The Queen of Hearts, She Made Some Tarts …

Custard tarts, treacle tarts … in some old recipe books they are referred to as ‘pastry sweets’ because of the pastry base. Somewhere along the way they were also called biscuit slices too. I can remember marshmallow slice and chocolate-coconut slice from childhood school fetes.

Before there were friands and muffins, tarts and slices were the sweet treat to have with your cup of tea. The recipe below uses basic ingredients that most pantries would have had in stock, even in the leanest of times. My grandmother and mother made it frequently. Variety came from the different jams used, depending on what was around but my favourite has always been raspberry jam. It’s now a family favourite.

Jam Slice

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter
• 1/2c pure icing sugar
• 1/2c packed light brown sugar
• 1t vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2t baking powder
• 1/2t ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2c plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 3/4c jam – raspberry, strawberry … even marmalade
• 3/4c rolled oats

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Prepare a small, shallow baking pan or tart tin – grease and line with baking paper in the usual manner
3. Cream butter and sugars till light and fluffy
4. Add vanilla and egg, beating till smooth
5. Sift the baking powder, cinnamon, flour and salt
6. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mix and combine
7. Reserve 3/4c of the mixture, add the oats and set aside
8. Press rest of mixture into tin – make it an even thickness
9. Spread jam evenly over base
10. Crumble topping over jam, to cover – it doesn’t need to be smooth (see image)
11. Bake until golden – around 40 minutes, depending on your oven
12. When cool cut it into smallish squares, slices, wedges …

Tips

• Use castor sugar if you don’t have icing sugar
• Be generous with the jam
• Any baking container will work so long as it’s not too big – the pastry base should be at least 1cm thick
• If you don’t have oats, use crushed nuts such as walnuts or pecans
• Dust with icing sugar for a final flourish

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