Two-Bite Jam Tarts: By Any Other Name
Jan 21st, 2009 by Marilyn
At the coffee shop the other day, Greg was looking for a slice of banana bread, like he always does. I glanced through the tiered pastry baskets – on top, pumpkin bread, zucchini bread. Bottom, sugar cookies.
“No banana.” I checked one more basket, and held something up. “Banana muffin?”
Greg took the muffin. Locally baked and individually wrapped, the sticker read:
BANANA BREAD
He turned it over a few times. “But… it says Banana Bread.” He looked at me. “It’s a muffin.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Technically, it’s the same thing, I mean, pretty much the same batter. Just a different shape.”
He was still turning it over. Oh, dear.
I looked to our friend Barista Girl, behind the counter. “I don’t know,” she said. “They’re just labeling them like that now.”
All three of us looked at the muffin-bread. I imagined a stream of banana bread lovers, weak from confusion.
“They shouldn’t do that,” she offered.
“No,” I said. “they shouldn’t mess with names like that. Muffin is muffin and bread is bread.”
We agreed. I mean, you can’t just change names. You can’t decide that stick is suddenly leaf or dog is now called table. There are rules about these things. Peoples’ heads will explode.
Back home I was baking, and thought, there are exceptions to the name thing, even delicious ones, like these Two-Bite Jam Tarts. Are they a cookie or a tart? They use Cream Cheese Dough, one I frequently roll into rugelach and other cookies. But, as I noted to Josie, they have little edges. They stand up and hold jam. And they’re flaky, too – all clearly pointing to tart.
Josie had a mouthful of crumbs and raspberry. “Cookie,” she said.
“Oh, no, tart. I think – see, see how it’s like a little galette, with the edges…”
In a flash there was cold milk, three more treats and she was gone, leaping two steps at a time. Name talk over.
“Whatever,” she threw down behind her, “they’re just good.”
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These mini tarts – I’m making the call here – are little gems. They tip the happiness scale because the easy-to-satisfaction ratio is so absurdly high. A one-step dough, simple rolling skills and a bit of jam are all you need to enjoy warm two-bite tarts. Flaky little cookies. Whatever you call them – they won’t last long.
Almost-done preserves and jams sitting around? This is their moment.
Ziplocs make handy disposable pastry bags: fill with jam, cut a small opening, and pipe about a teaspoon onto each circle.
Pull up and pinch edges all around jam, pinching and overlapping slightly to seal. No uniformity necessary – just pinch and have faith.
Optional pistachio version – for Greg the pistachio-lover, who just wants banana bread to look like banana bread.
Baked, and they’re sunny perfection – actually, imperfection. Just look at those nooks, those crannies, the lopsides and jam spills! Even my orderly self embraces their sweet mess. A sifting of powdered sugar, however…
…brings them right back to perfect.
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Two-Bite Jam Tarts
click me, I’m a printable recipe!
1 recipe Cream Cheese Dough (below)
Jam or Preserves, your choice – I like blackberry, raspberry and orange marmalade
pistachios or pecans, chopped (optional)
powdered sugar, for sprinkling
Dough: make Cream Cheese Dough as directed. After kneading lightly, cut dough in half. Wrap and reserve half for another use (snacking is good.)
Roll remaining half of dough on lightly floured surface to about 1/8″ thick. Using a medium-round fluted cutter – I use a 2 1/2″ round – cut circles from dough, re-rolling scraps and cutting circles until done.*
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Fill Tarts: line baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Transfer dough circles to baking sheet, fitting as many as you can – as you fill and pinch the tarts, you’ll have room for more.
Place jam (how much you have is up to you) in a ziploc bag. Keeping top open, twist tightly over jam and cut small opening at the tip. Hold tip facing upwards until you are ready to pipe! Standing over baking sheet, place tip just above one dough circle and release about one teaspoon of jam in center. Working quickly, repeat with remaining circles, changing jam as desired.
(alternately, you can spoon jam onto dough – but once you get the hang of piping, you’ll appreciate the speed)
Pinch Crusts: using both hands, pick up edges of dough circle and pinch together and upwards, working all the way around until complete, resembling a pie crust or raised bottlecap. Repeat with all mini-tarts until done.
Optional nuts: before baking, sprinkle finely chopped pistachios or pecans over tarts
Bake: bake tarts at 375 F for 15-18 minutes, until edges and bottom are lightly browned, and jam is bubbling. Remove from oven and cool slightly.
Serve: sift powdered sugar lightly over tarts, and serve. Or just…eat. Enjoy!
* with this flaky dough, a fluted round cutter will produce a raised pattern along the sides and create a terrific little “tart crust.”
makes about 30 two-bite tarts (or cookies. Your call.)
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Cream Cheese Dough (also found here)
8 oz cream cheese, cold
8 oz unsalted butter, cold
2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch salt
Place flour and salt in food processor and process a few seconds, to blend. Chunk butter and cream cheese in pieces over flour, then process, using on-off motion, until dough just forms a ball. Turn out onto floured surface and knead lightly into a smooth mass.
Roll, shape and bake into tart crusts, sweet turnovers, rugelach, and other cookies. Keeps several days wrapped in the refrigerator, and freezes well.
