Local Life - St Helens - Nov/Dec 2021

69
Christmas
Mincemeat Slice
This delicious festive slice
can be served warm as a
pud with custard, thick
cream or brandy butter or
simply cool completely and
serve instead of mince pies.
Makes 12-14 slices
Ready in 1 hour 15 minutes,
plus chilling and cooling
Ingredients
225g plain flour
165g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
1 egg yolk blended with 1 tbsp cold
water
75g caster sugar
300g good quality mincemeat
50g ground almonds
2 tbsp flaked almonds
Method
1. Sift the flour into a large bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips
until the mixture resembles very fine breadcrumbs (alternatively pulse in
a food processor until fine breadcrumbs).
2. Remove 100g of the breadcrumb mixture and cover and chill in the fridge.
Stir 25g of the sugar into the remaining mixture, then stir in the egg and
water and mix to a firm dough (adding a little more water if needed).
Knead lightly then wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6. Roll out the dough on
a lightly floured surface and use to line a 23cm square tart tin. Prick the
pastry all over with a fork. Line the pastry case with baking paper and
baking beans and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the lining paper and
beans and bake for a further 5-7 minutes until the pastry is crisp and pale
golden. Cool slightly. Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/160C fan/gas
mark 4.
4. Spread the mincemeat in the pastry case. Mix the rest of the sugar and the
ground almonds into the reserved pastry crumb mixture and scatter over
the mincemeat to cover completely.
5. Return the tin to the oven and bake for a further 25-30 minutes or until the
crumble topping is pale golden. Scatter over the flaked almonds and leave
to cool before removing from the tin and cutting into 12-14 thin slices.
TIP: Add some finely chopped toasted hazelnuts or walnuts to the crumble topping for an extra nutty flavour.