JAM SQUARES
Also known as Hungarian tart. (makes an oven tray 37 x 27 x 5 cm inside dimensions)
- 250 g soft butter
- 1 cup sugar (I use castor sugar for baking as it creams quicker with butter)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 4 cups self raising flour (or cake flour + 4 teaspoons baking powder)
- 2 ml salt
- 1½ cups apricot jam (I used my homemade apricot and chilli jam, delicious)
- about 2 tablespoons cornstarch or custard powder for the crumb topping
Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and pale. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for a few minutes. Sift the flour and salt and add to the butter mixture. Beat until all flour incorporated. It will be quite dry and stiff. At this point I took the K- beater off my machine and just pressed the dough together by hand.
Press about ¾ of the dough into an oven tray that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Spread the jam evenly over the top. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the third leftover dough in the bowl and use the K-beater to mix to a crumbly consistency. Sprinkle the crumbs over the jam and press down lightly with your palm.
Bake for approximately 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven at 150°C. The top of crumbs must not really go brown. It will be a pale light colour.
Recipe and photo’s: Elsabie Templeton
