Cheats Jam Tarts.

My eldest Eli loves cooking with mummy, in particular sweet treats! We do a thing called 'muffin making monday' which I will blog about next week but today we were feeling a bit lazy and wanted to bake something quick and easy which Eli could do mainly himself.

For those who haven't got the time to make pastry from scratch most supermarkets sell premade and prerolled shortcrust and puff pastry, this one I picked up from Aldi. This makes making things like jam tarts extremely quick and easy! All I used to make these little yummies was:

• A pack of prerolled shortcrust pastry.
• A pack of frozen mixed berries.
• A little caster sugar.
• A circular cookie cutter.
• And a dimple pan. 

The first step is to make up your fruit compote, I like to make my own so i can regulate how much sugar goes in but you can always just use a jar of jam to make to process even speedier! You could also use fresh berries but for connivence and price I like to use a packet of mixed frozen berries. I pour the whole packet of berries into a saucepan and cook for about 15 minutes until all fruit is completely broken down and the sauce has reduced slightly. Then I add sugar to taste leaving it quite tart still and cook for a further 10 minutes until thickened even more. I transfer this mixture to a sterile jar and leave to cool. 

This mixture once cooled can be used for many other things, in our house we always have a jar on the go in the fridge. The most popular use for the berry compote is usually as a topping for porridge and muesli but it can also make a great base for a crumble or accompaniment for natural yogurt. 

Unroll the pastry and leave to rest for 10 minutes then use a circular cookie cutter the same size as your dimple whole and cut out your pastry cases. If you have a nonstick pan there is no need for greasing but if your worried just run a bit of butter along the insides of all the dimples using some tissue. 

Next fill each little case with a heaped teaspoon of the berry compote or jam if you are using it making sure not to over fill otherwise when cooking they will spill over the sides of the pastry. Once that is done put them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees and cook for 10-15 minutes until the pastry has puffed up and has lightly browned. 

All thats left to do now is to make a cup of tea, sit down and eat one or a few in my case! Its such a simple, mess free treat which is easily fit in to a busy day. 

This will be one of many recipe blogs so i really hope you enjoyed reading! 

Loulou.