Fruit mince tarts

Looking for a quick way to make your own fruit mince tarts? Here we show you how to make your own sweet pastry and do a nifty short-cut with some ready-made store-bought fruit mince. Shhh – promise we won’t tell. You only need half this pastry mix, so you can easily freeze the remainder for a lemon tart in a few weeks time. A shallow patty pan tray is also helpful.

QUICK FRUIT MINCE TARTS

Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 1 hr plus chilling time (another hour)
Makes: up to 30 tarts, depending on size

Ingredients

• 500g / 1lb of plain flour, sifted
• 250g of icing sugar mixture, sifted
• 190g of unsalted butter, soft
• 3 eggs, whisked
• 600g/20oz (1–2 jars) of McRobertson’s fruit mince

Method

1. Place the flour, icing sugar and butter and blend together to fine ‘breadcrumb’ texture. Alternatively, rub the butter into the flour and sugar mix to get the same consistency if you don’t have a food processor.
2. Add the eggs, and pulse until the mixture comes together. Same if you are hand mixing.
3. Place on a floured surface and knead into a flat rectangle shape.
4. Wrap with clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 160ºC / 375ºF / Gas mark 4.
6. After an hour, cut the dough in half and freeze one half.
7. Roll out remaining dough on a floured surface to about 3mm thickness.
8. Cut into 7cm/3″ rounds.
9. Place a round into the base of each of the patty pan places. Add a dollop of fruit mince into each.
10. Take six of the top rounds and cut some stars in each. Then alternate topping the fruit mince with either the stars or the cut outs.
11. Place the tray into the preheated oven, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. You may need to watch the first batch to ensure they don’t brown too fast. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
12. Repeat until all the remaining pastry has been used.
13. Once cool, package up as gifts, serve or place in an airtight container until ready to use.