Raspberry Vegan Jam Tarts (with Crisp Almond Pastry)

These fancy Vegan Jam Tarts are an extra special treat; with buttery almond pastry, tangy homemade raspberry jam and rich whipped chocolate cream to top. We cook the pastry and firm-set raspberry jam separately to give a neat finish, so there’s no risk of jam spillages in the oven!

These homemade raspberry vegan jam tarts have a buttery and crisp almond pastry filled with a firm-setting raspberry jam. We top our vegan jam tart with a whipped vegan chocolate cream that is rich and delicious, giving you a pretty vegan jam tart that is a delightful addition to any party!

The jam and pastry in this vegan jam tart recipe are cooked separately and then brought together so there is no risk of your jam boiling over in the oven and ruining the look of your jam tarts! We use both pectin and lemon juice to create a thick homemade jam that sets firmly in its pastry case in the fridge.

These beautifully neat raspberry jam tarts make a lovely gift for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and a loved one’s birthday, or serve them up for dessert after a special homemade dinner.

Read on for the step-by-step instructions to creating this perfect thick jam and the most beautifully crisp and delicious almond pastry.

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• The written recipe
• The video recipe
• Why you’ll love this recipe
• Success tips
• Step by step instructions
• FAQs
• Other incredible recipes like this one

As a child my mum used to make mini jam tarts that were packed with tangy berry flavour.  I’d forgotten all about those little gems until I tried the jam tart from Planta Maestra in Santiago (which you can read about here) and it has inspired me to create my own ‘grown up’ version of a vegan jam tart. I hope you enjoy it!

Why you’ll love these Raspberry Vegan Jam Tarts

A beautiful flavour combination. The combination of tangy raspberry jam, sweet almond pastry and rich chocolate cream is beautiful; these three flavours are made for each other!

Rich, buttery and crisp pastry. The almond shortcrust pastry used for these raspberry jam tarts is beautifully light and crisp, with a rich, buttery finish and a sweet nutty flavour. We use vegetable shortening in the recipe, along with ground almonds, to create a delicate, melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Easy homemade raspberry jam. We teach you how to make your own homemade, tangy raspberry jam from 4 ingredients within just a few minutes. It doesn’t need to be intimidating and we’ve intentionally created this jam recipe to be thick and set firmly in the raspberry jam tarts so they hold their shape when cut.

They’re not oven baked (so they stay neat and tidy!). Traditional jam tart recipes call for the jam to be oven baked into the pastry case, which can cause the jam to boil over the side of the pastry case in the oven. We’ve opted for a method where the pastry and jam are cooked separately before being brought together to set (no oven cooking required). This gives a much neater finish with no risk of the jam boiling over the edges of the pastry case in the oven and making a mess!

Top Tips

When making pastry, keep everything cold. 

One of the keys to good pastry is to keep your ingredients and your environment as cold as possible. Use the shortening and margarine straight from the fridge and use ice cold water to bring the dough together. Fully chill the dough before rolling it out on a lightly floured surface.

Don’t overwork the pastry dough. 

To keep the texture of your pastry as light as possible, don’t overwork or knead the dough. Handle the dough as little as possible.

Add just enough water to combine the pastry ingredients. 

You don’t want your dough to be too wet otherwise it’ll be difficult to roll out, so the key is to use just enough water to bring the ingredients together into a ball, but no more.

To get that almond flavour.

Ground almonds add a beautiful light texture to the pastry but you can’t add too much otherwise it will turn the pastry into more of a biscuit texture, therefore in order to bring the almond flavour out in the pastry I recommend adding 1 tsp of almond extract. This is optional so if you prefer not to have an almond flavour, you can skip this.

Boil the jam until it reaches a setting temperature. 

In order to create a jam that will set properly, it’s important to boil it until it reaches 105°C / 220°F. To test this, you can either use a sugar thermometer or put a tsp of the hot jam on to an ice cold plate – if it sets within a minute or two, it’s ready.

