What Christmas means to me
Christmas is a special time of the year and for so many reasons - family and friends come together to share this festive day with warm food, conversations and company.
I picture a big family table with all the settings and decorations, Christmas carols, presents under a fresh Christmas tree, and the scent of Christmas cake and the brandy that is carefully poured over the pudding and ignited.
For this recipe, I’ve adapted and mixed a couple of our family’s traditional Christmas desserts into one. Instead of pastry, which are used in traditional minced fruit tarts, the filling is encased with a fruit and nut base. The whole tart is made without eggs, milk and sugar, so it’s perfect for Vegans, Coeliacs, and anyone looking for better food options.
Full of marinated organic dried fruit, fresh apples, spices, tea, the best quality oils, and a splash of rum or brandy, this tart makes a wonderful dessert to serve for the festive season!
I marinated 1kg of mixed fruit in order to have enough mixture for Mini Christmas Fruit Mince Truffles, plus extra as a sauce. If you'd like to do the same, add more fruit juice, tea and liquor so the liquid covers the fruit entirely.
* Serving approx. 12
Ingredients for filling
- 750 grs of mixed diced and dried organic fruit. Eg currants, goijs, (allow an extra ½ cup of whole gojis berries as decoration for the topping on tart) figs, sultanas, dates and apricots
- 1 cup of pure apple and pear juice
- Optional: ¼ -1/2 cup of rum or brandy (For a sweeter result, Marsala can be substituted or the alcohol can be deleted entirely for a healthier version)
- Zest from one orange
- 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of ginger powder
- Large pinch of nutmeg and cloves
- ½ cup of Bengal spice tea (allow tea bag to steep in hot water for approx. 5 minutes)
- 1 cup of grated apples
Method for filling
Mix all the ingredients together, except the grated apples, and allow it to sit and macerate for a few days or until the flavours have infused.
On the day of making, drain off the liquid from the fruit and reserve it for later use.
Puree half of the dried fruit until it becomes sticky and firm.
Place the mixture into a separate glass bowl and add grated apples as well as the remaining diced dried fruit, and stir well together.
Ingredients for base
- 1 cup of pecans. Allow an extra ½ cup to 1 cup of whole pecans as decoration to use as decoration for tart
- ½ cup of hazelnuts or walnuts
- ½ cup of almond meal
- 1 cup of pitted Medjool dates
- 1 tablespoon each of melted of cacao butter and coconut oil
- Large pinch of vanilla powder
Method for base
Place all ingredients into the food processor and blend until the mixture resembles a rough dough, and retain some of the texture so it has a slight crunchy consistency. Line a tart pan with baking paper, and using your hands, carefully push the mixture evenly into pan.
Place in the refrigerator until required.
To serve as a raw dish, spoon and smooth out filling into base, and decorate with goji
berries and pecans and freeze until required.
For baking
Carefully fill and smooth mixture out into base, decorate pecans around edge of tart and bake in a moderate preheated oven @150C for 1 hour. Half way through cooking time, check to see that it is not over browning. If so, a layer of baking paper may be required to protect the tart.
Once cooked, turn off heat and allow the tart to remain in oven for a further hour. Remove tart, allow it to cool on a rack, then sprinkle goji berries in the middle of tart.
For serving
You may serve the tart with coconut yoghurt and side it with a sauce made from some of the remaining pureed fruit.
For sauce
Add a small amount of water to the pureed fruit and process it until smooth. Add
more water for thinner consistency or more fruit for a thicker outcome.
Enjoy!