Rosie Lovell's Christmas Apple Tart

Do you have any fruit mince in your pantry left over from Christmas?  I always do, and it is always a question of what to do with it.  You can find last year's fruit mince recipe here.  Previously, I have made Fruit Mince Donuts with my leftover fruit mince, but wanted to try something different this time.

For a housewarming gift last year, I bought a friend a copy of Rosie Lovell's book, Supper with Rosie.  Before gifting it, I had a flick through the book, and spied Rosie's recipe for Christmas Apple Tart.  One of the main ingredients is fruit mince - bingo!  I took a copy of the recipe and knew that I had to make it.  What's not to love - apples and custard and fruit mince, encased in pastry.

I did not use Rosie's fruit mince recipe, as the whole point was that I had my own that I needed to use up.  However, I did follow the rest of the recipe, including for the pastry.  I found the pastry to be a bit minimalist in flavour, not even containing an egg, so next time I would use a different shortcrust pastry recipe.  The filling was devine.  If you are a fan of apples and custard and fruit mince, you will love this tart. 

To make it, you will need:

Pastry

350g plain flour
175g butter
60ml cold water

Filling

3 large apples, cored, peeled and diced
juice of half an orange
3 eggs
284ml pouring cream
60ml milk
3 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons fruit mince
1 extra egg, beaten

Spray a 23cm loose bottomed tart pan with oil.  Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

For the pastry, in a large mixing bowl, cut the butter through the flour by rubbing the two together with your fingertips until you get a mixture that resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add the water and mix together until the dough just comes together into a ball.

Lightly flour your benchtop.  Put the dough  ball onto the floured benchtop and roll out into a circle that is large enough to line your tart pan.  Carefully transfer the pastry to the tart pan and press it into the base and sides.  Trim off the excess pastry and reserve it, as you will need it for the lattice top.

Line the tart with baking paper, pour in some baking beans or rice, and bake the tart shell in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.  Remove the baking beans and baking paper, and return the tart shell to the oven to bake until the pastry has just dried (around 2 minutes).  Remove the tart shell from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool.

Reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees Celsius.

To make the filling put the apples into a saucepan with the orange juice, and heat over a medium heat until the apples are softened.  Remove the apples from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the three eggs together with the cream, milk and sugar to make a custard.

Place the apples and fruit mince into the base of your cooled tart shell.  Pour two thirds of the custard mixture over the fruit.  

Put the tart into the oven and pour the remainder of the custard into the tart.  Bake the tart for 25 minutes.

Roll out the reserved pastry into a long wide strip, and cut into ribbons about half an inch wide.  Remove the tart from the oven and place the pastry ribbons over the top of the tart in a lattice pattern, and brush the pastry with the beaten egg.

Return the tart to the oven and bake for 20 more minutes or until the filling is set.  if your pastry is not golden at that point, you can monetarily put the tart under a grill to make it golden.

Serve and enjoy warm with icecream, or in a cold slab from the fridge.