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.