Last week we were gifted a kilo of blackberries from a friend’s garden, so I made some jam specifically to finish off developing this recipe for a “shortbread pastry” which can be used for so many sweet pies and tarts.

I have always loved using my shortbread recipe (see here) for my fruit mince tarts. But as it is shortbread and not pastry it can be a bit fiddly dealing with, but the results are delicious. However last year I was in a hurry and didn’t want to “deal with it”, so I researched what pastry chefs do with their sweet pastries, and decided to adopt Kirsten Tibballs’ (see here) approach of adding an egg and a little water to my shortbread and I was delighted with the results.  The “pastry” is really easy to manage, and bakes up beautifully.

This pastry is perfect for baking fruit mince tarts and jam tarts, but can also be baked as unfilled tart shells (no need to fill with baking beans as it is shortbread and will not rise much in the oven) to be filled with other ingredients, i.e. chocolate ganache, caramel, custard, lemon curd, etc.

Unfilled baked tart shells will keep for a couple of weeks in a sealed container in the pantry … once filled place into the fridge where it will “hold” well with the filling for at least 48 hours, and perhaps longer based on the filling used (ganache will hold for a few days, caramel, lemon curd or custard for at least two days).

Baking time:

1. For unfilled tart shells bake 150 degrees fan forced for 20 minutes, turn tray around and continue for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden
2. For covered tarts (like fruit mince tarts), bake 150 degrees fan forced for 20 minutes, turn tray around and continue for 20 minutes, or until top is lightly golden
3. For large jam tart (recipe following), I increased oven temperature to 160 degrees fan forced as there was quite a bit of thickness to the tart with the layers of pastry (bottom, plus top with crossover pastry), plus the filling

So the message with baking times is to be guided by what you are making, and adjust cooking time accordingly.

Shortbread Pastry

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Author: Gina @ The Passionate Pantry

Serves: 900g

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS FOR PASTRY

• 1 egg
• Filtered water added to egg to make 75g total
  
  
• 120g raw caster sugar
• 120g cornflour
• 330g white spelt flour, or plain flour
• 250g butter, from fridge, cubed
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  
  

INGREDIENTS FOR JAM TART (tart tin 35cm x 13 cm)

• 300g jam of choice (I like berry jam)
• Raw caster sugar for dusting the tart before baking

Instructions

METHOD FOR PASTRY (makes 900g)

1. Place a small bowl on top of the TM lid, tare your scales and add raw egg into it … add enough water to make it to 75g total and remove
2. Place sugar, cornflour, flour, butter, salt and vanilla to the TM bowl and mix 10 seconds/speed 6
3. Add egg and water mixture and knead 30 seconds, stir mix around and knead for a further 20 seconds until mixture comes together
4. Upturn bowl over your bench top and allow dough to drop out, then Turbo x 1 second if necessary to remove last bit of dough from bowl
5. Bring the dough together into an oblong shape and divide into two
6. Wrap each piece of dough in Glad Wrap and place into the fridge for 30 minutes
7. Use as desired
   
   

METHOD FOR JAM TART

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees fan forced
2. Working with half of the dough at a time, place dough onto a large piece of baking paper lightly sprinkled with flour, and very lightly flour the top of the dough (if you have a silicon mat, place baking paper onto it as that will stop it from moving around)
3. Roll dough in an oblong shape to 5mm thickness, long enough to fit into the tart tin
4. Use the rolling pin to gently lift the dough and place pastry into the tart tin … don’t worry if it cracks, just use your fingers to lightly patch it up, gently placing the pastry into the base and corners of the tin, and use your fingers to lightly press the pastry into the tin’s fluted edges leaving an overhang
5. Trim the pastry by lightly pressing against the edge of the tin with your fingers
6. Fill the pastry shell with jam ... don't overfill as the jam will bubble up whilst cooking and you don't want it to overflow
7. Roll out the rest of the pastry to 5mm thickness, and use a cutter (I like the fluted edge pizza cutter) to cut strips approximately 2.5cm wide to go on top of the tart
8. Place strips over the tart overlapping them to create a nice pattern, then press against the edges with your finger to cut through the pastry creating a nice even edge
9. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over the tart then place into oven
10. Bake 25 minutes, turn, and continue for a further 25 minutes until the tart crust is a nice golden colour
11. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before serving
12. Can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days (if doing this, I cut the tart in half so that it fits into the containers I have)
13. NB: If desired, while the tart is baking, reroll leftover dough to 6mm thickness and make biscuits for the family to enjoy, they can go into the oven when the tart comes out (baking time is 20 minutes, turn tray around, bake a further 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden colour)

Notes

This pastry is perfect for baking fruit mince tarts and jam tarts, but can also be baked as unfilled tart shells (no need to fill with baking beans as it is shortbread and will not rise much in the oven) to be filled with other ingredients, i.e. chocolate ganache, caramel, custard, lemon curd, etc.

Unfilled baked tart shells will keep for a couple of weeks in a sealed container in the pantry … once filled place into the fridge where it will “hold” well with the filling for at least 48 hours, and perhaps longer based on the filling used (ganache will hold for a few days, caramel, lemon curd or custard for at least two days).

Baking time:

1. For unfilled tart shells bake 150 degrees fan forced for 20 minutes, turn tray around and continue for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden

2. For covered tarts (like fruit mince tarts), bake 150 degrees fan forced for 20 minutes, turn tray around and continue for 20 minutes, or until top is lightly golden

3. For large jam tart (recipe following), I increased oven temperature to 160 degrees fan forced as there was quite a bit of thickness to the tart with the layers of pastry (bottom, plus top with crossover pastry), plus the filling

So the message with baking times is to be guided by what you are making, and adjust cooking time accordingly.

If making the jam tart, you will have leftovers of the dough, but it can be gathered together and frozen for another time (double wrap in Glad Wrap if doing this), or make small individual tart cases which will keep in a sealed container in the pantry for a good couple of weeks.

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