Christmas Mince Pie Hertzoggies

Christmas Mince Pie Hertzoggies

by | Nov 12, 2018 | 0 comments

A buttery shortcrust pastry filled with homemade fruit mince and topped with a chewy coconut meringue – introducing the South African Mince Pie Hertzoggie!

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South African Christmas Desserts

Mince pie hertzoggies are the mince pies we should’ve had here in South Africa. At least that’s what I think! Every Christmas I take it as my duty to put a South African spin on some very European traditions that we’ve adopted. I’ve made this No-Bake Christmas Pudding which is actually a fridge cake in disguise, these Gingerbread Beach Huts which look like the colourful Muizenberg huts and this Milk Tart Eclair Trifle with Pinotage Jelly and Naartjie Caramel. 

Christmas isn’t Christmas without a Christmas pudding, a gingerbread house, trifle or mince pies. But at least we can make it our own, right?! 

 

Hertzoggies

If you don’t know what a hertzoggie is, it’s a local South African tart filled with jam (usually apricot) and finished with a chewy coconut meringue topping. They are sweet, buttery and incredibly moreish! So instead of the usual jam filling, I filled my mince pie hertzoggies with fruit mince. But not just any fruit mince. 

Homemade Fruit Mince

I used Food Lover’s Market’s Luxury Festive Cake Mix as the base of my very own homemade fruit mince. It’s so easy to make you’ll wonder why you’ve been buying the horrid bottled stuff all along. If you’re not a fruit mince fan, then it’s only because you probably haven’t tasted the good stuff. It’s so easy to make and delicious – especially if you use a really excellent quality fruit cake mix. The Red Bucket has been around for 23 years for a reason. It is loaded with dried fruit and has nuts and chopped glazed fruit already in it so it’s packed with flavour and half the work has already been done. At R69.99 for 1kg it’s also really affordable. 

If you’re more of a Christmas cake person, check out the indulgent Chocolate Mousse Fruit Cake I made for Food Lover’s Market last year that was a total hit! 

 

Mince Pie Hertzoggies
Yields 14
The South African jam tart topped with coconut meringue gets a festive Christmas spin and is filled with a homemade fruit mince.
Print
Prep Time
40 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 40 min
Prep Time
40 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 40 min
6530 calories
942 g
538 g
289 g
63 g
173 g
1815 g
3605 g
563 g
8 g
98 g
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size
1815g
Yields
14
Amount Per Serving
Calories 6530
Calories from Fat 2506
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 289g
445%
Saturated Fat 173g
866%
Trans Fat 8g
Polyunsaturated Fat 21g
Monounsaturated Fat 77g
Cholesterol 538mg
179%
Sodium 3605mg
150%
Total Carbohydrates 942g
314%
Dietary Fiber 35g
138%
Sugars 563g
Protein 63g
Vitamin A
139%
Vitamin C
84%
Calcium
51%
Iron
120%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Does this look wrong?
Ingredients
  1. PASTRY
  2. 210g cake flour
  3. 90g cornstarch/cornflour
  4. 100g icing sugar
  5. pinch salt
  6. 250g salted butter, softened
  7. HOMEMADE FRUIT MINCE
  8. zest and juice of 1 small orange
  9. 60g dark muscovado sugar
  10. 250g Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and grated
  11. 1/2 tsp mixed spice
  12. ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  13. 200g Food Lovers Market Luxury Fruit Cake Mix
  14. 2 tbsp (25g) mixed peel or chopped crystallized fruit
  15. 30g cherries
  16. ¼ cup (55g) pecan nuts, toasted
  17. 1 tbsp brandy
  18. COCONUT MERINGUE TOPPING
  19. 4 egg whites
  20. 1 cup (230g) castor sugar
  21. 2 cups (155g) desiccated coconut
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius with a large metal baking tray on the middle rack. Grease 2 x 12-hole muffin tins.
  2. To make the fruit mince, heat the orange juice and brown sugar until dissolved.
  3. Add all ingredients except the brandy and cook for 40 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the brandy and allow to cool.
  4. To make the pastry, combine dry ingredients in a mixer and gradually add the butter until the shortbread comes together. Dust a surface with flour and roll the pastry out to 5mm thick.
  5. Cut out rounds big enough to line your muffin tin.
  6. Place a spoonful of the fruit mince into each pastry cup.
  7. Whisk the egg whites until soft peak stage then beat in the castor sugar until thick and glossy. Fold in the coconut. Place in a piping bag and pipe meringue to cover the top of the fruit mince.
  8. Bake in the preheated oven on top of the preheated baking tray for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool in the tin before removing and dusting with icing sugar.
  9. Pile the hertzoggies high on a cake stand and decorate with spun sugar and sparklers.
Notes
  1. Roll out the leftover pastry and cut out stars. Bake them and use to decorate your tower of mince pies.
beta
calories
6530
fat
289g
protein
63g
carbs
942g
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Christmas Bun Wreath with Sherry Caramel

