You can make this mince pie crumble as an alternative to the stalwart pies if you haven’t got your pastry funk on or maybe if you didn’t have any in the fridge and simply must use up the jar of mince meat that you bought or someone gave you. I made this a few years ago with Rosebud’s Almond and Orange mincemeat, their food has an instinctive and confident blend of flavours and ingredients that results in a taste that you can’t match with most other varieties on the supermarket shelves. This one’s perfect for parties and school fairs, old people and lazy bakers.
Christmas Crumble Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups (280g) of plain flour
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/3 cup (80g) brown sugar
200g cold butter, chopped
2 tbs lemon juice
1 jar of mincemeat
OVEN at 180C
Method:
In a food processor whizz up the butter, flour, sugar and spice until the butter has broken down to little nubs in the mix. Don’t go for the ‘fine breadcrumb’ texture, as the little lumps of butter make the pastry more crumbly and light.
Add the lemon juice and blend until the dough JUST starts to come together. Don’t over-process here otherwise the dough will be too difficult to sprinkle as a crumble for the topping. Use your best judgement and remember even if the mixture is crumbly, you’ll be able to press the dough into submission in the slice pan.
Put aside at least a cup of the dough mix and press the rest into a small slice pan (26cm x 15cm roughly). Bake until lightly golden, about 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool a bit.
Spread the mincemeat filling onto the base evenly. Sprinkle the remaining dough to form the crumble topping and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Leave to cool and serve dusted with icing sugar or with a dollop of brandy cream.