Another Victorian-inspired recipe: rose petal jam tarts.

Rose petal jam tarts with vanilla gelato!
Sometimes it is fun to include unusual treats on your tea table. If you like to have garden party teas or tea picnics at public or private gardens, why not try including some floral ingredients in putting together your menu?

Rose petal jam can be purchased at specialty stores like Middle Eastern groceries, Whole Foods, and sometimes Trader Joe’s. It can be spread on cream scones, melted and drizzled on pound cake or fresh fruit, or incorporated into wonderful sweets like the tarts in the following recipe.


Rose Jam Tartlets with Cream Topping

1/2 recipe Pâte Brisée or pie crust
1 cup rose petal jam
1 egg
1 tbl orange zest
for topping:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup mascarpone
2-3 tbl sugar
1 tsp each orange flower water and rose water
1/4 cup finely chopped pistachios

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare the crust and fit it into mini-muffin cups or tartlette pans.
2. Stir together jam, egg, and orange zest and fill tartlettes. Bake 10-15 minutes, until set. Let cool thoroughly on a rack.
3. Meanwhile, use an electric mixer to beat together cream and mascarpone until they hold stiff peaks. Beat in the sugar, flower water, and two tablespoons of the pistachios. Before serving, dollop cream over tartlettes. Sprinkle the remaining two tablespoons pistachios over the top of the tartlettes.
-- from Desert Candy blog post "Morning of Roses"

The South Bay Ladies’ Tea Guild recently enjoyed a variation of the above recipe at their May meeting. The San Jose variation used frozen pie crust instead of homemade pate brisée, and lightened the rose petal jam with a bit of strawberry jam and farmer’s market fresh cherries. The recipe’s mascarpone cream toping with pistachios was replaced by purchased clotted cream, but vanilla gelato can also be used. This made a sweet, floral and fruity dessert, perfect for a spring or summer tea party!