There is just something so irresistible about flaky pastry that is causes my mouth to water and eyes to pop.  Is it the crumbly shortcrust pastry that dissolves as it hits the tongue or light crunchy filo that has been soaked in sweet syrup or perhaps the flaky buttery puff pastry that is used commonly for savoury pies, parcels or sweet tarts?  All of the above, I say!  Whatever your choice, it is the joy of biting down through layers and the buttery flavour seep into your mouth that provides the kind of comfort that only pastry can give.

To take this one step further, what about if you have made that pastry yourself?  The very moment when you pull a freshly baked buttery treat from the oven and can say “I made it myself” is certainly a moment all of us “foodies” dream of.

When I whipped out my rough puff pastry recipe for the “cookbook” challenge last year, my lovely homecook testing the recipe may have struggled with the technique on the day, but her comments were “I can’t wait to get home and try this again and perfect it”. 

The secret to creating a buttery crisp puff pastry is all in the technique and what better way to learn than my step-by-step photo and recipe on my website.

Once you have mastered the art of rough puff pastry, turn it into my delicious lamb and pinenut sausage rolls or for an extra sweet treat, my raspberry jam tartlets below are sure to be a hit.

Raspberry Jam Tartlets

Ingredients
1 portion of rough puff pastry
200gm fresh (or frozen) raspberries
2 tbsp raspberry jam
2 eggs, whisked
Icing sugar, to dust
200ml thickened cream, whipped

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Roll out the pastry to 2-3mm thickness.  Using a cookie cutter or pie cutter, cut out your desired tart shape.  Using a smaller round cookie cutter make a round indentation (without cutting all the way through) to create a border to spread the jam and place the raspberries.  Use fork to prick inside the round.

Spread the jam inside the round and top with the raspberries and place on the baking tray.  Brush the edges with the egg.

Bake in the oven for 15-20mins or until puffed and golden.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with the whipped cream.

Handy Hint: Experiment with other fruits – try fig jam with finely sliced apples or passionfruit jam with sliced bananas.

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