Serves: Makes 16-18
If you wanted to knock out a few of these tartlets without the stress of making pastry (although it isn’t difficult), then use a ready-made shortcrust pastry. For that matter, I am sure you could use a good ready-made crumble mix too and just add the nuts and crushed biscuits. These are quite messy to eat –aren’t all good things?- so I suggest a plate and a fork but if you’re serving them with a custard or brandy cream or ice cream you will need to do that anyway. My silicone moulds are from Lakeland and I can heartily recommend them. I find they are perfect for mince pies as they unmould very easily-even if the mincemeat has burst out and caramelised around the edges.
Ingredients
- For the pastry
- 190g plain flour (plus extra for rolling out)
- 125g cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 70g golden caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- For the crumble topping
- 150g plain flour
- 70g Lotus biscuits
- 150g cold unsalted butter, in pieces
- 70g demerara sugar
- 50g chopped hazelnuts
- 450g mincemeat
Method
- For the pastry, put the flour and butter in a food processor and blend to the point that the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Mix the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of very cold water and add to the flour mixture. Pulse 4 or 5 times to bring the dough together. Turn out onto a floured surface and shape into a smooth ball. Flatten with your palm and wrap in cling film. Chill for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile you can make the crumble: put the flour and Lotus biscuits in a food processor and blend to a fine crumb. Add the butter and pulse for a few seconds until the butter is barely mixed in. Tip into a bowl and stir in the sugar and hazelnuts. Chill the crumble mix until ready to use.
- Heat the oven to 200˚c, fan oven 180˚c, mark 6. Unwrap the pastry and roll out on a floured surface to a thickness of no more than 3mm. Stamp out rounds, I use a 9cm cookie cutter but this will depend on the size of your moulds. Line the moulds with the pastry and fill each with a scant tablespoon of mincemeat. Don’t overfill or the mincemeat will ooze out everywhere. Sprinkle over the crumble topping, pressing it down slightly. Bake in the oven for 20- 25 minutes until golden. Leave the tartlets to cool and firm up for at least 5 minutes before removing from the moulds. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve with brandy butter, cream, ice cream or custard.
