Mincemeat Tart

Decorated trees, lights, candles, poinsettias, holly, special baked goods– there are some things that just define Christmas. When I was growing up, Christmas baking was such a major event my mother undertook. Although she put many hours of work into her baking, I think she really enjoyed it. Many of the ingredients for the special things she would bake at this time of the year were just too expensive to have on hand all the time. Somehow, she would work her magic and make that grocery money stretch to include these things. During my childhood fruit mincemeat was a pie or tart that we looked forward to having. Today, it seems – not so much.

As with many traditional recipes, especially the ones we make and enjoy around big holidays or life events, mincemeat pies are steeped with tradition and customs. Mincemeat would often be made on ‘stir-up’ Sunday along with the Christmas pudding, the last Sunday before Advent. Stirring the mincemeat was quite an event, and English tradition dictates that it should only be stirred clockwise. Stirring the mincemeat anti-clockwise would lead to bad luck and poor fortune in the coming 12 months. To spread the joy, it was tradition in England that each member of the family gave the mixture a stir, while making a wish. And if you wanted to be ensured good health and happiness in the upcoming year, you should eat one mince pie every day for the Twelve Days of Christmas, from Christmas Eve until the 5th of January. 

Today’s modern mincemeat is a boozy, sweet, fruit filling for tarts and pies as well as a variety of other desserts. While mincemeat often plays a supporting role to the apple pie here in North America, the English mincemeat pie is only a two-bite size.

Both Brion & I still enjoy the taste of mincemeat. It just wouldn’t seem like Christmas if we didn’t have some version of it.

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Mincemeat Tart
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Rate this recipe!
Course dessert
Cuisine European
Keyword mincemeat tart
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pastry
Crumble Topping
Course dessert
Cuisine European
Keyword mincemeat tart
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pastry
Crumble Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Pastry
  1. In a medium bowl, cream butter with sugar, salt & vanilla; add the egg yolk. In a small bowl, whisk together flour & baking powder; add to creamed mixture. Blend well. Press into a 13 3/4" x 4 3/8" (35 x 11 cm) tart pan. Cover with plastic wrap set aside in freezer or refrigerator until needed.
Filling
  1. In a large baking dish, combine all the ingredients except the alcohol, stirring well to make sure they're evenly distributed. Cover with a tea towel & leave overnight for the flavors to marinate together.
  2. Preheat the oven to 230 F.
  3. Remove towel & cover the pot with foil & place in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. Remove from oven & stir mincemeat mixture well. Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally. The stirring is essential to distribute the fruit as the mixture cools.
  4. Once cooled, stir the mincemeat again, add the alcohol & stir one more time. Spoon into pastry shell & level out gently.
Crumble Topping
  1. Beat butter, brown sugar & salt in a bowl with mixer on high speed until light & fluffy. Blend in flour & oatmeal just until crumbly. Crumble streusel mixture over filling.
  2. Bake on bottom rack for 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown & filling begins to bubble. If topping is getting brown too fast, cover with foil. Cool completely on wire rack.
Recipe Notes
  • SPICE COMBO
  • 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • This amount will be enough for 2 recipes of mincemeat filling in case you want to make a dozen tarts as well!

Purple Yam (Ube) Tarts

If you follow our blog, you have probably noticed my love for ube (pronounced ‘ooh-bae’), the starchy vegetable also known as purple yam. This veggie isn’t just any old root vegetable. Although it is similar to taro & sweet potatoes, it is neither. Yams, for one, grow on vines, while sweet potatoes grow underground. Though ube is originally native to the Philippines, its become an international sensation for its unique color and sweet, starchy flavor.

There are endless things you can make with these purple yams. I’m keeping it simple today with some tarts, but I’m going to make a special ‘Breton Shortbread’ pastry for them. It’s hard to describe its texture – kind of a cross between cake & shortbread. When you first take a bite, there is a crispiness to the exterior, but then you reach a dense, almost cake-like interior full of buttery goodness.

Brittany is a region in the North of France, very close to the UK, with which it shares some traditions and cultural aspects. The region is famous for two of its local products: butter & sea salt. Breton is a Celtic language spoken, along with French, in Brittany, which is where this recipe originates.

There are many variations on the classic buttery, sandy-textured French version of shortbread cookies. The beauty of the Breton dough is its ease of mixing and shaping. In addition to using this dough for cookies, it can be used for dessert bases or tart shells as I’m doing today. It seemed like the perfect choice combined with ube jam topped with salty cheese.

