About this recipe
Apart from Christmas Pudding, nothing says Christmas more than the fragrance of freshly baked Fruit Mince Pies. Instead of doing a typical Fruit Mince Pie recipe with dates, sultanas and cherries, I decided to use the native fruits of Australia. The recipe uses quandong, riberry, rosella, wild limes together with granny smith apples.
They are great by themselves, but do try with Lemon Myrtle Custard.
Ingredients
Marinated Fruit Mix - makes approx 1kg
150g (¾ cup) riberry confit
150g (¾ cup) quandong confit
150g (¾ cup) wild rosella confit
150g (¾ cup) wild lime confit
3 Granny Smith apples
100g (½ cup) brown sugar
7g (1½ teaspoons) Australian Fruit Spice
60ml (2 fl oz.) Bundaberg Rum
Mince Pies pastry - makes approx 24
300g (1½ cups) plain flour
150g (5 oz.) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons macadamia nut oil
1 teaspoon lemon myrtle
40g (1½ oz.) sugar
2 fresh large eggs
20ml (½ fl oz.) water
Cooking instruction
For the marinated fruit mix, finely chop the quandong, rosella and wild lime and combine with riberries in a bowl. Then grate the Granny Smith apples into the mix. Add brown sugar, fruit spice and rum. Mix well then allow to sit overnight, mixing the mix from time to time. The fruit can be prepared and matured well a head of time.
For the pastry, preheat oven to 200°c.
Sift the flour into a bowl, then rub in the butter, macadamia nut oil, sugar and lemon myrtle until crumbly. Add 1 beaten egg and water to make bind the dough. This could be done in a food processor. Then turn out to a floured table and knead till the dough is smooth. Cover and place in fridge for at least 1 hour. The dough can be made ahead of time and stored in fridge till required.
Then roll out the dough to approx 3mm think and then cut out 6cm pastry rounds (or what ever size the patty pans are). Place each pastry round into the patty pan, then spoon in a little of the fruit mix. With the remaining pastry roll out star shaped tops for the pies and place on top. You can do stars or completely cover them. If you do cover them, you’ll need to make a hole at the top. With the reaming egg, lightly beat and brush on top the tops of the pastry.
Bake at 200°c for approx 20 minutes, then remove from oven and allow to cool on baking trays. To serve dust with icing sugar.