Christmas Star Brownie & Mincemeat Tart
Moderate
8 Servings
40 minutes bake time
Serve this spiced fruit and chocolate tart for a merry Christmas dinner dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 x 320g Jus-Rol™ Ready Rolled Shortcrust Pastry Sheet
- 100g unsalted butter
- 100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 medium eggs, beaten
- 75g plain flour
- 200g mincemeat
- 1 teaspoon icing sugar, for dusting
Equipment required
- Rolling pin
- Knife
- 33cm x 11cm fluted tart tin
- Fork
- Baking paper
- Baking beans
- Large bowl
- Saucepan
- Electric mixer
- Teaspoon
- Star cookie cutters
- Pastry brush
Techniques Used
Method
- Remove the pastry from the fridge 45 minutes before unrolling to make sure it doesn’t break and crack when lining the tart tin. Preheat the oven to 200C, 180C fan, gas 6.
- Unroll the pastry, keeping it on the paper it was rolled in. Roll the pastry out a little thinner to make a slightly larger rectangle. Cut away a 5cm wide strip from one long side and reserve for the pastry stars. Use the rest of the pastry to line a 32cm x 10cm tart tin, allowing the excess to hang over the edges of the tin. Prick the pastry base all over with a fork. Chill the tart pastry case for 15 minutes. Chill the reserved strip of pastry until required.
- Run a rolling pin firmly over the tin edges to trim off the excess pastry. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes then remove the paper and beans and continue to cook for a further 8-10 minutes until crisp and pale golden. Remove from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C, 160C fan, gas 4.
- Meanwhile, place the butter and chocolate into a large bowl on top of a pan of gently simmering water. Leave for 10 minutes, to melt. Stir to combine and remove the bowl from the pan. Beat in the sugar, vanilla extract and most of the beaten eggs, reserving 1 teaspoon of the beaten eggs to brush the stars. Sift over the flour and add the mincemeat and stir. Spoon into the pastry case and level the surface.
- Use small star cutters to stamp out star shapes from the reserved pastry strip. Brush with the reserved beaten egg and place onto the brownie mixture. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until firm to touch.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove the tart from the tin and serve warm or cold, dusted with icing sugar.
Tips
- If the pastry is starting to crack when unrolling, leave for another 10 minutes and try again.
- This is a great dessert to prepare ahead for Christmas. Allow to cool completely then wrap in foil and freeze for up to one month. Once defrosted, warm in a hot oven for 8-10 minutes.
- Add a bit of extra sparkle to this festive dessert with a dusting of edible gold spray just before serving.
