There isn't a more classic tea-time cake than this in Italy. I love the small tarts as they are so cute, but you can make this using a normal 24cm tart mould and then serving slices. Shortcrust pastry is so handy! You can make a few batches and store them in the freezer until you need them. Also, you can make these tarts a full day in advance and store them in the fridge until ready to bake them. This cake is served at room temperature, and keeps well for a week in a closed container on your kitchen counter.
Ingredients (for a 24cm diameter tart baking tray, or 12 tart moulds of 10cm diameter each):
TIP: I use less sugar than normal recipes, as in my view cakes should be tasty but not overly sweet.
600gr plain flour
1 tsp baking powder (optional but recommended: I use it as it softens the pastry)
1 tsp vanilla paste, or 1 lemon zest, or 1 orange zest (all of these are optional)
3 medium size eggs (cold from the fridge)
100gr icing sugar (I prefer this to caster sugar as the resulting pastry has a much finer texture)
50gr honey (I use this, rather then another 50gr of icing sugar, so that the pastry gets to a nice golden colour)
300gr cold butter (I use Irish salted butter, if you don't have it, add 1 pinch of salt)
1 jar of jam (350ml) - use any jam here. Typically we use apricot jam, but peach, strawberry, cherry, etc are all equally nice
2 Tbsp icing sugar for the final decoration
Method:
TIP 1: Shortcrust pastry is all about the cold temperature. You need to handle it as little as possible, and you need to put it in the fridge througought the process often and in different stages.
TIP 2: The way in which I'm baking this allows for the pastry to fully cook while retaining all its flavour and not burning, which is ridiculously easy otherwise.
Cut the butter in cubes
Pour the flour in the middle of your kitchen counter in the classic fountain shape, then make a hole in the middle to accomodate the other ingredients
Put the butter cubes, the eggs and all the other ingredients (excluding the jam, obviously) in the middle of the flour
Work it all quickly with your hands (if they're very warm, cool them down before under cold water before starting): it would look like there's not enough liquid at the beginning, but you'll see that there's just enough
STOP working the pastry as soon as it forms a ball and all the flour is absorbed. This is key, you don't want to overwork this pastry at all
Wrap the pastry quite well in cling film and store it in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour, better of for 2 hours (or up to 24 hours, or freeze it)
Butter the moulds, then dust them with flour and shake off the excess
Cut out 2 strips of baking paper per mould of roughly 3cm width each, with enough length to cover the bottom, come up the edges, and hang off by 2cm on each side
Place the 2 strips of baking paper forming a cross into each mould - if you do this, once the tarts are ready and cool, you'll only need to lift the tarts from the hanging baking paper and they'll come out of the moulds perfectly, without spoiling the edges - the same method should be used when making a single tart on a bigger mould
Take the pastry out of the fridge, cut out 1/3 of the ball, re-wrap it well in cling film and put it back into the fridge
Cover your kitchen counter with a sheet of baking paper, put the pastry on top and then cover the pastry with another sheet of baking paper
Using the ball and palm of your hand start flattening it out, then roll it to a thickness of 0.5 cm using a rolling pin
Cut out the circle of your tart: it will have to cover the bottom and the edges of the mould, so: if using the single 24cm diameter mould, cut out a circle of 26-27cm, or if using the smaller moulds of 10cm of diameter, cut out circles of 12-13 cm each
Here having used the baking paper top and bottom while rolling it out will show all its benefit: you'll be able to transfer the circles into the moulds quite easily by lifting the bottom layer of the baking paper and top out the pastry circles into the moulds
Be careful when draping the pastry into the moulds, press slightly the bottom close to the circular edge, then the sides. Do NOT pair it out yet, if it hangs out a little, leave it be for now
Put the prepared moulds back in the fridge, and take out the other piece of pastry
Again, cover your kitchen counter with baking paper, put the pastry in the middle, and cover it with another baking paper sheet
Using the ball and the palm of your hand first, then a rolling pin, obtain a layer of 0.5cm thickness
At this point, remove from the oven one of the shelves and the big tray that usually comes with the oven and fits into a shelf groove, then pre-heat your oven at 170 degrees (fan)
Using a dented knife, cut out strips of pastry along the full length of your pastry sheet, keeping in mind that if you'll decorate the 24cm tart tray, the strips will need to be slightly wider (I'd say almost 1cm) but that if you'll decorate your smaller moulds the strips need to be more narrow (I'd say 0.5cm)
Transfer the full sheet of baking paper with the prepared strips onto a tray and put it back into the fridge
Take out the prepared moulds from the fridge, then using fork prongs prickle all the bottom of the moulds: this will stop the pastry from rising while baking
If you are using shop bought jam, or if your jam is quite solid, put it into a bowl and work it with a fork so that it becomes soft and smooth (my home made jam is always quite soft so I don't have to do this)
Now that you have your prepared bottom moulds all prickled out, pour the jam into them ensuring to leave at least 0.5cm or more of space between the jam and the top of the edges
Once all your moulds are ready and filled, take out the fridge your pastry strips, and lay them into the moulds in the typical criss-cross fashion - I find that using the scissors to trim the strips to the required length is quite handy here
Using your hands or a smooth blade knife, carefully fold the top edges of your bottom moulds over the edges of the strips, encasing the jam
Place the moulds onto the cold oven shelf, and then put it in the middle of the oven, put the other big oven shelf on the notches immediately above the shelf with the moulds
Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees C (fan) and bake for 10 mins
Now move the shelf with the moulds down one notch and also move the shelf-wide tray down one notch and keep baking for anothr 10 mins
Last, remove the top shelf-wide tray, bring back up to the middle of the oven the shelf with the moulds, reduce the temperature to 150 degrees C and keep baking for another 10-15mins or until nice and golden
Remove the full shelf with the cooked tarts from the oven and leave them in their moulds until they reach room temperature
Once cooled, carefully lift the tarts from the moulds using the baking strips, and place them onto a chopping board
Dust each tart with icing sugar using a fine sieve, then place them onto your serving dish