Brown sugar tarts

In our house whenever I make something with pastry the excess always gets made into jam tarts; regardless of the pastry type, and they usually disappear in less time than they take to make.  This recipe will require its own pastry but you can use a pack of shop bought if that is your want. 
Last Sunday in the You magazine Tom Parker-Bowles printed a diary of what he had eaten for the week and one item that caught my eye was a brown sugar tart, something that I have never heard of.  I found a simple recipe on cooks.com but discovered that the filling mix made twice what I needed so I have adjusted it for here, this will make 12 -1 8.   Don't worry if you don't have enough filling for all your tarts cases, just make some jam tarts!

BROWN SUGAR TARTS

 

If you're making your own pastry keep it plain because the filling is very sweet.

Rub 4oz butter or marge into 8oz plain flour then bring to a dough with 3 tbsp. or so of cold water.  I whizzed mine up in a food processor in two minutes.  Knead briefly till smooth then wrap and chill for 30 minutes.  Roll it out and line your tart tin.  Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4

 

• 2oz butter
• 8oz brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

 

Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and blend well.  I did mine in the Kenwood and it came out as a very smooth paste like sponge before you add the flour.

Fill the tart cases half full then bake for 20 - 25 minutes till pastry is cooked and filling is as above.

 

WARNING - Remember how hot the jam is when you take jam tarts out of the oven, well this filling contains a lot of sugar too.  Let them cool down a bit.