Italian Jam Tart Recipe
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This is a lovely homestyle Italian crostata recipe, a simple tart filled with jam.
This is a homey Italian grandma dessert, plain and simple.
The crust is a basic sweet dough (pasta frolla) easily made in a food processor and the filling is good-quality jam. I used wild blueberry in this one.
I had an Italian grandma – two, in fact – but I can’ t remember if either one ever baked a jam tart.
There wasn’t a tremendous amount of baking in their kitchens, come to think of it. There were so many traditional family bakeries in the neighborhood that I’m guessing sweets became something my nonnas delegated to the professionals.
There wasn’t a homemade crostata di marmellata, but there was almost always a brown bakery box tied with string sitting in the pantry or on the kitchen table.
While you wait for fresh summer fruit to be in season, jam tarts come to the rescue.
Try to use really good quality preserves, the kind with lots of visible fruit and not a ton of sugar. Hint — the fruit or berry flavoring the jam should be the first ingredient listed, followed soon after by sugar.
If you’re lucky to get your hands on homemade jam, this tart has your name on it.
Italian Jam Tart
Ingredients
Yield: One 9-inch tart
- 2 ⅓ cups (295 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (65 g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ (42 g) sticks, 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch cubes
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- ¼ cup (60 ml) whole milk
- 2 cups (680 g) good quality wild blueberry jam, or other thick fruit jam
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Pulse the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a food processor 3 or 4 times to blend. Scatter the butter over the flour and process until the mixture looks sandy and you can’t see any butter chunks.
- Whisk together the egg, yolk and milk. Add to the flour mixture and pulse a few times until the dough just begins to come together (but not until the mixture forms a ball over the blade which will toughen the dough). Add some ice water drop by drop if it seems dry. Remove the dough from the workbowl and knead it gently to form a ball. Flatten it into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator about 1 hour until firm but not hard. If the dough gets too cold and seems hard, leave it out for 15 minutes until it’s workable.
- Lightly dust the dough with flour and put it on a lightly floured surface (a smooth countertop is ideal). Slice off ⅓ of the dough and set it aside, covered loosely with a floured towel.
- Place the remaining 2/3 dough between two large pieces of lightly floured parchment paper or plastic wrap and roll out to a 12-inch diameter circle. Carefully peel off the parchment, roll the dough onto the rolling pin and unroll over a 9-inch tart pan. Press the dough into the pan and up the sides, trimming the top edges of the dough flush with the pan by running the rolling pin over the top.
- Spread the jam evenly over the tart.
To make the lattice:
- Roll the reserved 1/3 portion of the dough on a floured surface to 3/8-inch thickness. Cut into ½-inch wide strips with a fluted pastry cutter or small, sharp knife.
- Lay the strips in a diagonal lattice pattern over the tart, starting in the center with the longest piece, trimming if necessary. Pinch the dough where the edges meet around the diameter of the pan. Put the tart in the refrigerator and chill 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 (190 C) degrees. Bake 30 minutes, or until the lattice is golden brown and the jam is bubbling.
- Cool to room temperature before serving.
Nutrition per serving
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
I tried it and it turned out amazing. I think this is the best tart ever coz its crust is lovely.Thanks for sharing such recipe.
This looks delicious!
I have a general question… I noticed that some of your recipes use oil instead of butter. My nonne both do a lot of baking and neither of them use butter, ever. They only use oil. I am wondering if you think butter is a traditionally used Italian ingredient or not? I feel like it is “Western”/American but I’m not sure.
Hi Lisa, I do like to use olive oil in my recipes, but also butter when it’s appropriate. My thinking is that the use of olive oil instead of butter in Italian cooking is a regional, cultural thing. I know that northern parts of Italy are more conducive to pasturing cows than in the rugged south, so more dairy is used in the cuisine; in Emilia Romagna for instance. It’s my dream to spend lots of time in Italy “researching” traditional cooking – after that I’ll have a better answer!
I have heard that too, that in the North they use more dairy/cow products, like milk & butter, in their cooking and baking. My family is from mid-Italy so I guess that’s why they don’t use those ingredients. Researching cooking in Italy sounds amazing! 🙂
It may be a homey tart but it always looks so elegant to me with the pretty lattice top.
Che bella crostata! I’d say it would be perfect for an afternoon treat! As always, your photographs are perfection. Brava!
Beautiful crostata, your lattice top is perfection!