Yum! My friend Paul and I were just talking about my plans for my days off, and I told him that some of it would be spent in the kitchen. (He just explained to me how he cooks for the entire week in two days, an idea whose time has come in my life.) I’ll have to bake these, just for the fun of it.
Those look delicious and are definitely tarts not cookies but then I come from biscuit rather than cookie country. Which brings me to a question about the dough. I’m trying to convert to weights and have ended up with 8oz cream cheese, 8oz butter and only 7 and a bit oz flour. Is that true? It seems so very rich.
I see you didn’t take either of my fabulous suggestions. ;o) I vote tart. I vote delicious.
I say a ” tarkie”
tart + cookie = tarkie
Whatever you call them, those little tartlettes look delicious!
Can’t wait to make these. And I appreciate a recipe that suggests snacking on the leftover dough. I will certainly follow those directions!
I’m with Lydia — I think tartlettes describe them perfectly!
(and I’m with Greg — a muffin is a muffin and bread is bread!)
Hello, it’s my first time here and I am sold by your perfect and cute little tarts. I’ll be back for more.
Cheers,
Elra
What a perfect little treat! You know how everyone loves individually sized portions – they look so elegant.
They’re small, so I could eat several with morning coffee, right? And if I call them breakfast tarts, that’s even better.
These look yummy no matter what you call them. I’m so making these.
I say tart.
I thawed some of that dough out yesterday. I’m sooooo making these tonight. Thanks!
Can I mix the dough with a KitchenAid mixer instead of a food processor? Will I get the same consistentcy?
Just to be annoying: I believe you meant “a little gem” metaphorically; but I’m still going to mention that a gem is actually a small muffin (ah. the circle is complete.)
a rose by any other name…oh,hell…just give me a tart!! they look divine…I MUST make!!
These are spledidly adorable. Love combo of jams and cream cheese. Do you think I could use the kitchen aid to knead rather than by hand? Thanks for any insight. I’d like to try these.
These would make good inaugural treats. They’re full of hope, optimism, and all-around goodness.
We all get a little fussy about the naming of things.
Remember when Andy Rooney was on the Martha Stewart show making ice cream, and Martha added eggs to the ice cream and insisted on calling it ice cream. Andy Rooney suddenly became even more crotchety and informed Martha that adding eggs would make it a custard. Even though he was right, Martha wouldn’t agree with him.
My wife, who is a rancher’s daughter, gets upset when I use the term pickup truck. She claims that “pickup truck” is redundant, and then she claims that a pickup and truck are actually two different vehicles. On the ranch, I guess, a truck would refer to a big truck, like a grain truck, etc. On the other hand, a pickup is a smaller truck used for smaller errands. I still don’t get it.
However, I have learned not to use the term “cow” to refer to all cattle. I guess, all cows are female. This I understand quite well now.
I get upset when people refer to anything with a bbq sauce as bbq. I firmly believe that BBQ is a cooking method that involves cooking meat for an extensive period of time over a low heat. Just because you slather sauce on a hunk of meat doesn’t make it BBQ.
I guess, I shouldn’t have “yammered” so much. Anyway, these two-bite jam tarts look great.
A lot of delicious yammering here! Please note that this one is now a printable PDF recipe; just click on the link below the recipe title.
About mixing the Cream Cheese Dough in a KitchenAid:
I tested it today and yes, it’s fine – just follow the dough instructions in the printable version. A note about mixer vs. food processor: the food processor will cut the butter and cream cheese very finely into the dough, giving you maximum flakiness and height. The mixer beats it up a little more – it’s still tender and flaky, with just a few less layers.
If you do use a stand mixer for this dough and it gets a little soft and sticky, plastic-wrap it and chill to firm before you roll.
Know what? It’s good just about any which way, including made by hand, as seen on Renovation Therapy. Enjoy!
Great tips about using a mixer v. food processor. What I want to know is how you create the PDF link to your recipes? I have looked into doing that, but never found a direct answer so I guess I’m not technologically advanced enough to pull that one off (yet).
Stating the obvious here, but these tartlettes are gorgeous! In addition to eating them, I’d have those last two shots matted and framed and hanging in my kitchen. Beautiful.
The tarts are so lovely! Alice in Wonderland desserts!
So true, so true… In baking form is everything! What’s to keep me from calling the above two bite jam tookielettes hamantaschen? I know I don’t need to tell you. Besides, these little “bread muffin” Frankenstein abominations roll! They roll Marilyn! You know how I treasure my precious system at the shop and these muffins have messed up the displays entirely. Argh!
Thank you so much for your personal message regarding using the KitchenAid, Marilyn. I appreciate your thoughtfulness! The tarts turned out WONDERFULLY and my co-workers will flip tomorrow when I bring them in. Keep writing this stupendous blog – love it!
[...] on here before. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. I came across Marilyn’s “Two-Bite Jam Tarts” post the other day and I knew I had to try it out. I loved the cream cheese dough! It came out soft [...]
Great Scott! I’m in love…with your photos, recipe and the whole blog.
(So much for my sugar detox attempt) I love thumb print cookies, but these go to a whole new level!