Little mince tarts are a holiday classic and they’re so fast to put together – if you cheat a little (ok… a lot, haha)
You all know my feelings on pastry if you read the blog regularly. We don’t get along.
It’s a love hate relationship. I love eating pastry. But I do not like making it – it never works. Maybe I need to take a class or something.
It’s a shame because I really, really do love pie. And tarts.
So, as I’ve said before, I buy the pastry – the frozen kind. It works and nobody has ever turned down any of my pie.
Christmas isn’t really pie season to me. I associate it more with bars and cookies and candy. But I love mince pies! I like the mix of tart and sweet. I just don’t make my own mincemeat (god, I’m a lazy bum hey? no pastry, no mincemeat…).
My mom always made mince tarts for us at Christmas every year. It’s the one thing I remember us having every year. So I guess it’s natural that I would get a craving for them this time of year.
I actually didn’t feel like doing any Christmas baking at all this year – I just haven’t been digging the kitchen for some reason. But I felt like I should make one thing and I needed my mince tart fix and, let’s face it – when you don’t make the pastry or the mincemeat, they’re pretty damn easy to make, right?
I had the pastry shells already in the freezer and there happened to be a jar of mincemeat in the cupboard so I didn’t even have to go out and brave the Christmas crowds and non-existant parking!
Once I had everything out, I started to get into it and I actually rolled out some of the little tart shells to cut some (very bad) freehand stars out to top the tarts with. And then once I pulled them out of the oven, I sprinkled them with powdered sugar, just because powdered sugar makes everything look pretty, dontchya think?
So, if you need a really quick holiday treat, take 24 little 3 inch tart shells, a big jar of mincemeat and preheat your oven to 425F.
Spoon the mincemeat into the shells and top with pastry cutouts if you feel, you know… fancy. Pop them in the oven until the pastry is golden (I had them in for about 18 minutes but I seem to have a slow oven so I’d keep an eye on them from 15 minutes on.
Then pull them out, let them cool for 15-20 minutes and sprinkle with sugar – if you want to be fancy too!
Then eat. With a cup of hot black tea. Trust me…
Merry Christmas!
Hope you safe some for Christmas dinner! They look great. Who cares if the crust is not homemade, nor the filling. If they taste great that’s what matters. Sometimes you just need to take shortcuts to make things easier especially at this time of year.
My mom always makes Mincemeat pies as well!! She makes the mincemeat with pears from our garden it’s just fabulous! That’s so sad you haven’t found a recipe for pie crust that works for you!! I’ve got one that’s SOO extremely easy that I’m planning on sharing in the new year! I will have to keep you posted 🙂