Seasonal Recipe - Apple, Cranberry and Mincemeat Tarts

Ingredients:

1 large Bramley apple (peeled & cored, mine weighed aprox. 250g)
100g fresh, washed cranberries
100g soft brown sugar
1 large knob of butter
Cinnamon, to taste (I used about a quarter of a teaspoon)
1 pack ready rolled shortcrust pastry (I know, that’s cheating...)
Mincemeat (I used Robertson’s Classic)
Icing sugar to dust

 

Method:

Melt the butter over a gentle heat in a large frying pan, and turn off heat. Peel, core and chop the apple into chunks about twice the size of a cranberry, and place in the pan with the butter. Wash the cranberries, and drain and place them in the pan with the apple. Add the sugar and cinnamon and cook over a gentle heat until the apple and cranberries have softened.

Dust the work surface with flour and lay out the pastry – roll it thinner if you wish. Cut out round discs large enough to line your lightly greased bun tin and gently place them in the hollows.

Fill the pastry cases with apple and cranberry mixture, or, if you like, add a teaspoon of mincemeat to each. I decided to make 3 of each, and with the leftover pastry scraps I made one slightly larger apple and cranberry tart.

Re-roll the pastry and cut 6 stars (or discs) large enough to fit over the lined and filled pastry cases. Brush around the edges with milk and lay stars over, pressing gently to adhere the points of the stars to the edges of the cases. Brush tops lightly with milk and bake for 20 minutes at 200 ̊ C.

Allow to cool slightly, then remove from tin and lay on a wire rack. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Delicious served with cream, custard or ice cream.

Here’s how they turned out:

 

Family review:

T.B: The pastry was crisp, with a homemade rustic look [!]. The apple and cranberry filling made the mincemeat lighter and more refreshing than a normal mince pie. 7.5/10

S.B: An indulgent pudding. For a younger palate, the cranberries were a bit sharp, but the fruit complemented the mincemeat nicely. The pastry was delicious – not a ‘soggy bottom’ in sight! 7/10

V.B: Looking at these photos, I need to work on presentation! The pastry was crisp though (thanks Tesco – you saved me some time) and the filling wasn’t too rich, but as I like slightly ‘tart’ desserts, I found it refreshing, and great with custard! 7/10