April 6, 2021

GINGER AND COCONUT TARTS

 

This is another variation of one of my favourite Be-Ro book recipes.


They are called in the book "rich coconut tartlets" and are essentially jam tarts with a coconut topping.  My mum used to make them by the dozen most weekends.  The last time I wrote about them I had made a version using quince jelly which you can see here.  In that post I originally gave a link to the recipe on the Be-Ro website but, like so many links, it has disappeared!  It's so annoying to get all excited about baking something you've seen in a blog, only to find that when you look up the link all you get is "Error 404"!  


Comparing these to the quince ones it looks like there is much more topping.  That's probably down to using a large egg instead of a medium one.  The large free range eggs we now get are huge!!

I love the knobbly, rustic and home made look!

For these tarts I used Sainsbury's ginger preserve, a favourite jam that I like to have on toast.  I've also used the same jam to fill my pear and ginger upside down cake which you can see here.  (Robertson's make a ginger marmalade which would work nicely too.)  I finished each tart with a bit of crystallised ginger, popped on top before baking. 


This week's weather.


They are perfect for the current weather.  As I write this hail is falling and covering the ground like snow.  This day last week we were basking in 20°C and lighting the barbecue, thinking that this lockdown business is not so bad.  Such is the nature of April weather in Derbyshire, especially during the Easter school holidays!   April showers, I suppose!

Last week's weather - prior to the schools breaking up for Easter!!

Ingredients

100g shortcrust pastry - home made using 100g flour or shop bought

a few teaspoons of ginger jam or marmalade

50g soft margarine

50g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

50g dessicated coconut

12 pieces of crystallised ginger (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Grease a 12 hole patty tin.

Roll out the pastry and cut twelve 3" (7.5cm) circles using a fluted pastry cutter.  Gently press one circle into each hole and put about ½ tsp jam in the centre of each one.  (This doesn't sound much but any more will cause the jam to leak out and boil over when cooked.)

In a small bowl, beat together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg and the coconut.

Plop about 1 tsp of the coconut mixture on top of the jam in each tart, teeming and ladling until it's all used up and shared out evenly, and push the mixture to the edges of each one to seal in the jam.

Drop a piece of crystallised ginger into the centre of each one.

Bake for about 20 minutes until the coconut mixture is risen and golden.  Cool before serving as the jam will be very hot.

Makes 12 tarts.

6 comments:

  1. I'd forgotten about coconut tarts. Gran used to make them regularly using whatever jam was around. Like the idea of ginger in them.

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    1. Snowy, this recipe goes back to the very early Be-Ro books I think. I have a few old ones so will check.

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    2. I've found the recipe in the 21st edition but I'm not sure what date that was published. More research required!

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    3. Believe it or not, I have had a reply to the email I sent to Be-Ro asking for the publication dates of the Be-Ro books! It seems that the 21st edition dates back to 1958. The recipe was not in the 17th (1954) edition which I also have so this recipe therefore first appeared between 1954 and 1958. So now we know !!

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  2. The shortcrust jam tart definitely reminds me of what people baked at home when I was just a little thing. They always leaked jam. I like the idea of coconut and ginger in a tart a lot. As for the size of eggs, I used to try hard to find eggs that were large enough for whatever I was making but recently I've been trying to make sure that they're not too huge. Questions should be asked in parliament.

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    Replies
    1. Phil, you could ask, but don't expect the truth from our current leaders!

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