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