Vegan Jam Crostata
Vegan jam crostata - this vegan verison of the classic Italian jam tart is easy to make with basic ingredients and tastes delicious! Sweet and fruity with a crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth texture, this crostata is perfect for dessert, a snack or even for breakfast!
Servings 8 people
Ingredients
- 300 g (2 ½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 100 g (½ cup) caster (superfine) sugar
- pinch salt
- finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
- 170 g (scant ¾ cup) vegan block butter cold and cubed
- about 3 Tablespoons cold non-dairy milk or water
- 300 g (10 oz) good quality jam
- non-dairy milk for brushing
Instructions
- Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and lemon zest in a large bowl and mix well.
- Add the cold, cubed butter and rub it in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and no lumps of butter remain.
- Gradually mix in enough cold milk or water to bring the pastry togther into a ball. Shape it into a disc, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, until the pastry is firm enough to roll out.
- Section off ¼ of the pastry and return it to the fridge. Roll out the rest of the pastry on a floured surface into a large round about ½ cm thick.
- Carefully transfer the pastry to an approx 25 cm/10 in round loose bottomed tart tin and gently press it into the corners of the tin. Trim off the excess pastry.
- Roll out the reserved pastry, along with any scraps. Use a pizza wheel, dough cutter or sharp knife to slice 10 strips of pastry.
- Fill the tart case with the jam. Lay 5 of the pastry strips spaced apart across the top in one direction.
- Lay the remaining 5 pastry strips on top, going in a different direction to form a lattice pattern.
- Trim the ends of the pastry strips then fold the edge of the base over the ends of the lattice, sealing them in.
- Place the crostata in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Gently brush the exposed pastry with milk then bake for 35-40 minutes until deep golden.
- Cool in the tin for 30 minutes then carefully remove the crostata from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup coversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!