Fruit Mince (Tart Filling)

Each year on December 1st I put up my Christmas tree, it's the day we did it as kids and its the day I do it now. To keep boyfriend happy as I agonize over the placement of each single tree decoration, I set him up with eggnog and fruit mince pies. 

That brings me to this recipe today, If I want to make fruit mince pies next weekend I had to start the fruit mince now, so the flavours have time to make friends and get all delicious. I find one week is long enough for the fruit mince to do its thing but feel free to leave it longer if you like. 

Sometimes I think fruit mince can be pretty boring, just raisins, sultanas and other things that make people (Me) screw their noses up and poke their tongues out. Wanting to make a mixture I'd actually like I added a few fun things like dried apricots, cranberries and spiced rum for that extra bit of special.

Stop by same time next week for the Mince Tart Recipe using this yummy homemade fruit mixture!

For the Fruit Mince 

2 1/2 cups mix fruit (mine had sultanas, raisins, currents and mixed peel)

1/4 cup dried apricots

1 cup dried cranberries (craisins)

1/2 cup red glace cherries

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 cup orange marmalade

4 tablespoons spiced rum

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Finely chop up all the fruits and the almonds.

 Add all the ingredients together in a large bowl and mix together well.

Spoon the fruit mince mixture into an airtight container, store in the fridge for at least one week stirring occasionally.

Spider Tarts (Mint Chocolate Tarts)

Oh no spiders have invaded my chocolate tarts! Don't be afraid, the outside might be scary but the inside is sweet. Just brush off the spiders and take a bite and you'll find these spooky tarts taste just like a mint slice cookie, which happen to be a favourite of mine.

These mint tarts will make a perfect Halloween dessert, or change the decorations and have them anytime. They are pretty easy to make and look a bit fancy with their glossy dark chocolate ganache tops.

Under the top layer of ganache hides my favourite part, the layer of spooky/sweet green white chocolate ganache is so yummy flavoured with peppermint. Served with a glass of milk/ spider venom these might just be my new number one dessert.

Mint Slice Spider Tarts  (full recipe at end of post)

For the Chocolate Base
125 grams plain flour
30 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
70 grams cold butter (cubed)
1 egg yolk
2-3 teaspoons cold water

For the White Chocolate Mint Ganache
150 grams white chocolate
75 mls cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint essence
a few drops green food colouring

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache
150 grams dark chocolate
125 mls cream

1/3 cup white chocolate melts
plastic spiders to decorate

To make the tart base-  Add the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter into a food processor, process until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and cold water and process until you have a smooth dough.

Press the dough into a disk and wrap in cling wrap, place into the fridge to chill for 10 minutes. Grease five mini fluted tart tins with butter.

Divide the dough into 5 portions, roll each ball of dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to about 1/2 cm thick. Line the prepared tart tins with the rolled dough and trim off the edges.

Chill the lined tart tins in the fridge for 15 minutes and preheat oven to 180 degrees c. Cover the uncooked pastry with baking paper and fill with dried rice or baking weights  Bake the tart bases for 10 minutes, remove the weights and paper and return to the oven for another 10 minutes until cooked through.  Allow to cool and prepare mint ganache.

To make the mint ganache- finely chop the white chocolate and add to a medium bowl.

Add the cream to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Once the chocolate looks melted, after about a minute, stir until smooth. Stir in the mint flavouring and green colour.

Pour the green ganache into the cooled pastry shells and allow to set in the fridge for about 1 hour. (I was impatient and sped things up in the freezer, it worked out fine but keep an eye on it.) Toward the end of the hour make the dark chocolate ganache.

To make the dark chocolate ganache- finely chop the dark chocolate and add to a medium bowl.

Add the cream to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Allow to sit for a minute and then stir until smooth.

Pour the chocolate ganache over the green ganache and allow to set in the fridge for 2 hours.

For the spider webs- add the white chocolate melts to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate 20 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted. Pour the chocolate into a fine tipped piping bag. Pipe a spider web on top of each of the tarts and finish with a plastic spider.

