Why are fruit mince tarts so polarising in Australia? It seems you’re either in the ‘I hate mince tarts’ camp or the ‘I love mince tarts’ camp. I’ve met very few Australians who sit on the fence in this regard.
But I’m a squarely in the ‘I love mince tarts’ camp!
My fruit mince origin story can be found in the intro to my homemade fruit mince recipe. I’ve been working on this recipe for over three decades and it’s the star of my Christmas fruit mince tarts recipe.
The supporting act is my flaky shortcrust pastry recipe, which coincidentally also originated from my Great Grandma Downs’ early 20th century recipe, which she brought to Canada from the UK.
I have been steadily chipping away at the mince tart naysayers, one home baked fruit mince tart at a time. Pretty much everyone I’ve persuaded to try my Christmas mincemeat tarts has come back asking for more and absolutely volunteering to take home any left over.
Read on for how to make fruit mince tarts.
Fruit mince tarts ingredients
The proportions for this fruit mince tart recipe will give you eight 9-10cm tart bases. You can add top crusts using the scraps of pastry but, to ensure you can make eight top crusts, I would recommend making 1½ batches of the pastry dough. I suppose they are then fruit mince pies not tarts!
You will need around 640g of my homemade fruit mince. That works out to 80g of filling for each tart.
If you make the top crusts, you’ll also need a couple of extra egg yolks to make an egg wash with a few drops of water or milk and a sprinkle of demerara sugar.
Fruit mince ingredients
My Christmas fruit mince tarts have no candied peel, as I am not a fan. The candied citrus peel is replaced with the zest and juice of whole lemons and oranges. Naturally dried fruits include raisins, sultanas, currants, dates and prunes. Whole raw almonds are a feature. And you don’t peel the granny smith apples. It’s low in added sugar as it relies on the natural sugar of the fruits. I believe you should use decent brandy in your homemade fruit mince and you can also swap in rum if you prefer.
And, while the fruit mince should mature in the fridge for a few weeks, in a pinch it can be ready to use within a week. You just want to feed it brandy every day and once the fruits plump up it can be incorporated into your Christmas bakes.
Full details of my method and proportions are available in my homemade fruit mince recipe.
Food processor shortcrust pastry recipe
My flaky shortcrust pastry has a food processor method. I’ve used a small food processor that has a 1.5 litre capacity to demonstrate this recipe. It can comfortably manage one batch of the pastry.
If you plan make 1 1/2 or 2 batches of dough, make the pastry in two batches when using a smaller food processor. But if you have a food processor with a strong motor and more than a 2 litre capacity you can manage a double batch in one go.
Plan ahead if possible
You can certainly make these Christmas mincemeat tarts from start to finish on the same day. But I recommend planning your bake and starting the recipe at least a day ahead of your baking day. This not only makes the entire process more relaxing, but chances are you will get a much better result in the end.
If you’re patient and use your fridge and freezer as described, this recipe will not fail to produce buttery flaky pastry that is not tough even if you re-roll it out a few times. Even on the hottest Australian summer day!
The keys to success are having the ingredients super cold (even frozen) before you start and returning the pastry dough to the fridge or freezer at each stage.
Make some space in the fridge and freezer!
My pastry routine starts with clearing space in my freezer (or fridge) to hold the measured ingredients, rolled out pastry dough, and the formed tarts at each stage. Then I measure out the butter and cube it into a sealed container and leave it in the freezer until needed. I also measure out the dry ingredients into another sealed container and put it in the freezer. If you have room, you can prechill the food processor bowl as well (you may just have room for the blade).
On the day I make the pastry dough, I mix together the egg, vinegar and water in a small measuring jug and leave it in the fridge until needed.
After forming the dough, it needs to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight. This is not just for the gluten to relax but to allow the liquid to evenly hydrate the flour and to get the butter firm again.
Following this initial rest, each time the dough is handled, rolled or shaped it goes back into the fridge. This will ensure a super flaky buttery shortcrust base to your brandied fruit mince tarts.
Process the butter and dry ingredients
In a 250ml measuring jug beat the egg, apple cider vinegar and enough iced water to make 135ml total fluid. Refrigerate until required.
Pulse the flour, sugar, salt and cream of tartar in the food processor a couple of times before adding the cubed chilled or frozen butter. The flour does not need to be sifted.
Start pulsing in short bursts to process the butter until it is between the size of a lentil and a small pea.
With the food processor running, stream in egg mix down the food processor shute and process until just combined. When the food processor engine starts to rumble, stop.
