scratch.  No short cuts or you don’t deserve my respect  like those singers who lip-synch.  Anyway,  this dough is easy breezy to make.   The kind that, even after a few minutes of kneading and rolling, still leaves my hair straight and in place.

This recipe is copied from Usborne book of activities for kids.  I love how this book has everything, from arts and crafts to yes, cooking and recipes.

For about 12 tarts you will need:

• 150 g plain flour
• 75 g margarine (room temperature)
• 6 teaspoons of very cold water
• pinch of salt
• jam
• greased baking tray with shallow pans
• round cutter
• tiny cutters

Directions:

1. Mix the flour and the salt.  Rub in the margarine so that it looks like crumbs.
2. Add the water.  Use a blunt knife to mix it in.  Squeeze it into a ball of dough.
3. Sprinkle flour onto your work surface.  Roll out the dough thinly.
4. Press out 12 shapes from the dough with the round cutter.
5. Push the shapes into a greased tin.  Put a teaspoon of jam into each one.
6. Press out some shapes with the tiny cutters.  Put one on each tart.
7. Bake at a pre-heated oven (200°C) for about 15 minutes.
8. Take care as the tarts will be very hot.  Leave them to cool on a rack.
9. Serve when the tarts have completely cooled.

One of the best things about these tarts is that you can play around with the “theme” using small cookie cutters.  In this batch, the flower is for spring while the chick is for Easter.  As for the heart, well, who doesn’t need one everyday?

xoxo