Joulutorttu Finnish Christmas Tart
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 25 minutes plus 45 minutes chilling time
Cooking time: 15+25 minutes
Serves: 8-10 people
For Jam
- 1 2/3 cup/300g/10.6ozs. pitted prunes
- 2/3 cup/165ml/5.6flozs water
- 1/2 cup/110g/3.9ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
For the tart & decoration
- 2 squares butter puff pastry, thawed in the fridge
- Egg wash (egg yolk mixed with 1 tablespoon water)
- Redcurrants (I used frozen ones for an frosty look)
- Icing or powdered sugar
Step 1 - Roughly chop the prunes and add to a saucepan with water and bring to a boil and simmer for 8 minutes or so until the prunes are very soft. Add the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and cook and mash to form a jammy paste. There should be no liquid left in the pan once it's done. Cool completely. This step can be done 1-2 weeks ahead of time and kept in the fridge.
Step 2 - Take a ruler and a knife and cut out 8 even sized triangles in the puff pastry. It will be much easier to deal with butter puff pastry if it is cold so pop it in the freezer for 5 minutes if it starts to get floppy. You should be able to get 6 triangles out of one 24x24cm/9.4x9.4inch square of puff pastry. Keep the extra scraps of pastry in the fridge for the decoration. Those of you in North America have crescent dough that is already cut into triangles so you can easily use that.
Step 3 - Take a small bowl or ramekin (around 10cm/4inches) and place it in the centre of a sheet of parchment. Place the triangles overlapping each other around this ramekin and then spoon the cooled jam around the ramekin. Remove the ramekin. Lift over the points of the triangles and around the filling and tuck them under the centre. Place in the fridge for 45 minutes to chill completely. Meanwhile make the decorations using small leaf cutters and roll small balls for drupes or berries. Keep everything chilled. Preheat oven to 200C/400F around 10 minutes before you want to bake it.
Step 4 - Brush the tart with eggwash and affix the decorations on top of the pastry and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool a little and decorate with icing sugar and redcurrants.