Scraping over kneading
Turn out the dough onto a clean kitchen bench. The dough will be crumbly, and you will probably want to add more water. Don’t add any more flour or water from this stage onwards. Don’t flour the bench.
I use a bench scraper, otherwise known as a pastry scraper, to gather and shape the dough. This prevents my warm hands from potentially starting to soften the butter.
Gather the dough together using the scraper. Still using the scraper, press the dough together and cut it in half. Then stack the halves on top of each other and press together. It will be a bit of a mess. Repeat this a couple times until the dough starts to be less crumbly and begins to form a dough.
Do not overwork the dough at this stage, it is perfectly fine to look a bit rough and crumbly.
Divide dough in half and shape each half into a rough rectangle, wrap in each rectangle in plastic wrap or put in a sealed container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out the dough. I usually refrigerate the dough overnight. The dough can also be frozen to be used later (before rolling defrost in the fridge overnight).
Optional tools for guaranteed rolling success
Tough dry pastry often occurs when the baker adds extra flour when rolling the dough. A reliable flaky crust is achieved by not using flour and rolling out the pastry between sheets of baking paper or two silicone mats. You’ll need two 40cm lengths of baking paper for each block of doug.
I highly recommend investing in four, or at least two, silicone mats as they will help you achieve excellent results in your baking, whether it be pastry or other bakes.
I find wielding a handled rolling pin difficult and like the control I have using a large fondant style rolling pin that’s made from Polyethylene. Mine is a 500mm Loyal rolling pin.
Rolling guides made me look good on TV!
I’m so hopeless at rolling anything out. I marvel at skilled bakers and professional pastry chefs who make it look easy. No matter how hard I tried in the past to roll out pastry evenly, mine was always thicker in the middle and thinner towards the edges.
A few years ago, when I was selected to go on the Great Australian Bake Off Season 6, I was in a panic about having my really bad rolling skills not only on television but judged!
Mid-panic I happened across some great rolling guides made by an Australian family business – Cutter Craft. The Cutter Craft acrylic rolling guides look like rulers and can be purchased in multiple depths. I generally use their 3mm guides to roll pastry. Most pastry chefs roll pastry to 2.5mm but that’s too thin for me to handle without a pastry disaster.
I used my Cutter Craft rolling guides on Bake Off anytime I was baking pastry or biscuits. And post show, I continue to use these guides anytime I need a precision roll.
There are also quite a few brands of rolling pins that come with some roller guides that you attach to each end of the pin to help you roll to an even depth. Cutter craft also stock these types of guides.
Back to rolling out the pastry dough…
Prepare one half of the dough at a time. Get one portion of dough from the fridge and let it rest for at least 10 minutes between the sheets of baking paper. I leave it to come to room temperature at this stage.
Roll the pastry between the sheets of the baking paper to 3mm. Turning a quarter turn between rolls. Do not use extra flour.
Refrigerate the rolled dough on a biscuit sheet, leaving the baking paper in place, for 30 minutes or until firm.
Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Keep any scraps of dough to reroll if you need to cut circles or want to bake some shapes for decoration. The shapes can be baked on top of the tarts or separately (brush with egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar).
Cutting out the tart bases
I make my fruit mince tarts in 9cm fluted not stick loose bottom mini tart pans. Texas muffin tins produce roughly the same sized tarts and you can follow the same method of assembling the tarts.
I use a round cookie cutter between 105 -110mm in diameter but you can easily use a saucer or other kitchen items as a template and cut out the shape with a paring knife or pastry roller.
Put some flour in a shallow bowl for coating the cookie cutter with flour before cutting out each base.
Remove one sheet of rolled dough from the fridge. You know it is firm enough if the baking paper or silicone mat comes away clean. If it pulls off some dough, it’s too soft. Leave it in the fridge until the paper/mat comes away clean.
Cut out 8 circles of dough. I return the dough to the fridge/freezer at this stage to firm up again before removing the cut outs from paper and shaping tarts.
Setting up your tarts for success
Work quickly to shape the tart shells, trying not to stretch the dough as you go.
Place a circle of chilled dough on top of the tart pan and gently press in, being sure to press into the corners of the pan.
Dock the bottom of the tart shell with a fork.
Spoon 80g of fruit mince into each tart shell. The filling should stop about 3mm from the top of the pastry. Gently press the filling into the sides of the tart shell and smooth the top.
Return assembled tarts to fridge for at least 30 minutes.
The tarts can be frozen at this stage and baked from frozen. This is my preferred method of baking these tarts.
Baking Christmas fruit mince tarts
Preheat oven to 180°C fan / 190°C conventional, with oven rack on the bottom rung. If baking across two racks, have both in the bottom half of the oven.
