One of the many things I love about Christmas, is pottering around in our kitchen baking special festive recipes and treats. We love to give our baked goods to family and friends at Christmas. This year we have prepared a batch of Fruit Mince Bars. Fruit mince is a traditional Christmas ingredient, usually used in fruit mince pies, which I sometimes find are a bit rich and heavy. This recipe for Fruit Mine Bars is a lighter alternative but still has the lovely flavour of fruit mince.
I packaged the bars in wooden berry baskets purchased from Blank Goods. The fruit mince bars were stacked between layers of baking paper. I added a doiley, some washi tape, and a small tag to finish it off, before covering the basket with clear cellophane for gift giving.
- Base
- 90 g (3 oz) butter
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup plain flour
- Topping
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups dessicated coconut
- 200 g (0.8 cup) bottled fruit mince
- Base: Beat butter with sugar until light and creamy. Stir in sifted flour and mix well. Press mixture into 28 x 18 cm (11 x 7 inch) baking pan, lined with baking paper. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and spread with prepared topping, bake a further 25 - 30 minutes, until firm and golden. Cool in tin, and then cut into slices. Dust with icing sugar.
- Topping: Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy. Fold in sifted dry ingredients, coconut, and fruit mince. Mix well.
Fruit Mince is a favorite of my husband and I, but I really don’t always want to make a mince pie (in facet usually only make for the holidays). So I was looking around for different Mince recipes and your popped up…boy am I glad. While at my local store this week they had all their jars of Mince with Bourbon on sale for 60% off. So I bought all 10 jars they had. Then when I got home, I thought now what?! Your recipe sounds like a delicious start to new ways to use Fruit Mince. Thanks so much. Nancy in CA
Fruit mince with bourbon sounds nice – we can’t get that here in Australia! Hope your husband likes our recipe – I find the fruit mince is really nice this way – less rich than a pie with all the pastry.We have found the recipe to freeze well – then you can defrost it as you need it and add a sprinking of icing (confectioners) sugar.
I made these, they are delicious and a lovely alternative to the traditional mince pies. However, my slice didnt look as high as yours and I used the tin specified.