A friend of mine makes the best fruit tarts for dessert. Her specialty is Linzer Torte. When she described how simple they are to make, I had to try it for myself.
I had a jar of apricot jam in the pantry that was getting lonely, so I did a quick search for tart crust recipes and found David Leibowitz’ Jam Tart recipe. I made it with a few alterations, but loved his addition of cornmeal to the crust. This tart was perfect on its own and even better with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
JAM TART
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cornmeal/polenta or corn flour (if you don’t let the dough rest for the cornmeal to absorb enough moisture to soften, then use corn flour, otherwise, you’ll be picking cornmeal out of your teeth).
1 jar jam (Bonne Maman is the right size jar. use more or less to your taste. I used the whole jar).
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, extract, salt and baking soda. Combine well. Add cornmeal, then flour. Combine thoroughly, then form into two logs, put in a Ziploc or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for an hour. If you like more bottom crust than top, then make one log bigger than the other.
When the cornmeal is soft, take out of the fridge and pat into the pan (Or roll out. I’m a big on patting doughs into pans -saves time.). Spoon jam over the crust. Flatten chunks of the dough and lay over the jam for a crust. Alternately, you can roll out and do a formal lattice. Bake at 350 until the crust is lightly browned, anywhere from 20-40 minutes. Enjoy!
Leave a Reply