Last Updated on November 14, 2020 by HodgePodgeDays
For about 11 months of the year I don’t really do much baking; then December starts and I’m elbow deep in flour. I actually love it, I make the usual mince pies and shortbread, hubs makes the cakes and because we’re a bit rubbish we always buy a Christmas pudding. I’m always on the look out for really, really easy, but fairly impressive looking and tasting things to add to my festive baking repertoire. This year I’m firmly sold on Joulutorttu, a sort of festive Finnish jam tart.
Traditionally the Joulutorttu is made with puff pastry and a special Finnish prune jam. We don’t tend to have prune jam in the cupboard; but I had a jar of Mackays Christmas Preserve. I thought this would make a good substitute. Of course if you have prune jam at hand you could use that, but this delicious Christmas preserve is packed with berries, made with mulled wine and lends a particularly merry feel to the Christmassy tarts.
Easy Joulutorttu (Finnish Jam Tarts)
You will need:
One packet of ready made puff pastry (or make your own if you’re clever)
One jar of Mackays Christmas Preserve with Mulled Wine
A splash of milk for brushing
Butter for buttering your baking tray
To make:
Butter your baking tray.
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees.
Unroll your sheet of puff pastry, cut it into squares approx 3 inches square (my sheet cut into 15 squares).
Take a square and put a teaspoon of jam in the middle. Cut each corner to the middle and fold one corner of each triangle into the middle to make a windmill shape (trust me, this is much easier than it sounds, the picture probably explains it better).
With a pastry brush, brush the windmills with milk and pop into a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the Joulutorttu are golden and puffy.
Once cooked, leave to cool, this is very important as the jam will be super heated. To serve, dust with icing sugar, they would be especially excellent with a good cup of coffee and best enjoyed whilst wearing a Scandinavian style jumper.
These Joulutorttu are pretty much as easy as baking gets. They’re a great store cupboard treat to whip up with no notice when festive visitors just happen to pop in. They’re crunchy, sweet and full of star-shaped Christmas joy.
yum they look lovely 🙂 will make these with my homemade jam, z and hubs will love them x
Oooh these look lovely! And wonderfully easy 🙂 Will bookmark these for future Xmas baking x
Wow they look delicious. We do lots of festive baking so will have to try. I’ve just launched a festive blog link up #festivefriday and this post would make for a fabulous addition if you wanted to join us. The jam sounds lush too!
I just pinned this for later. Looks amazing. I will have to try it out! Perfect for the holidays too! Thank you. #sharefriday
Mmmmmmm this is right up my street and I am now on the lookout for Christmas jam yay I could bulk buy and have it all year 🙂
Looks really simple and tastylicious!!
Oh they look so pretty! I’m like you and only really bake at Christmas. I’m rubbish at it really but my christmas cake always turns out well! x x
I love the look of these! I wish I could pronounce the name though…
I’ll definitely try these with with jam preserve, as it is my favourite
#recipeoftheweek
Love a jam tart! This looks like a stunner! #recipeoftheweek
Perfect, I have everything to hand!
Excellent, they’re really quite impressive looking but really easy. Let me know how you get on 🙂