Keep your chocolate cream chilled. 

Our chocolate coconut cream makes the most beautiful topping for these raspberry jam tartlets. It’s optional but recommended! Use chilled coconut cream to make the whipped chocolate cream topping and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

Storing. 

Store these raspberry and almond jam tarts at room temperature without the chocolate cream, or in the fridge if they’re already decorated with the chocolate cream. Keep them in an airtight container.

How to make these Vegan Jam Tarts

Key Ingredients

• Icing sugar (powdered sugar in the USA)
• Granulated sugar – you can use caster sugar as a substitute
• Plain flour (pastry flour in the USA)
• Ground almonds
• Almond extract – optional for adding more almond flavour to the pastry.
• Vegetable shortening and vegan margarine – if you cannot get hold of vegetable shortening (’Trek’ in the UK) you can substitute the shortening and the margarine for vegan block butter. If you substitute one (shortening or margarine), make sure you substitute the other too (i.e. don’t use non-dairy butter and vegan margarine together).
• Raspberries – opt for good quality, organic and/or locally grown fruit if you can for the best flavour
• Lemon juice – we used bottled lemon juice but you can use fresh if you prefer
• Pectin – essential to set the jam to a consistency that is suitable for jam tarts
• Coconut milk – the full fat tinned variety (this must be chilled overnight in the fridge)
• Cocoa powder
• Vanilla extract

Equipment

For this recipe you’ll need:

• Individual tart pans (we used 10cm / 4” fluted metal tart tins with removable bases)
• Rolling pin
• Saucepan
• Sugar thermometer (recommended but not essential – if you don’t have one, you’ll need an ice-cold plate so pop one in the freezer)
• Electric hand mixer
• Mixing bowl

Steps

Make sure to head to the recipe card below for the full recipe and instructions.

Gather together your ingredients and weigh them out.

To make the chocolate cream

The chocolate cream is optional but a delicious addition. If you plan to include it, make it first so that it has time to chill. Here’s how you make it:

1. Chill the tin of coconut milk overnight in the refrigerator so that the cream on top sets to a hard consistency.
2. Scoop the thick white cream out of the tin into a mixing bowl. Add the vanilla, cocoa and icing sugar.
3. Whip the ingredients until it forms firm peaks (around 10 minutes). Cover the bowl and chill the whipped chocolate cream whilst you make the jam tarts.

To make the almond pastry

1. In a medium or large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients (flour, icing sugar, ground almonds) and, if you’re using it, the almond extract.

2. Add the cold vegetable shortening and margarine and rub briefly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add 1 tbsp cold water and bring the dough together into a smooth ball of dough.

   Tip: Handle the dough as little as possible.  Add a dash more water if you need to in order to bring the dough together.

   Note: You can use a food processor to make the pastry if you prefer. Add the ingredients (except the water) to the processor and blend briefly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and blend again before removing the dough from the processor and bringing it together into a ball by hand.

4. Wrap the ball of pastry in a reusable wrap or eco plastic wrap and chill the dough for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Don’t skip this step, the dough must be chilled.

5. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan (190°C conventional / 375°F / gas mark 5) and set aside six 10cm / 4″ non-stick individual tart baking tins with removable bases.

6. Roll the chilled pastry out to around 1/4cm thick (1/8”) on a lightly floured surface using a rolling pin.

7. Place the rolled out pastry over each tart pan. First gently press the pastry into the tart tin so that it fits neatly into the edges. Next, use a sharp knife to trim off any pastry that overhangs the top of the dish. Re-roll the pastry as necessary and repeat for the other tart tins.

   Tip: Use a ball of pastry wrapped in eco cling film to press the pastry down, to avoid tearing the dough.  Please see our recipe video for a visual guide.

8. Lightly prick the base of each pastry case with a fork. Bake the pastry cases for around 12 minutes until the pastry is just starting to colour and is cooked through. Once baked cool on a wire rack.

