Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Fruit mince tarts
A fact about me- Up until a year or two ago I thought fruit mince pies contained fruit and minced meat, gross. It was boyfriend who finally taught me the truth about fruit mince tarts, oh how very silly I have been. In an attempt to get said boyfriend excited about Christmas time I made him some fruit mince tarts. My plan didn’t really work but at least they were yummy.
I was short on time and ingredients so used a ready made fruit mince instead of making my own. I was impressed with the store bought filling, I added a little bit of vanilla extract and cinnamon but the fruit mince is tasty enough on its own.
For the pastry-
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup icing sugar
150 grams butter, chopped
1 egg, separated
1 tablespoon cold water
1 Tablespoon white sugar
To make the pastry- in a bowl, rub together flour, icing sugar and butter until mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add water and egg yolk and mix together to form a soft dough.
Cover with cling wrap and chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.
To make the Pies- preheat oven to 180 degrees c. lightly grease a standard size muffin tray.
Roll the pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick.
using a circle cutters cut out 10 larger circles for the bases and 10 smaller circles for the tops. Re-roll the remaining pastry and cut out a star for the top of each tart.
Gently press the pastry into the muffin pans.
Fill each tart with a heaped a heaped tablespoon of fruit mince filling.
Lightly brush the edges on the pastry with egg white. Cover each tart with a pastry top, gently pressing together at the edges.
Brush the top of each tart with egg white, place a pastry star on top of each tart and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Bake tarts for about 25 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked and just golden.
Cool the tarts in the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a tray to cool completely.
Long ago mince pies did contain meat, hence the name, thankfully those days are long gone. Your mince pies look brilliant can't believe they didn't get hubby in the Christmas spirit. x
ReplyDeleteThese are adorable, especially with the little heart cutout! Love them. And why on Earth is your boyfriend not excited about Christmas?! All the upcoming holiday goodies should remedy that ;)
ReplyDeleteWith yummy Christmas baking, you can't help but get into Christmas. I bake a new CHrsitmas cake or biscuit each week to get us into the celebrations- fruit mince pies will be on my list for next year! Thanks
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Those are so cute! Bet they taste good too!
ReplyDeleteThese look so good!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog! I awarded you the Stylish Blogger award http://sugarcookieart.blogspot.com/2010/12/stylish-blog-award.html
Congrats!!
You're not alone - I thought they had mince meat in them too! Apparently in ancient times they did. Really glad that changed :)
ReplyDeleteNice to know that the jar fruit mince is still great quality. Helpful when you're in a Christmas pickle!