Fruit MInce Tarts #christmas #traditions

With Christmas only weeks away, it is time to begin our  preparation of the traditional Christmas fare. In my last blog post I gave you the recipe for the fruit mince, and now we will make the beautiful tarts that everyone knows and loves.

Ingredients:

1kg Fruit Mince Filling, cold- check the recipe from our foods blog
350g Butter - diced into cubes and chilled
400g Plain Flour
120g Self Raising Flour
80g Ground Almond Meal (If allergic to nuts, you can replace with plain flour)
90g icing sugar
1 Egg Yolk + 1 Whole Egg
1/3 cup Iced Water
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Extra flour and icing sugar for rolling and dusting

Method:
 
Blend all flours, ground almond meal, salt, icing sugar in the food processor or rub through your fingers until mixtures resembles breadcrumbs.
Add both eggs and iced water, combine well till the mixture starts to come together.
Knead dough and wrap in plastic film. 
Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 180C.
Spray a 6/12 hole muffin tin, mini foil baking pans, or any large pie tins you like to use with oil.
Roll out a portion of the pastry till 2mm thick between two sheets of baking paper with some flour. 
Cut out shapes to fit the tins you choose. (I use a mini muffin pan but slightly deeper than normal) 
Fill each tart shell with 1-2 teaspoons of mince but do not overfill.
Cover the top of each tart with another circle of pastry or use cookie cutters to cut different shapes to decorate the top. If you cover tart completely with  pastry, pierce the pastry with a fork to let the steam out.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Extra time may be needed depending upon the size of the tin.

Cool for 5 minutes in the tin then remove and place on rack to cool.
Dust with icing sugar and keep into a plastic container. (Can keep up to 2 weeks or refrigerate for 1month.)
Makes 30 mini tarts depending on the baking trays/tins used.

 

Contact: lee.leehocklai@gmail.com

Fruit Mince #Christmas #fruitmincetarts

Christmas is synonymous with fruit mince tarts which are very popular for this joyous celebration. Today, you can purchase this product easily, but most of them are too sweet and jam like. Why not try to cook these delightful little parcels at home.  Make them to your own taste and wants by using any type of fruit, add/reduce the  sweetness, spices, etc.... Good fruit mince filling can keep up to 2 -3 months. In preserving bottles, it can be kept for over a year without opening. 
Fruit mince filling can be used for a variety of uses, not only for making Christmas fruit mince tarts

, but used to bake cookies, slices ...or simply serve with vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:

Part A:
 
1 kg Dried Mixed Fruit
1 kg Sultanas
1 kg Pitted Dried Dates
1/2  kg Dried Apricot
1/2  kg Dried Cranberries
250g Crystallised Ginger, chopped
Rind and juice from 2 oranges
3 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Honey
1 cup Brandy/ Whiskey*
1 cup Cointreau, orange liqueur*
1/2 cup sweet Sherry/ Port*
1/3 cup Mixed Ground  Spice
2 tablespoons Ground Ginger

Part B:

600g Red Apples
600g Green Apple
600g Pears
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1.5-2 cups Apple/ Pear Juice, no sugar added

3cm Cinnamon Stick
2 Star Anise

Method:

Chop dates, apricots and mixed fruit in food processor. Do not process until fruit is too small as the cooking process will break the it down.  If you do not have a food processor, chop the fruit with a knife.
Place all the chopped, dried fruit and remaining Ingredients A in a large bowl/pot, mix well , cover with a clean towel for 24 hours.
Peel apples and pears, dice into small pieces.

Cook with other Ingredients B in a large boiler on high heat for 30 minutes until soft.

Remove cinnamon stick and anise star.
Pour all ingredients A  into B, cook for another 20-30 minutes on low- medium heat.

Stir well several times to avoid burning the mixture onto the bottom of the boiler.

Cool and then place  into clean bottles or plastic containers. For best results, make the fruit mince filling one week early. Refrigerate, and use as required.

Hints:

• If you have preserving bottles, boil them for 10 minutes, dry with clean towel.

• Fill with hot fruit mince, fill to 95% full immediately.

• Screw lids on tightly and place  back into boiling water to cook for another 20-30 minutes (depending on the bottle size). The water must cover all the bottles when boiling them.

• Cool at room temperature and keep in a cool dark spot. The fruit mince will keep up to one year. 

Please keep check for our fruit mince productions in coming weeks.

• You can use any kind of wine/ liqueur. It not only adds a delightful flavour to the fruit mince, but also lengthens the storage time.