Fruit Mince Slice with crumble top
I love fruit mince tarts and I love crumble. This is the best of both worlds. I first saw this done in a similar way by Maggie Beer. This is my version. This recipe uses Australian cup measurements
Ingredients
The fruit mince
- 330 gm mixed dried fruit 2 cups /12 oz approx
- 150 gm cranberries, dried 1 cup / 5.3 oz
- 135 gm currants 1 cup / 4.8oz
- 200 gm red cherries chopped | 7 oz
- 150 gm orange marmalade 5.3 oz
- 2 whole oranges zest
- 1 whole lemon zest
- 200 ml orange juice
- 50 ml lemon juice
- 1 large apple, grated 200 gm can have the skin on | 7oz
- 90 gm brown sugar 1/2 cup, 3.2oz
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper finely ground black or white or couple of grinds of fresh
- 100 gm butter chopped | 3.5 oz
Pastry
- 225 gm flour 1.5 cups | 7.9 oz
- 100 gm butter softened
- 50 gm fine sugar 1.7 oz
- 1 whole egg beaten
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
crumble
- 90 gm brown sugar 1/2 cup | 3oz
- 90 gm butter
- 120 gm flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Set the oven to 170 C / 340F
- You will need a 25 x 18 cm rectangular tray (10x8 in) or a square 24 x 24 cm (10 x 10 in) x approx 4 cm deep. Line the bottom with baking paper to make thew slice easy to remove when cool.
- Sometimes I begin this step the day before so that the fruit has time to cool.Put all of the fruit mince ingredients including the apples into a medium pot and simmer gently stirring in the butter and jam so that it becomes shiny and sticky. This will take about 5-10 minutes. The mixture will be lightly bubbling. The liquid needs to be reduced and thickened. Set aside to cool. This can be transferred to another pot or bowl and put into the fridge to cool
To make the base
- Put the softened butter (100 gm) in a mixer and beat/ mix/ until light, add the sugar and continue to mix until pale and light.
- Add the egg and mix in well. Pour in the flour and mix until just combined. The dough will be soft and a bit sticky.
- Tip the dough into the tray. Put some flour on your fingers and flatten the dough right to the edges of the tray till evenly spaced and flat. Chill in the fridge ( 1/2 an hour or till firm- you can also freeze for 15 minutes to speed this up)
- Bake the base in a 170 C / blind ( that means without the filling), until just golden. Take out of the oven and set aside on a cake rack
Crumble mix
- Put all the ingredients for the crumble into a mixer with the flat mixing paddle. Mix till well combined. The mixture should start to clump together in nice lumps that look like breadcrumbs. Stop mixing as soon as it is combined. ***This can also be done with your fingertips. A crumble must be sticky and lumpy or it will be too dry.
- Spread fruit mince onto the pastry base about 2 cm deep and then cover all over with the crumble mix.
- Bake till the crumble on top is golden and crispy. ( Approximately 1/2 an hour). The base is already cooked so you just need to get that crumble cooked
- The slice is great as it is but with a little time in the fridge it becomes firmer and easier to cut
Notes
Don't overfill the tray with fruit mince, just about 2 cm deep. You may have a little left over. If there is too much filling it will bubble and overflow down the sides of the pastry
You can use storebought mince but it is NEVER as good as this one
The pastry for this recipe is a light shortbread style pastry
See here for a video
It can also be frozen for up to 2 months
*****This recipe dates back to 2010. It has been retested. Hope you like it!