   Tip: Pricking the base of the pastry with a fork prevents it from rising or doming up in the middle during baking, thus you get a neater finish.

   Note: You don’t want the pastry to be too golden but equally you need to make sure that no darker damp/raw patches remain.

To make the raspberry fruit jam:

1. Add the raspberries, lemon juice and pectin to a saucepan. Cook for 5-10 minutes over a medium-hot heat, stirring often, until you get a full boil (one that cannot be stirred away).

2. Add the sugar and boil for a couple of minutes until the mixture reaches 105°C / 220°F.

   Tip: If you don’t have a thermometer, remove a teaspoon of the jam mixture from the pan and put it on an ice cold plate. If it starts to set to a gel-like consistency then it is done. If it still looks runny, keep boiling the jam for another few minutes before repeating the test.

3. Add the raspberry fruity jam to the baked pastry cases, cover the top with eco cling film to prevent a skin from forming and put in the fridge for 1 hour to cool and set.

To decorate

1. Once the vegan jam tarts have chilled and set, pipe a round or two of chocolate cream on top of the jam. Sprinkle with toasted flaked almonds and finely grated vegan white chocolate. Alternatively, you can serve with vegan ice cream!

FAQs

What pastry are jam tarts made from?

Jam tarts are typically made with shortcrust pastry. The pastry for our vegan jam tart is a vegan shortcrust pastry with the addition of ground almonds to add a bit of bite and structure, rather than have a pastry that is too soft.

Why do you poke the base of the jam tart with a fork before putting in the jam?

Poking the base of a pastry case of a jam tart with a fork before baking helps to prevent the pastry from rising or doming up in the middle during baking, thus you get a neater finish.

Can I use bottled lemon juice instead of fresh for jam?

Yes, we use bottled lemon juice to make the jam for our raspberry jam tartlets. You can use either bottled or fresh lemon juice.

How do you thicken jam for tarts?

We add both pectin and lemon juice to our homemade raspberry jam in order to thicken it ready for a vegan jam tart. We do not bake our jam into the almond pastry cases, therefore we opted for a jam recipe that is a firmer consistency (a little more like a jelly).

Could I use store-bought jam for this recipe?

We’ve developed the jam in this recipe specifically so that it sets firmly in the pastry case.  However, if you have a jar of store-bought or homemade jam that is set very firmly, you could probably use this.

We’d recommend warming the jam in a small saucepan on the hob to give it a pourable consistency, before pouring it into the homemade pastry shell and popping it in the fridge to set.  We don’t recommend using a soft set (easily spreadable) store-bought jam for this recipe.

How do you keep jam from boiling over in tarts?

This is a common concern.  For this recipe we’ve opted to make a firm-setting raspberry jam to fill our pre-baked pastry cases. This avoids the need to bake the raspberry jam tarts in the oven (so no messy jam spillages!).

Loved these Vegan Raspberry Jam Tarts? Here are some more delicious vegan sweet treats to try

• 5 Ingredient Chocolate Orange Fudge – Prepped in 5 minutes, this festive vegan treat is a breeze to make.
• Raspberry Triple Chocolate Bark – It’s as pretty as a picture and tastes just as good with rich dark chocolate, sweet white chocolate and raspberry chocolate swirls, topped with vibrant and tangy freeze dried raspberries.
• Tangy Lemon Cream Pies with Candied Coconut Flakes – A deliciously flaky coconut pastry case filled with a tangy, homemade lemon curd, topped with piped coconut cream and sprinkled with candied coconut flakes.

I hope you LOVE this recipe for Raspberry Vegan Jam Tarts! Please share this recipe with someone you think will enjoy it because it’s our goal to encourage as many people as possible to try plant based eating.

Also, don’t forget to tag @aveganvisit on social media when you make this recipe. I love seeing your re-creations! Enjoy 🙂 x

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