Place the individual tart pans on a low sided baking sheet to make it easier getting them in and out of the oven. I also line the pan with a silicone mat to keep my tarts from sliding around.
Bake at 180°C fan / 190°C conventional for 15 minutes.
Turn the temperature down to 160°C fan / 170°C conventional and continue baking for 30-35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Turn the baking sheets once or twice during the bake to achieve even browning. Swap between racks if using multiple racks.
Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature before removing tars from their pans. I use cooling racks.
A picture tells a thousand delicious words
It’s been three decades in the making but I think I’ve brought my Great Grandmother’s recipe out of the Victorian era of beef suet and candied peel into the 21st century. I hope you try the recipe and come to your own conclusion as to whether it is the best fruit mince tart recipe. I have quite a substantial number of ‘I hate mince tarts’ converts who claim it is!
Christmas Fruit Mince Tarts
Equipment
- Food processor (optional)
- 8 9-10cm fluted mini tart pans
- 2 Silicone mats (or baking paper)
- 2 Biscuit sheets
- Rolling Pin
- Rolling guides (optional)
- Bench scraper (optional)
- Round cookie cutter 105-10mm (optional)
- 250ml Measuring jug
Ingredients
Fruit mince:
- 640 g fruit mince - see Homemade Fruit Mince recipe
Pastry dough ingredients:
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 350 g all-purpose flour
- Pinch cream of tartar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons caster sugar
- iced water
Instructions
Preparing pastry dough:
- Assemble ingredients for dough.
- Cut butter into 1-2cm cubes and freeze.
- Add flour, salt, sugar and cream of tartar to food processor bowl, pulse a couple times.
- In a 250ml measuring jug beat egg, apple cider vinegar and enough iced water to make 135ml total fluid. Refrigerate until required.
- Add frozen butter to flour mix and process until butter is between the size of a lentil and a small pea.
- With the food processor running, stream in egg mix down the shute and process until just combined. When the food processor engine starts to rumble stop.
- Turn out the dough onto a clean kitchen bench. The dough will be crumbly.
- Gather the dough together using a bench scraper. Using the scraper, press the dough together and cut it in half. Then stack the halves on top of each other and press together. Repeat this a couple times until the dough starts to be less crumbly and form a dough.
- Do not overwork the dough at this stage, it can look a bit rough and crumbly.
- Divide dough in half and shape each half into a rough rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap or put in a sealed container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Rolling pastry:
- Assemble equipment and baking paper or silicone mats. You’ll need two 40cm lengths of baking paper for each block of dough.
- Let the dough rest between the sheets of baking paper, it can come to room temperature at this stage.
- Prepare one half of the pastry at a time.
- Roll the pastry between the sheets of the baking paper to 3mm. Turning a quarter turn between rolls. Do not use extra flour.
- Refrigerate the rolled dough on a biscuit sheet, leaving the baking paper in place, for 30 minutes or until firm.
- Repeat with the second half of the dough.
- Keep scraps of dough to reroll if you need to cut circles or want to bake some shapes for decoration. The shapes can be baked on top of the tarts or separately (brush with egg wash and sprinkle with demerara sugar).
Assembling tarts:
- Put some flour in a shallow bowl to dredge the cookie cutter in. Have your tart pans ready.
- Remove one sheet of rolled dough from the fridge. You know it is firm enough if the baking paper or silicone mat comes away clean. If it pulls off dough, leave it in the fridge until the paper/mat comes away clean.
- Cut out 8 circles of dough. I return the dough to the fridge/freezer at this stage to firm up again before removing from paper and shaping tarts.
- Work quickly to shape the tart shells, trying not to stretch the dough. Place a circle of dough on top of the tart pan and gently press in, being sure to press into the inner seam of the pan.
- Dock the bottom of the tart shell with a fork.
- Spoon 80g of fruit mince into each tart shell about 3mm from the top of the pastry. Gently press into the sides of the tart shell and smooth the top.
- Return assembled tarts to fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven 180°C fan / 190°C conventional, with oven rack on the bottom rung. Or, if using two racks, both in the bottom half of the oven.
Baking tarts:
- Place individual tart pans on a low sided baking sheet to make it easier getting them in and out of the oven.
- Bake at 180°C fan / 190°C conventional for 15 minutes.
- Turn the temperature down to 160°C fan / 170°C conventional and continue baking for 30-35 minutes until pastry golden brown and filling is bubbling.
- Turn the baking sheets once or twice to achieve even browning.
- Remove from oven and cool to room temperature before removing from tart pans.
