Jam tart nightmare..

[slippermaiden]

Hi, I've tried making jam tarts before and they look like a toddler made them, so had a couple convo with DM over a plate of her beautiful tarts and thought I'd try again.... why aren't they round like when I put them in the oven? Why have they got really puffy, they are shortcrust pastry?

Mind they tasted amazing.

Did you use self raising flour by mistake? Or baking powder?

No it was JusRol pastry, in the cold section, I, we just rolled it out! Definitely shortcrust.

The pastry looks quite thick, maybe roll out a bit thinner, also don't stretch or pull the pastry, treat it gently as you slide it into the tart tin.

As long as they taste good, don't worry about them being wonky!

Did you use a cupcake tray? If not the jam in the middle stops the pastry from cooking evenly giving you an uneven rise. Even shortcrust will rise unless you roll it thin and blind bake first before adding filling. Only way to do it is it cut large circles and place into a cupcake tray, press down the middles and fill with jam.
Hope it works.

Thanks, I'll try again tomorrow. Weirdly I'm not doing any thing different from my DM, I'll have to make some with her!

Dont stretch the dough as it shrinks when cooked and leads to wonky tarts ( sounds like a knocking shop )