Steps

• Prepare the pastry by working all the ingredients in a bowl until you get a small dough ball.

  👉 With the ingredients of this recipe, you get a small tart corresponding to half a standard tart. Alternatively: prepare a ‘normal’ shortcrust pastry (in this case oil-based, but you can choose any shortcrust pastries on the blog) and then divide the dough in two (and cook half of it at a time).

  

• Roll out the pastry directly on the bottom of the perforated basket, which is non-stick, or lined with parchment paper.

  😉 If you have the specific perforated parchment paper for the air fryer, great, otherwise using normal parchment paper and perforating it manually (as I did, simply using a toothpick, but I know for a fact that some are more meticulous than me and perforate it with a hole punch):

  

• ☝ I recommend not leaving the tips of the parchment paper too high because if they touch the heating element, they will catch fire.

  As for all tarts, complete the edge with a pastry cord:

  

• Add the jam. I used about 150 grams.

  

• And then decorate with classic strips, or with cords, or with decorations made with cookie cutters, according to your imagination.

  For example, like this:

  

• Or like this.

  (“ciao” writing aside, the squiggles were supposed to be streamers 😄 but I had little dough left… after all, sometimes it’s the thought that counts! right?)

  

• Cook the tart in the air fryer, initially setting it to 392°F.

  After 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 356°F.

  Continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

  Towards the end of the time (the last 3-4 minutes), open and check the tart and, if necessary, lower the temperature to 320°F.

  Let the tart cool on the rack (but removed from the basket to better disperse heat) (it’s better not to risk breaking it while it’s hot), then remove it.

  
• 

• This one in the following photo was the very first test I did of cooking tart in the air fryer. It looks coarse because, being intended only as a test, I had rolled it out with my hands. The jam is so red not due to excess saturation of the photo but is naturally so: it is my homemade wild plum jam.

  

• This tart I made yesterday morning, with strawberry jam (packaged) and a CIAO dedicated to my daughter, who was on the train just as I was preparing the tart.

  Then as soon as Flavia arrived, we ate it all (even though it was still a bit warm).

  

• Finally, the trick:

  A crucial aspect of the air fryer is that getting the lower browning is quite unlikely. At least in basket-style models like the two air fryers I have had so far, the only ones I have personally tried (so far). Since the heating element is only on top, the tart is unlikely to brown underneath.

  Insisting by prolonging cooking is not useful as it risks overcooking the top of the tart.

  Here’s how the bottom of my ‘ciao’ tart from this morning looks. I assure you it was cooked, not browned as you are used to with a traditional oven, but cooked.

  

• If you don’t like it looking so light, if it wasn’t a jam tart, I would suggest turning the tart upside down for a few minutes, but it’s obvious that with jam, you can’t do that.

  With the first tart, I had done a test that turned out to be really effective, a real trick that I must reveal to you. 😉 Just heat the crepe plate, remove the tart from the fryer basket, and place it on the plate (or a non-stick pan) for a very short time, I’d say half a minute.

  I was so anxious not to mess up the test that I forgot to photograph this step. But I have the photo of the slice, which clearly shows the browning of the base.

  For me, it’s an optimal solution. If you try it, let me know!!

  Enjoy! 😋