On the eleventh day of Christmas The Pink Whisk sent to me……Christmas Bakewells

Instead of the usual jam try these Christmas style with Cranberry and Port mincemeat!

Makes 18 small Bakewell Tarts

Ingredients:
Pastry
225g plain flour
25g caster sugar
100g butter
1 egg yolk
35ml cold water

1/2 jar of mincemeat

100g butter, melted
2 eggs
100g semolina
100g ground almonds
a few drops of almond essence
100g caster sugar

flaked almonds or icing to top

Start off by making the biscuity pastry base, because its so rich and buttery you can get away with making it in the food processor.

Add the flour and the butter to the bowl of the processor. Pulse the processor until the butter is worked into the flour and resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the sugar and egg yolk and pulse again.

Now with the processor running add the water a little at a time until the dough comes together in a ball. Turn off straight away and remove the dough from the bowl.

Wrap in clingfilm and allow to chill and rest in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 160c Fan/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Once the pastry is rested roll it out onto your well floured work surface. Use the loose thin base of a cake tin or flan base to keep lifting the pastry and making sure it doesn’t stick. Roll the dough to approx 3mm thick.

Use the flan tin base to lift the circles of dough into the tin. If the dough splits don’t worry just push the edges back together as you go.

Cut out large circles to line the recesses of a deep bun tin. The tin should be well greased with butter.

Once all the recesses are lined pop them in the fridge to chill whilst we get on with the next bit.

In a bowl whisk together the 2 eggs, melted butter and a couple of drops of almond essence.

Add to the mixture the semolina, caster sugar and ground almonds and stir well.

Now for the Christmas bit! You can use normal mincemeat but I found this lovely stuff in Waitrose – Port and Cranberry which I’m using here.

Add one teaspoon of mincemeat to each of the tarts.

On top of the mincemeat add one desert spoon of almond mixture – just place it in for now.

Once you have done all the tarts using the back of a spoon smooth the almond mixture to meet the sides of the dough without disrupting the mincemeat underneath.

Now you can top the tarts with a few flaked almonds or bake them plain and then add some icing afterwards.

Place them in the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Once baked leave to cool in the tin before easing each tart out gently with a knife. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Dust the almond topped tarts with a snow of icing sugar, if you prefer you could mix a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar with a drop of water and use to drizzle over the tops.