A cross between mince pies and Bakewell tarts these mini pies have a mincemeat base, a frangipane filling and are finished with white icing (frosting) and a glacé cherry.
Prep time: 130 minutes/Cook time: 20 minutes/Makes: 22
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
150g (5½oz) plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
25g (1oz) caster sugar
pinch of salt
75g (2½oz) unsalted butter, chilled and diced
75g (2½oz) cream cheese
50g (1¾oz) ground almonds
1 egg yolk
For the frangipane filling:
75g (2½oz) ground almonds
50g (1¾oz) unsalted butter, softened
50g (1¾oz) caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp plain flour
finely-grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
400g (14oz) luxury mincemeat
To decorate:
200g (7oz) icing sugar
juice of ½ lemon
12 glacé cherries, washed, dried and halved
Method:
For the pastry, combine the flour, caster sugar and salt into a food processor bowl. Add the chilled, diced butter, and, using the pulse button, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles fine sand.
Add the cream cheese by the teaspoonfuls, followed by the ground almonds and egg yolk and mix again until the dough starts to come together.
Tip the resultant dough out of the food processor into a mixing bowl and use your hands to bring the dough together into a neat ball, but do not overwork the pastry. Flatten into a disc, cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and leave the pastry in the fridge for at least 1 hour to chill and rest.
Lightly dust your work surface with plain flour, divide the dough in half and roll out one half to a thickness of around 2mm/1/16 in.
Using a cutter stamp, cut out as many discs from the dough as you can and use to line the bun tins, gently pressing the dough into the tins with your fingers. Gather the scraps together and set aside while you roll out the second half of the dough and stamp out more pastry discs.
Gather all of the dough scraps together and gently press into a ball. Re-roll and stamp out more discs – you should aim for about 22 pastry cases in total. Chill the pastry cases in the fridge for 20–30 minutes while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C (160C fan/355F/Gas Mark 4).
For the frangipane filling, tip the ground almonds into a bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, lemon zest, vanilla and a pinch of salt and beat until soft and smooth.
Divide the mincemeat between the pastry cases and top with a dessertspoon of the frangipane filling mixture, spreading it to cover. Transfer to the middle shelf of your pre-heated oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffed up and golden-brown. You may need to swap the trays over halfway through cooking to ensure that the tartlets cook evenly.
Remove from the oven and leave the to cool in the tins for 4–5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a wire rack until the tartlets are cool.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the lemon juice and about one tablespoon of cold water and mix into a smooth icing, adding more water if needed.
Spoon the icing over the top of each tartlet and top each with half a glacé cherry. Allow the icing to set before serving.
