Queen of Hearts Tarts

The Queen of Hearts
She made some tarts,
All on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts
He stole those tarts,
And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
And beat the knave full sore;
The Knave of Hearts
Brought back the tarts,
And vowed he’d steal no more.

Fictional food, foods or brands found in (or inspired by) fiction, is a genre that I have just recently discovered. I don’t have much time these days to spend hours immersed in a book so fictional food allows me the opportunity to still enjoy books albeit in a slightly different way.

I stumbled across this area of food through the Game of Thrones cookbook A Feast of Fire & Ice which has an accompanying food blog. One of the authors, Chelsea Monroe-Cassel, has website which explores a wide range of well researched and historically accurate fiction-inspired food. It’s an absolute treat if you’re a bit bookish, love cooking and old cookbooks. It’s so much fun!

My recipe today has been inspired by the classic nursery rhyme Queen of Hearts. I have always liked this rhyme; probably because it mentions food. The dough recipe is based on the Lemon Dough from the Blueberry Tart recipe I made recently from A Feast of Fire & Ice cookbook.

Queen of Hearts Tarts

1 1/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
pinch of salt
grated zest of 1 lemon
150g butter, chilled
1/2 tsp vanilla
juice of 1 small lemon
strawberry jam

Mix together the flour, sugar, cornflour, salt and lemon zest in a large bowl. Take the butter out of the fridge and, while it is still hard, grate it with a box grater. Toss the butter into the bowl with the dry ingredients to coat and then rub it in until the mix until it is crumbly. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and bring it together and form it into a flat disc; add a little extra water if necessary. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).

Roll out the dough in a large rectangular shape of even thickness. I find it is easiest to only use half the quantity of dough at a time and roll the dough between two pieces of baking paper.

I used two cutters – a large round cutter and a smaller heart shaped cutter. I cut the round shapes out first and then cut out heart shapes out of half of the rounds. I placed the heart round over the plain round disc. I filled the heart shape with one teaspoon of strawberry jam.

Bake until lightly golden; approximately 15 minutes. Cool, dust with a little icing sugar and serve.