Crisp pastry, rich mincemeat, delicate spice infused sponge & brilliant white, sweet frosting come together to create a taste & texture explosion. This Festive Mincemeat Tart is indulgent, rich & just perfect for the holidays!
PREP TIME: 20 minutesminutes
COOK TIME: 50 minutesminutes
TOTAL TIME: 1 hourhour10 minutesminutes
Servings: 8generous slices
Ingredients
For the pastry (see recipe note)
250g / 2cupsall purpose flour(plain flour in the UK)
100g / ½cupvegan butter or refined coconut oil, must be cold & hard
Add the flour, cold coconut oil and salt to a food processor and blend until like fine breadcrumbs.
Slowly add enough water to bring it together into a smooth dough. I used 10 tablespoons but it will vary depending on your flour brand and the humidity. It should feel soft and pliable but not sticky.
Once it comes together line a 9 inch tart pan with the pastry (you can probably get away with an 8 inch if you need to, you just might have a tiny bit too much cake batter). You can roll it out or if you are lazy like me, just plop the ball of pastry in the tin and flatten it out with your hands.
Crimp or trim around the edges to tidy it up then refrigerate for 30 minutes (do not skip the refrigeration).
Preheat oven to 400°F
After 30 minutes remove the pastry case from the fridge. Cut a piece of baking parchment to fit and lay it carefully over the pie crust. A trick to make this easier is to cut it to about the right size then literally screw it up into a ball in your hands. Then gently pull it back out flat before laying over the pastry. It will then lay in there much easier. Cover the baking parchment with baking beans, regular dried beans, or dried rice to weigh down the paper.
Bake for 15 minutes then gently lift out the beans/rice and paper, and return it to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove and lower the heat to 350°F
Leave the pastry case to cool then cover the bottom with the mincemeat. Spread it out evenly.
For the sponge
In a bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and dry spices. Stir to combine.
In a jug or small bowl combine the milk, vanilla extract, vinegar, and liquid coconut oil.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Don't over mix. Just keep going until you can no longer see any dried flour and it looks smooth (a few tiny lumps are ok).
Pour the cake batter over the mincemeat layer and spread out evenly making sire the mincemeat is sealed in well and there are no spaces for it to bubble through.
Bake for around 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
For the frosting
Put the powdered sugar into a small bowl.
Gradually add the water a tiny bit at a time until you have a smooth, easily spreadable frosting.
Pour the frosting over the sponge and spread out evenly with a pallet knife, or the back of a spoon. To stop this motion breaking up the top layer of the cake, fill a mug or glass with cold water and dip the pallet knife or spoon in it every so often. It really helps it spread more easily.
Sprinkle the almonds on as soon as you have finished spreading the frosting.
NOTES
Even though this pastry is a really easy one to make, I realize some of you won't want to go to this much trouble. It is absolutely fine to use a pre-made pastry case fro the grocery store. Any 8 - 9 inch one will work. If it is uncooked follow my directions above for how to blind bake it.Mincemeat is a mixture of dried fruits, spices, orange & lemon juice & zest, nuts and usually brandy or port. You can find my recipe for it here - If you buy it pre-made it is usually found in the baking aisle of the grocery store in jars and is kind of like thick, fruity, dark jam. It is traditionally made with suet which isn't vegan but it is pretty easy to find suet free versions these days.The frosting stays soft and easily sliceable if you keep the tart out of the fridge. When kept in the fridge it becomes brittle and hard. Just leave it at room temperature for a little while before you slice it as it will soften up as it warms slightly.When calculating the nutritional information, I could only find mincemeat with suet in it to use in the calculator. If you use vegan mincemeat with no suet then the calories and fat content will be slightly less than it says here.