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Purple Yam (Ube) Tarts
Votes: 3
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Servings
TARTLETS
Ingredients
Ube Tart Filling (BEST MADE A DAY AHEAD OF USING)
Breton Shortbread Tart Shells
Topping
Servings
TARTLETS
Ingredients
Ube Tart Filling (BEST MADE A DAY AHEAD OF USING)
Breton Shortbread Tart Shells
Topping
Votes: 3
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Tart Filling
  1. In a medium, heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoanut & condensed milks; stir until heated. Add thawed, grated purple yam & combine well. Cook over a low heat.
  2. It is important to stir the mixture often during cooking to prevent it from forming a 'crust'. This process takes about 40-50 minutes until yams are cooked. The mixture should be thick & sticky. Transfer to a glass bowl, cover with plastic wrap (touching the pudding surface) & set aside to cool. Refrigerate until used.
Tart Shells
  1. In a medium bowl, cream butter with sugar, salt & vanilla; add the egg yolk.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour & baking powder; add to creamed mixture. Blend well.
  3. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  4. Divide dough into 48 small portions & place them in silicone muffin pans (it should not be too thick. No need to press the dough down as that will be done after baking).
  5. Bake shells for 12 minutes. IMMEDIATELY after removing the shells from the oven, press the middle of each shortbread with a small pestle. The dough then rises up the sides & a hollow forms in the center for the filling.
Assembly
  1. Fill cooled tart shells with chilled yam filling. Sprinkle with grated Edam cheese. Serve.
Recipe Notes
  • These are best eaten after filling the shells as they will soften overnight.

Rhubarb/Rose Turkish Delight & Rhubarb Cream Cheese Truffles

Anyone following my blog is well aware of my love for rhubarb. I think I’ve tried to use it in every capacity possible. Well, get ready for my next adventure — rhubarb Turkish delight! I refrain from eating a lot of chocolate bars, not that I don’t enjoy them, but seriously –. In Canada, the Nestle company sells a chocolate bar called ‘Big Turk’ for which Turkish delight forms the basic foundation. Of course, I love it!

Just a bit of food history background on the subject first. The Turkish name for the sweet comes from the Arabic rahat-ul hulkum which means ‘soothe or heal the throat’. This was abbreviated to rahat lokum and then lokum. The name ‘Turkish Delight’ was coined in the 18th century to make it easier to pronounce. As an improvement on the original recipe of honey or molasses, a mixture of water, flour, cornstarch and refined beet sugar were used to make a firm, chewy jelly.

Little has changed in the last 240 years. Although there are more than 24 different flavors, the biggest seller that still remains is a plain jelly studded with pistachios. Traditional Middle Eastern flavors include rose-pistachio, orange-blossom walnut, mint and rose-lemon.

Back to the rhubarb. Somewhere in my travels, I came across a recipe for rhubarb truffles that peeked my interest. After more research, I decided why not go right out on a limb and test my skills at making some rhubarb/rose Turkish delight. Actually, the end result was not bad. I have acquired a taste for the use of floral water in baking, Brion, not so much. It has to be used very sparingly or it becomes overpowering. I made three versions: Turkish delight plain or covered in white chocolate and a rhubarb truffle. A bit time consuming but a very unique flavor.


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Rhubarb/Rose Turkish Delights & Chocolates


Instructions
Rhubarb/Rose Turkish Delight
  1. In a saucepan, put 1 1/4 cups water with sugar, rhubarb & lemon juice. Cook over low heat , stirring until sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat a little; simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat; leave the rhubarb to infuse for 10 minutes, then pass through a sieve, reserving the juice & pulp separately (the pulp can be used in the truffles that follow).

  2. Line a baking dish with cling film (the size will depend on how thick you want your candy) & set aside. In a small dish, blend cornstarch with remaining 1/4 cup water until smooth. In a saucepan, add rhubarb juice, gelatin powder, dissolved cornstarch & heat gently, stirring until gelatin has dissolved, then bring to a rolling boil.

  3. Keep mixture at a steady rolling boil, stirring constantly, for about 12-14 minutes or until syrup reaches a soft ball stage. Cool slightly & then pour mixture into lined baking dish. Allow to cool at room temperature for about 12 hours or until the mixture is set; do not refrigerate.

  4. Once the jelly is set, cut into pieces. Combine 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 2 Tbsp powdered sugar in a bowl, then roll the jellies in this mixture to coat them. Keep jellies in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 3 days; do not refrigerate. If you want to dip some of your jellies as I did, I found using a mini ice cube tray as a mold was helpful. I just set the piece of jelly in each cup & poured the white chocolate over & around it. Can be frozen until needed.

Rhubarb Cream Cheese Truffles
  1. In a double boiler over medium heat, melt 55 grams of white chocolate chunks. Transfer to a bowl; add remaining ingredients EXCEPT milk chocolate & beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Cover & chill until solid enough to roll or scoop into balls.

  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt milk chocolate. drop balls of rhubarb/cream cheese mixture, one at a time, into milk chocolate to coat. Carefully remove onto parchment paper & allow to harden. Can be frozen as well until needed.


Recipe Notes
  • I also tried freezing the plain jellies without putting cornstarch/sugar mixture on them and it worked fine. They were actually nice tasting right out of the freezer.