Enjoy!!

Mint Slice Spider Tarts makes 5 ( Based on recipe from Good Taste)

Chocolate Pastry Base
125 grams plain flour
30 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
70 grams cold butter (cubed)
1 egg yolk
2-3 teaspoons cold water

• Add flour, sugar, cocoa and butter into a food processor, process until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. 
• Add the egg yolk and cold water and process until you have a smooth dough.
• Press dough into a disk and wrap in cling wrap, chill in fridge for 10 minutes. 
• Grease five mini fluted tart tins with butter.
• Divide the dough into 5 portions, roll each ball of dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to about 1/2 cm thick. 
• Line the prepared tins with the rolled dough and trim edges.
• Chill the lined tart tins in the fridge for 15 minutes, preheat oven to 180 degrees c. 
• Cover the uncooked pastry with baking paper, fill with dried rice or baking weights.
•  Bake 10 minutes, remove the weights and paper and return to the oven for another 10 minutes until cooked through.  
• Allow to cool and prepare mint ganache.

White Chocolate Mint Ganache
150 grams white chocolate
75 mls cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint essence
a few drops green food colouring

•  Finely chop the white chocolate and add to a medium bowl.
• Add the cream to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate.
•  Allow chocolate to melt for a minute, stir until smooth. 
• Stir in the mint flavouring and green colour.
• Pour the green ganache into the cooled pastry shells, set in the fridge for about 1 hour. 
• Toward the end of the hour make the dark chocolate ganache.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
150 grams dark chocolate
125 mls cream

• Finely chop the dark chocolate and add to a medium bowl.
• Add the cream to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate.
• Allow to sit for a minute and then stir until smooth.
• Pour the chocolate ganache over the green ganache and set in the fridge for 2 hours

Spider Webs
1/3 cup white chocolate melts
plastic spiders to decorate

•  Add the white chocolate melts to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate 20 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted. 
• Pour the chocolate into a fine tipped piping bag. Pipe a spider web on top of each of the tarts. 
• Top with a plastic spider.

Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of boyfriends favorite sweets, these were a special request from him. I think he was expecting a big pie all to himself so was probably a bit disappointed at the miniature size of these little tarts, but they were yummy all the same. Personally I loved the smaller size of these mini lemon meringue tarts, I really enjoyed the higher crust to filling ratio and to be honest am a sucker for anything in miniature.

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup caster sugar

125 grams cold butter (roughly chopped)

1 egg yolk

Lemon Filling

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

2/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoon lemon zest (finely grated)

75 grams butter (roughly chopped)

2 egg yolks

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

To make the pastry- add the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolk in the bowl of a food pocessor, process until all the ingredients are combine and the dough comes together slightly.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly flowered surface and give it a bit of a knead until sooth. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and place in the fridge for half and hour before using.

To make the tarts- lightly grease a 12 hole cupcake/muffin pan with butter and preheat oven to 200 degrees c. Roll out the chilled pastry dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick .

Cut out 12 8cm circles from the dough, re-rolling as needed. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake pan and prick the base and sides with a fork.

Place the tart bases in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans. While the bases are cooling make the filling.

To make the Filling- add the sugar and cornflour to a small saucepan, stir in the lemon juice and the water.

Continue stirring over a medium heat until the mixture boils and gets thicker, turn the heat down to low and continue stiring the simmering mixture for a minute. Take the pan off the heat and quickly stir in the egg yolks, butter and lemon zest. Set the lemon filling aside for 10 minutes to cool.

Spoon the lemon filling evenly between the cooled pastry cases then place in the fridge to set for about one hour.

To make the Meringue- preheat the oven to 240 degrees c. With an electric mixer beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form soft peaks. Gradually add the in the sugar, continue beating until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture forms firm peaks. Spoon the meringue gently into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.

Roughen the surface of the filling on each tart with a fork, pipe a swirl of meringue onto the top of each tart. Bake the tarts for about 3 minutes, until the meringue is lightly golden.

Enjoy them, they're delicious!!