Halloween Jam Hand Tarts

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Shaped like sculpted pumpkins, these Halloween Jam Hand Tarts make the perfect scary dessert, as well as being a wonderful, creative half term activity! Using a sheet of shop bought puff pastry, these light, buttery, pastries, oozing with your favourite sweet jam/jelly and cooked to crispy perfection, will keep you thoroughly entertained and delight your tastebuds!

Eat them as they are, preferably warm, or serve them with ice cream, or my personal favourite, some hot vanilla custard. A wonderful way to finish a meal or, indeed, a fabulous mid ‘trick or treat’ pick me up!

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How to make Halloween Jam Hand Tarts

Collect all your ingredients together:

• shop bought, pre-rolled puff pastry
• your favourite jam/jelly
• egg wash or milk
• demerara sugar to sprinkle

Here’s how to make these simple, yet effective treats:

1. Unroll the pastry, leave on the baking parchment, and using your pumpkin cutter, cut out as many pumpkin shapes as you can – you need 2 cut outs per tart. My cutter measured roughly 7½ cms/3in x 6½cms/2½in and I was able to cut out 12 single pumpkin shapes making 6 tarts.
2. On half of the cut outs only, use the tip of a sharp knife, to cut out triangles for the eyes and nose and make a slash in the pastry for the mouth. These are the tops of your tarts. Remove the excess pastry. Either gently knead it together and roll out (it will lose some of its ‘puff’ though) or use it to make a Pandowdy.
3. Give the jam and a good stir and place some in the centre of each pastry base – I use 1½ teaspoons per tart but it will depend on the size of your cutter. Do not overfill the tarts with jam – make sure the outside edge is jam free so you can seal the pastry top.
4. Lightly brush the edges of the pastry bases with egg wash or milk.
5. Cover with the pastry tops and seal the edges with a fork.
6. Lightly brush each tart with egg wash or milk and sprinkle over some Demerara or granulated sugar.
7. Cook in the centre of a preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until lightly golden and crispy.
8. Let sit for around 10 minutes before serving – the centre will be very, very hot when it first comes out of the oven. Best served on the day they are made, they are delicious served warm, as they are or with ice cream or vanilla custard.

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What is the best way to store Halloween Jam Hand Tarts?

Although these are best eaten on the day they are made, covered, they keep well for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 5 days in the fridge. However, if you are storing them in the fridge, remember to take them out to warm up to room temperature before you serve them. Better yet, warm them before serving.

What is the best way to warm these tarts?

I adore these served warm either as they are, with ice cream or custard. If you have made them in advance and want to warm them up, simply zap them in the microwave for 10 – 20 seconds per tart. The time it takes will depend on the temperature of the tarts to start with (ie have they been in the fridge or not?), the power of the microwave, how many you are warming at a time and how hot you actually want them. I like mine warm, but not too hot. I recommend heating them in 10 second increments until you are happy with the heat.

If you do not have a microwave, you could warm them in the oven. Cover with foil and place them in an oven preheated to fan oven 150°C/170°C/325°F/Gas 3 for 1 – 3 minutes. (Depending on how many you are heating and how hot you want them.) Check them after 1 minute and be careful not to overheat, as you may over cook them.

Can I freeze these Halloween Jam Hand Tarts?

Yes you can! You can cover and freeze them, either before or after cooking, for up to 3 months.

Defrost cooked, frozen tarts in the fridge overnight. Either eat them at room temperature or heat them up as described above.

Frozen uncooked tarts do not need to be defrosted before cooking. They can be cooked from frozen.

What is the best way to cook them from frozen?

See Recipe below for cooking instructions. Basically you can cook them from frozen but you will need to add around 5 minutes extra to the overall cooking time.

Made this recipe?

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