Cooking and baking with grandchildren is a fantastic bonding experience and this recipe for happy hearts jam tarts is a sweet treat they’ll be happy to get stuck into.
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 15-20 mins
Ingredients
- 250g berries – strawberries, raspberries, blackberries… you choose!
- 150g brown rice flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 90ml water (70ml + 20ml)
- 70g dates
- 25g honey
- 15g chia seeds
- 10g milled flax seeds
Equipment:
- 12 hole cupcake tray
- Blender
- Measuring scales
- Small saucepan
- Big mixing bowl, small bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Spatula
- Rolling pin
- Circular and heart shaped pastry cutters
Allergens:
- Nuts (almonds
Method: happy hearts jam tarts
- Preheat the oven to 160c (170c if not fan assisted / gas mark 3)
- Soften the dates in 70ml of warm water – you could put them straight into your blender to save on washing up later!
- While the dates are softening make a ‘flax-egg’ by mixing the flax seeds with 20ml of water and leave to one side to set
- Next make your jam by gently heating and stirring your berries, chia seeds and honey in a saucepan over a low heat for 5 minutes until the berries have broken down. Top tip: use a potato masher to break them down if you need to!
- Now make your pastry by mixing the brown rice flour and ground almonds together in a large mixing bowl
- Whizz your dates (+ the water they were softening in) together until smooth and use a spatula to scrape it into your flour along with the flax egg you made in step 3
- Mix it all together and then use your hands to mix and knead the mixture for a few minutes until it becomes dough like
- Set aside 1/5th of the pastry to make the heart tops and roll the remainder out to make the bases which should be around 2-3mm thick. Use a 7-8cm round pastry cutter for the bases. You may need a spatula to help remove the bases from the work surface, or just dust your work surface and rolling pin with a little flour
- Place the bases into a greased 12 hole cupcake tray and add 1 heaped teaspoon of jam into each base until it is all used up
- Now roll the remaining pastry out to make your heart tops, pop one on each tart and then bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry starts to turn golden
Fun fact! This recipe contains fibre which helps our tummies produce the happy hormone serotonin!
You can find more recipes like this at Little Cooks Co or if you enjoyed happy hearts jam tarts take a look at our chocolate crispies.
About the Author / Helen Burgess
