Tarts with a twist

By Jan Cheshire
 
CHRISTMAS is nearly upon us again; I wasn’t sure I was ready for it until I saw this recipe. It’s very indulgent, really, but it tastes wonderful. You could use brandy if you don’t like Irish Cream or orange juice if you don’t want to use alcohol.

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IRISH CREAM MINCE PIES
Ingredients
250 grams of plain flour
25 grams of icing sugar plus extra to dust
100 grams of chilled unsalted butter
180mls of Irish Cream liqueur
200 grams of store-bought fruit mince
300mls of thickened cream
 
For the flaked almond topping
20 grams of unsalted butter
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
2 tablespoons of honey
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of thickened cream
50 grams of flaked almonds
 
Method

1. Put the flour and pinch of salt in a food processor, add the butter and process until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. (If you don’t have a food processor, make the pastry in your usual way.)
2. Add 100ml of the liqueur and pulse or stir until the pastry comes together. Chill for 30 minutes
3. For the almond topping, mix butter, sugar and honey, vanilla and cream in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil.
4. Boil without stirring for 1-2 minutes until a golden caramel colour. 
5. Remove from the heat and stir through the almonds.  Cool slightly
6. Preheat the oven to 180.  Grease a 12-hole patty pan.  Divide the pastry into thirds, set one third aside.  Roll out the remaining two thirds on a floured surface until 3mm thick and line the patty pan with pastry
7. Fill each pastry case with fruit mince. Roll out remaining dough, cut out 6 stars & place them on top of the filling pressing edges to seal. 
8. Divide the almond mixture among the remaining 6 pies.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.
10. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.  Whisk the cream to soft peaks then slowly beat in the remaining 1/3 cup of liqueur until well mixed.
11. Dust the pies with icing sugar and serve with the cream.

  
Enjoy!