Plum Jam Tart

This summer I made nearly 4kg of jam whilst on holiday in France, thanks to a tree laden with small golden plums at the bottom of my Mum's garden. I could have made much more, if only I had the time and the means to transport it back to London. Anyway, so now I have a healthy stock of home-made plum jam. It's lovely, but I do like to vary the flavour of jam I have on my toast... and who knows how long it would take me to eat my way through 4kg of jam. So I was looking for alternative ways to use up the stock of plum jam to make way for the other types of jam I have yet to open. A jam tart seemed ideal. 

The pastry used for this tart is based on a method which uses self raising flour, more egg and less butter. The result is a lighter, cake-like crust. I used orange flavoured liqueur and some vanilla sugar to flavour the pastry, and almonds sprinkled on the top of the tart for some crunch, but you can vary these ingredients to taste. This recipe yields more pastry than is needed; you could either save (or freeze) the rest of the pastry, or use a larger tin (for a larger but thinner tart). 

Serves 6

Ingredients

Pastry

-400g self raising flour

-100g butter, cubed

-100g caster sugar (I used 30g vanilla sugar and 70g plain caster sugar)

-2 eggs

-30 ml orange liqueur (or other such as rum)

-Water (if required)

Filling

-450g jam (preferably home-made!)

-1 tbsp flaked almonds

-1 tsp sugar (optional)

-Milk for glazing

1. Grease a 23cm tin and keep in the fridge until needed.

2. In large bowl mix together the dry pastry ingredients and add the butter, use your fingertips to work in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and crack in the eggs, and use a knife or metal spoon to mix. Slowly pour in the liqueur to bring the pastry together (add water if required). Bring the pastry together into a ball, cover in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 180C. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out enough pastry to line the greased tin (to about 5mm thickness). Push the pastry down into the tin, trim the edges and prick with a fork. Spoon the jam onto the pastry and spread evenly over the tart. Use some of the pastry trimmings to create a lattice and place this on the tart. Sprinkle over the almonds, brush the lattice with milk and sprinkle over the teaspoon of sugar.

4. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool slightly before eating, the jam gets extremely hot!