United Kingdom – Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts

Welcome to “Around the world in 12 Dishes” joining forces with 12 other blogs (see our mini blog roll further down) we’re bringing you a gastronomic journey around the world loosely following the classic book Around the World in 80 days and would LOVE for you to join us each month cooking a dish from the country as well as any of the extension activities. For each country J and myself (as the year progresses even T may join in) will be cooking up a dish from the country. I love cooking with the children and as I have mentioned before some of my favourite childhood memories come from cooking and this is something that I want J and T to remember as well.

Co-hosting “Around the world in 12 Dishes” are:

Adventures In Mommydom,
Creative Family Fun,
Glittering Muffins,
Juggling with Kids,
Kitchen Counter Chronicles,
Make, Do & Friends,
Mom 2 Posh Little Divas,
Mummy Mummy Mum,
Rainy Day Mum,
Red Ted Art,
The Educators’ Spin On It
The Outlaw Mom

The first country is the UK – we had lots of ideas of what we could cook – bangers and mash, toad in the hole, fish and chips, welsh cakes, haggis, fruit cake, scones, Sunday roast, cottage pie, Sheppard’s pie, jam tarts, bara brith… well the list was extensive but decided to go with Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts

Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts Recipe

One of the many nursery rhymes we sing to J and T is a classic Queen of Hearts – first appearing in Print in the UK in 1782 but made famous by Lewis G Carroll in Alice in Wonderland it a wonderful short little rhyme and perfect for something traditionally English.

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.
The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore
The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and
vowed he’d steal no more.

Ok so it’s a little old fashioned and gruesome but very traditional. Here is a recipe from my cookbook that I had a child (1978 edition!) and still tasting as good today as when I first made them as a child.

Ingredients for Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts

200g (8oz) plain (all purpose) flour
50g (2oz) lard
50g (2oz) margarine
Pinch of Salt
2 and a half tablespoons of cold water
Jam

You will also need a sieve, mixing bowl, table knife, tablespoon, rolling pin, bun tin, pastry cutter and teaspoon.

How to make the Queen of Hearts Jam Tarts

To get the best pastry – you need to have cold utensils and cold hands – so we washed our hands with cold water to make sure that we didn’t melt the fats. J loves the washing the hands part – and we have to sing the hand washing song from I can cook on Cbeebies every time we do. I pre-measure all of the ingredients first at the moment with most dishes so with everything prepared we set to work making the tarts. First task is to cut up the fat in with the sieved flour and pinch of salt.

J and me cutting the lard and margarine into small cubes in the flour

Once the margarine was cut up into small cubes then it’s making bread crumb type consistency out of the mixture. Using finger types rub in the flour and fats but not too much as the fats shouldn’t melt. J loved this and kept telling us that it was snowing!

J snowing the mixture

Once the mixture is crumbed – we then added the water the recipe is very precise that it has to be exactly 2 and a half table spoons of cold water – whether all that went in or not I’m not sure as J helped a lot – but I’m guessing most did as they taste very good.

J watching me form the pastry

At this point you can leave the pastry covered in a cool place until you need it – we used it straight away. To make it easier for J I divided it up into smaller balls and using his rolling pin he rolled it out and then cut using a pastry cutter that fitted nicely into our tin.

J rolling pastry

We used a 12 bun tin and had greased the tin first. J helped me put the tarts into the tin and then he had lots of fun filling them with some jam.

J filling the jam tarts

The oven was put on a 220 degrees Centigrade (425 F gas mark 7) and the tarts cooked for 12 mins (but around 10 is normal until the pastry is just brown) – we left them to cool and then have enjoyed the tarts.

Joining in Around the World in 12 Dishes

Come and cook a dish from the UK this month – whether it’s sweet or savoury, take photos of you doing it and share with us, if you are a blogger join in with the linky below and share what you have done, you can leave a comment with a photo in it below, or why not post on Facebook or share with us on Twitter. Some typical dishes are mentioned above but there are many more.

We have produced a mini passport for your child – you can download the page from the UK here it comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish. There is also a place-mat that your child can colour, draw a picture of the dish and then either cover with Sticky Back Plastic (contact paper) or laminate – go here to download it.

If you want you can make a craft related to the country – check back in the week for our UK craft we would love to see you link up that as well (but it’s completely optional the main thing is the dish). Read a book – we’ve got some recommendations coming in the week – why not combine you book, cooking and craft all in one.

We love sharing and will be posting to Pinterest and sharing some of our favourites on facebook and twitter as the month goes on. We also love you sharing with us so please link up your dish to the linky below (if you also have a craft, book or activity then please link that as well but first link up your dish). Check out our pinterest boards for Around the world in 12 dishes food and Around the world in 12 dishes crafts.

If you are joining in the linky please leave either grab our badge or leave a text link back to the blog and we’ll be along to see what you’ve been up to.