Queen of Hearts jam tarts recipe

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Butter or grease a multi-hole tart tin

First, make the pastry. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the butter and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

Use a knife to mix in 1-2 tbsp of cold water, a little at a time, stirring with the knife until the mixture comes together and you can form a ball with your hands. Wrap the pastry in a piece of cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes – this will make it easier to roll out

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out to a 3-5mm thickness, dusting your work surface and rolling pin with flour to prevent sticking. Dip your biscuit cutter in flour then cut out as many circles as you can – you may need to gather the bits of pastry up and roll them out again to make 12 circles. Make sure you leave a little of the pastry scraps for the heart shaped pastry lids

Once you have the desired amount of pastry cases, roll out the pastry scraps and cut out the required amount of hearts, using a mini heart shaped biscuit/cookie cutter

Lay the rounds of pastry in the greased tart tin and press them gently into place. Prick the base of each tart once with a fork

Carefully put 1 heaped teaspoon of jam into each tart, top them off with a pastry heart and bake for 10-12 minutes

Leave the tarts to cool for a few minutes then use a palette knife to gently lift the tarts out of the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Arrange them on an attractive serving plate and sprinkle with caster sugar