Fruit Mince Tarts

Everybody loves a little fruit mince tart to celebrate Christmas, and these will melt in your mouth. They are quite simple to make and I often give home baked goods like these, packaged in a clear cellophane bag with a ribbon or jute string, as a gift at Christmas time.

makes 24
V
what you need
shortcrust pastry:
2 cups (300g) plain flour
150g butter, softened
1 tbsp rapadura sugar (or caster sugar)
pinch of sea salt
¼ tsp caster sugar, to glaze

fruit mince:
200g sultanas
100g raisins
100g fresh apricots, pitted
50g currants
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground all spice
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
¼ cup (60ml) fresh orange juice
¼ cup (60ml) maple syrup

what to do
1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (160 deg C) and lightly grease 24 shallow patty pans.
2. To make the pastry, combine the flour, butter, rapadura sugar and salt in a food processor and process in short bursts, (alternatively combine in a bowl and use your fingertips to rub together) until crumbly. Add 100ml cold water and mix until evenly moistened.
3. Gather the dough together into a ball, divide into 2 equal portions. Wrap each piece in non-stick baking paper and refrigerate while you prepare the fruit mince.
4. Combine all the fruit mince ingredients in a food processor and chop to form a moist fruit mince.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll a portion of the pastry on the baking sheet it was wrapped in, to about 3mm thick. Use a 7cm round cutter to cut 12 rounds from the pastry. Ease them into the tins. Fill each pastry shell with a heaped teaspoon of fruit mince.
6. Roll out pastry scraps, and use a 2cm star cutter to cut out 12 stars. Place on top of the fruit mince. Repeat with remaining pastry and fruit mince to make 24 tarts.
7. Dissolve the caster sugar in one teaspoon warm water, and use to glaze the stars. Bake for 20 minutes, until just golden brown. Leave in the tins for 5 minutes, then lift out onto wire racks to cool.

Storage: Store in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 5 days
rapadura sugar is a whole sugar that undergoes minimal processing. This allows it to retain a higher nutrient content than white sugar, which when refined to create crystals loses much of its nutrients. Rapadura sugar is simply the product left behind after evaporating the water from the sugar cane juice and has a unique, caramel flavour. Substitute the same quantity of rapadura sugar for regular sugar in any recipe. It is available from health food shops, and is usually an organic product.

dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun-drying or through, the use of specialised dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruits retain most of the nutritional value of fresh fruits. Sulfur dioxide is used as an antioxidant in some dried fruits to protect their colour and flavour and while harmless to healthy individuals, sulphites can induce asthma when inhaled or ingested by sensitive people.  Consequently, law says the presence of sulphites must be clearly indicated on the label. Although they can be more expensive, purchasing organic dried fruits means there is no use of sulphur dioxide and eliminates health concerns. 

© Jane Grover - Naked Food the way food was meant to be