Christmas Mincemeat Bakewell Style Slice

This is another recipe for using up Christmas fruit mincemeat should you have a jar knocking about, it's also great for using up shortcrust pastry if you are bored with making Christmas Mince Pies.  My mother in law used to bake Bakewell Tarts in Bakewell at a bakery before she moved from the UK to NZ when she was much younger.  My husband, despite disliking almonds, likes Bakewell Tart so I decided to make my own version using Christmas mincemeat instead of jam and vanilla bean paste instead of almond extract.  It went down very well in our household and I managed to secretly package up half of it for a friend and her family.

I used a disposable foil baking tray from Lakeland to bake the slice in which measured 8 inches x 13 inches or 20cm x 33cm. 

You can use either bought shortcrust pastry or make your own, either way you'll need about 350g.

Christmas Mincemeat Bakewell Style Slice

350g sweet shortcrust pastry

8 - 10 Tblsp Christmas Fruit Mincemeat

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 medium free range eggs

100g ground almonds

100g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180°C/Fan160°C.  Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface and use it to line your baking tray.  Spread the Christmas fruit mincemeat over the pastry base.

Put the butter, caster sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.  I use my trusty stand mixer.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding 1 Tbsp of ground almonds with each egg to help stabilise the mixture.  Fold through the flour and remaining almonds then spoon the mixture over the fruit mincemeat.  Level the surface.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the sponge is well risen, firm and golden.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Icing and decoration

In a small bowl, mix together 300g icing sugar and 3 Tbsp water to make a fairly thick icing. When the tart is cold, spread the icing evenly over the top.  Decorate with glacé cherries and wait for the icing to set.  Cut the tart into squares or rectangles then serve.

I'm entering this recipe into the No Waste Food Challenge over at Kate's fab blog Turquoise Lemons. 

I'm also submitting this recipe to Alphabakes because this months letter is S and my recipe is a Slice.  Alphabakes is jointly administered and cohosted by The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes.