These Puff Pastry Jam Tarts are an incredibly easy dessert recipe made with just 4 ingredients. They’re so simply made and are baked until golden and crispy with flaky layers. Great for an easy dessert to serve a crowd (such as on the holidays) or as a small breakfast treat.
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Ingredients
A few simple ingredients are used to make these little jam tarts.
- Puff pastry sheets: store-bought puff pastry is a superhero. Make sure to defrost it before using it. I like the brands Pepperidge Farm and DuFour.
- Fruit jam: just use your favorite jam! I love berry jam, so I used mixed berry jam on half and raspberry jam on the other half.
- Egg: one egg is whisked up to make an egg wash that gets brushed on the edges of the puff pastry to make sure it gets golden brown. I always like to buy pasture raised eggs as they are the most nutritious and rich in color.
- Coarse sugar: a little turbinado sugar or raw coarse sugar is sprinkled on top of the egg wash for a nice crunch.
Step by step instructions
These little puff pastry jam tarts just take a few minutes to prep, and then are hands off in the oven after that. See below in the recipe card for the full recipe with ingredient quantities.
Roll and cut the dough. Roll out the puff pastry dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thin. Slice into 12 squares and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Score the squares. Take a sharp knife and run it along the edges of the squares not cutting all the way through, leaving a ½ inch border.
Add the jam. Spoon 1 teaspoon of jam into the center of each pastry square and spread out to the scored mark.
Fold the pastry. Take two corners of the puff pastry and pinch them together, then fold over to flatten.
Add egg wash and sugar. Make an egg wash by whisking the egg in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of the egg wash on the outside of each folded puff pastry piece, then sprinkle on coarse sugar.
Bake. Put in a preheated oven at 425°F and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until deeply golden brown.
Recipe variations
- Try a different flavor of jam: try apricot jam, blueberry jam, or strawberry jam.
- You can even make these savory tarts with bacon jam, tomato jam, or onion jam.
- Instead of sprinkling with coarse sugar before baking, you could drizzle icing sugar or sprinkle plain powdered sugar on top after they’re baked.
- To make icing sugar – mix powdered sugar and a little bit of heavy cream or whole milk until you get your preferred consistency. Generally 1 cup of sugar to a few tablespoon of liquid.
Tips and tricks
These easy jam tarts should give you no problems, but some tips and tricks below to help out:
- To defrost puff pastry: either put it in the fridge overnight, or leave it on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Don’t leave your puff pastry out at room temperature for too long because the butter will melt and it won’t puff up as much.
- Don’t use more than a teaspoon of jam! It’ll be too much jam and overflow out of the puff pastry once baked.
- Try making homemade jam with fresh or frozen fruit.
- Make sure your oven is at the right temperature before baking to ensure a crispy bottom and proper puffy rise.
- You can really cut the puff pastry into any shape you want. You also don't have to fold and pinch the edges, you can leave them as is and they'll bake up as squares.
Storage
Storage of these little jam tartlets is pretty simple:
- Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes until warmed through.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
- Freeze them by letting them come to room temperature and storing in a freezer safe bag for up to 3 months. Reheat in a 350°F oven for 10-15 minutes until warmed through.
What to serve with puff pastry jam tarts
- If you’re having for dessert: serve with some ice cream, a cup of coffee, and a warm slice of coffee cake.
- If you’re having for breakfast: serve with some fresh fruit, a delicious latte, and eggs.
FAQs
Jam is made with the whole fruit, whereas jelly is made with just fruit juice.
It’s basically sugar before it gets ground up finely and processed. Usually brown, it’s rich in molasses flavor. The most common are Turbinado, Demerara, and Sugar in the Raw.
Most are not, but you can make your own.
Pepperidge farm puff pastry is dairy free (it’s actually considered vegan), but some brands are made with butter, so be sure to check if you need dairy free.
More puff pastry dessert recipes
📖 Recipe
Puff Pastry Jam Tarts
Ingredients
- 1 puff pastry sheet
- ¼ cup fruit/berry jam
- 1 tablespoon coarse raw sugar turbinado, demerara, Sugar in the Raw
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Roll out the puff pastry dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thin. Slice into 12 squares and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Score the puff pastry – Take a sharp knife and run it along the edges of the squares not cutting all the way through, leaving a ½ inch border.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon of jam into the center of each pastry square and spread out to the scored mark.
- Take two corners of the puff pastry and pinch them together, then fold over to flatten.
- Make an egg wash by whisking the egg in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush a thin layer of the egg wash on the outside of each folded puff pastry piece, then sprinkle on coarse sugar.
- Put in a preheated oven at 425°F and bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until deeply golden brown.
Video
Notes
- To defrost puff pastry: either put it in the fridge overnight, or leave it on the counter at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Don’t leave your puff pastry out at room temperature for too long because the butter will melt and it won’t puff up as much.
- Don’t use more than a teaspoon of jam! It’ll be too much jam and overflow out of the puff pastry once baked.
- Try making homemade jam with fresh or frozen fruit.
- Make sure your oven is at the right temperature before baking to ensure a crispy bottom and proper puffy rise.
- You can really cut the puff pastry into any shape you want. You also don't have to fold and pinch the edges, you can leave them as is and they'll bake up as squares.
Bethany says
That was fun! Admittedly, my puff pastry was a bit freezer burned but I managed to roll it out. I could not get my puff pastry to stay together by folding the edges and pinching as you had shown. So I simply overlapped the corners and used a dab of water to get the dough to stick together. This turned better and 90% stayed put through baking. I didn't have fancy sugar but regular granulated worked fine too. I got a bit creative in that I created a small amount of cream cheese filling (1/4 cup cream cheese, 1T sugar, 1tsp of egg from the egg wash) and added about 1/2tsp dollop along with my jam (I used blueberry). Oooo that definitely upped it a notch.
Haley says
I'm so glad you liked them and love the little spin you did!
Taylor says
These were so good! Easy to make too. A couple of mine came undone and baked into misshapen squares and a couple others I think I didn’t score correctly because they puffed up massively. Regardless, they all came out delicious. Added cream cheese to a few of them as well. Will definitely make again.
Haley says
So glad you loved them despite a few little mishaps!
Jill says
Just made these using raspberry and blue berry jelly with about 1/4 tsp whipped cream cheese, using Jel-Rol puff pastry. I got 12 large tarts. Delicious!
Haley says
Yay, glad you enjoyed! Thanks for leaving a review.