This beautiful star-topped mincemeat tart makes a wonderful Christmas dessert. It’s essentially a giant mince pie – but in an attractive fluted tart shape, topped with pastry stars. Better still – it’s super easy to make, even if you are not great at pastry!
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A mince pie in full-size tart form
Mince pies are one of my favourite parts of Christmas – especially homemade ones! Every year in the runup to Christmas, I make dozens and dozens of my Mini Star-Topped Mince Pies and my Easy Peasy Frangipane Mince Pies.
This Easy Mincemeat Tart takes all the flavours of a mince pie, but turns it into an attractive full-size dessert, that makes a great centrepiece at Christmas parties in the runup to Christmas… or even as an alternative to Christmas pudding on Christmas day itself!
Super simple to make!
And this Easy Mincemeat Tart is super easy to make, in fact it’s practically foolproof… even if you are not great at pastry!
All you need to do is make the super simple sweet shortcrust pastry and chill for 1 hour. Then roll the pastry out, line a greased tin with the rolled-out pastry and fill the pastry tart with the mincemeat. Next, cut out stars of assorted sizes from the leftover pastry and place the stars on top of the mincemeat to make an attractive pattern. Finally, brush the top edge of the tart and the stars with beaten egg and bake. When cooked and cooled, dust with icing sugar so it has the appearance of having been lightly dusted with snow.
No blind baking?
I was determined to make this tart as easy as possible to make, and that meant no blind baking!
(Blind baking is a technique used to ensure the bottom of the tart is fully cooked – to avoid the dreaded soggy bottom! But it’s an extra process, a little faffy and takes extra time – none of which fits into my easy peasy baking ethos!)
To achieve this no-blind-bake tart WITHOUT a soggy bottom, I have used three tricks:
Firstly, I have slightly lowered the oven temperature – this ensures the top of the tart doesn’t burn before the bottom has fully cooked though.
Secondly, when I pre-heat the oven for this recipe, I also pop in a baking tray to heat up. I then place the tart in the oven directly on this baking tray. This gets more heat to the bottom of the tart tin, helping the tart base set quickly and cook fully.
Finally, I ensure I remove the cooked tart from the tin as soon as it’s cool enough to handle and I allow it to cool on a wire cooling rack. This helps to ensure steam from the cooked tart doesn’t make the base soggy.
What to serve with Mincemeat Tart?
My favourite thing to serve with this easy peasy mincemeat tart is lashings of custard! To me the vanilla in the custard just works so well with the spicy flavours of the mincemeat.
But this Christmassy tart also works well with cream, ice cream… or to make it extra special, brandy cream!
What to drink with Mincemeat Tart?
Are you a fan of dessert wines? If so, you’ll be pleased to hear that this mincemeat tart pairs brilliantly with rich, fruity dessert wines such as Muscat/Moscatel, Passito di Pantelleria or Tokaji.
And of course – just as with regular-sized mince pies – this mincemeat tart goes wonderfully with sweet sherry or tawny port.
A great way to use up leftover jars of mincemeat!
If you bought or made way too much mincemeat this year, this mincemeat tart is the perfect way to use up the leftover jars… the recipe uses 2 standard 411g jars of mincemeat.
(Need more ideas for leftover mincemeat? Then you might like to try my Easy Mincemeat and Apple Crumble or Baked Apples with Mincemeat, Maple Syrup and Brandy Butter.)
A great alternative to Christmas pudding!
If you’re not much of a fan of Christmas pudding, or if you just want to make something different this year, then this star-topped mincemeat tart makes a great alternative dessert to serve on Christmas day. Better still, it can be made in advance and won’t take up space on your stove on Christmas day!
(Need some more alternatives to Christmas pudding? Then you might like to try my White Chocolate and Cranberry Brownies, Chocolate Tart with Cranberries, Orange and Pistachios or Easy Gingerbread Traybake Cake.)
How long will mincemeat tart last?
Once cool, this tart will last 3-4 days in an airtight tin, making it a great make-ahead option!
Can you reheat mincemeat tart?
This tart is delicious cold, so there is no need to heat it up. However, if you want to heat it up, you definitely can! Simply place the tart on a baking tray and place in a preheated oven set to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F for 10 minutes, or until piping hot.
Can you freeze mincemeat tart?
No, this tart is not suitable for freezing.
If you like this recipe…
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Easy Mincemeat Tart
Equipment
- Wooden spoon
- Clingfilm
- Rolling pin
- Sieve or icing sugar dredger
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour
- 150 g butter cut into 1cm cubes (ish!)
- 50 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs beaten (use 1½ in the pastry and ½ for the egg wash)
- 822 g mincemeat (approximately 2 jars – I use Robertson's Classic Mincemeat)
- Icing sugar (US – confectioners’ sugar), for dusting
Instructions
- Place the plain flour and cubed butter in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the sugar. Then stir in 1½ beaten eggs – or until the pastry starts to come together. If 1½ eggs is not enough liquid, use a tiny bit of water to help the pastry come together.
- Bring the pastry together into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and place in the fridge for 1 hour. (Also put the remaining ½ beaten egg in the fridge, covered, until needed for egg-washing later.)
- After 55 minutes, grease a fluted tart tin with butter and preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat up (This will provide extra heat to the base of the tin, to help avoid a soggy bottom!)
- Roll your pastry out on a floured surface until it is big enough to completely line the tin (with some overhang / offcuts for the stars).
- Line your greased tin with the rolled-out pastry, taking care to press the pastry into the edges and indentations of the tin, then trim off the excess pastry / overhang. (I find the easiest way to do this is to roll the rolling pin over the top of the tin.
- Fill the pastry tart with the mincemeat, taking care to ensure it is spread out all the way to the edges and completely flat.
- Gather the pastry offcuts up into a ball and roll out, on a floured surface, to a thickness of approximately 3mm.
- Use star shaped cutters to cut out stars of assorted sizes. Place the stars on top of the mincemeat to make an attractive pattern.
- Brush the top edge of the tart and the stars with the remaining beaten egg.
- Place the tart on the pre-heated baking tray, in your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until nicely browned on top. The mincemeat should be just gently bubbling, and the pastry should be fully cooked - including on the bottom - after this length of cooking time.
- Remove from the oven when cooked and allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin, or until cool enough to handle safely.
- When cool enough to handle, remove the tart from the tin (carefully as the pastry will be fragile!) and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
- When cool, dust with icing sugar (use either an icing sugar dredger or a sieve), so it has the appearance of having been lightly dusted with snow.
- Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.
Notes
- Not suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Disclosure
*This blog post contains affiliate links, this means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!
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