Christmas Bun Wreath with Sherry Caramel

by | Dec 21, 2016 | 0 comments

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There are a few things that define being a South African; if you use the word ‘Ja’ instead of ‘yes’, if you know what a ‘bakkie’ is, if you call it a granadilla instead of a passion fruit and, if you have at least one memory of OBS (Old Brown Sherry). Mine specifically revolves around Christmas and the generous glug my Great Aunty Margot always adds to the family trifle, but my story isn’t nearly as exciting as the one’s Sedgwick’s have compiled in a sweet little book to celebrate their 100-year birthday! One story, specifically, had me in fits of giggles because it sounded exactly like something my late grandmother would do! It’s called ‘The Undefeatable Tipsy Tart’ and was submitted by A. Nel.

“For over 15 years, my Grandmother was the reigning Tipsy Tart Queen of the local Agricultural Show. No other tannie could come close and every year, as she walked away with another first-prize ribbon, you would see them flocking around, fishing for her “secret ingredient”. Ouma would just laugh and say: “It’s made with love”.

 

Two years ago, my Gran passed away and my mother inherited all of her cookbooks and the hand-written recipes she had collected over the decades. Obviously the first dish my mother tried to replicate was the Undefeatable Tipsy Tart and while it tasted delicious, well, it wasn’t THAT good.

 

It was only 6 months later, after the gentleman who had been the judge for all those years stepped down, that Grandma’s trick was finally revealed. Turns out, the “secret ingredient” wasn’t actually part of her recipe – it was the shot of Sedgwick’s she always gave him beforehand that sealed the deal!”

If you’d love to get your hands on this special book (and a bottle of Sedgwick’s to drink while you mull over the stories), I’m giving away a gift set over on my Facebook page this week so click here to enter! You can also read all the funny OBS tales over on Sedgwick’s website here. But before you head on over, I’ve made some deliciously sticky Christmas buns stuffed with proper almond marzipan and fruit mince and drizzled with a Sedgwicks caramel which, if I could, I would bath in! Make them on Christmas eve, pop them in the fridge to prove overnight and bake them on Christmas morning to nibble on while you open presents! Merry Christmas everyone!

Sticky Christmas Bun Wreath with Marzipan and Sedgwick’s Caramel

Makes 12

 

DOUGH

500g flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp mixed spice

75g muscovado sugar

75g butter, softened

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

10g instant dry yeast

10g salt

175ml lukewarm milk (or water)

 

FILLING

60g butter, softened

½ cup fruit mince

100g almond marzipan (not persipan*) – optional, grated, plus extra for star cut-outs

 

SHERRY CARAMEL

1 cup light brown sugar

½ cup Sedgwick’s OBS

60g butter

1 tbsp cream

 

Make the dough by placing all the ingredients in a mixing bowl (I use a stand mixer to make it easier) and combine until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until it’s smooth and springs back when poked with a finger. Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour). You can also do this in the fridge overnight which gives it a lovely sourdough flavour. In the meantime, prepare the baking tray by rubbing a large 30cm spring form cake tin with butter. Knock down the dough and knead it lightly to press out the air then roll out into a 20x30cm rectangle. Spread the dough with the softened butter then spread with fruit mince and sprinkle with grated marzipan. Roll the dough up tightly (from the longest side) to form a sausage then slice into 2cm thick wheels. Pack the buns around the outside of the prepared cake tin and place a small ramekin in the middle (to keep the wreath shape. Then cover loosely with cling wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. In the meantime, make the caramel; place the sugar in a pan or saucepan with 2 tbsp water and heat gently until dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer until deep golden brown. Add the OBS, butter and cream and swirl to combine. Allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 200C (conventional, 180 fan-forced) and bake for 20-30 minutes until golden (with the ramekin in the middle). Allow to cool slightly before serving warm, drizzled with the sherry caramel. Decorate with marzipan stars.

 

TIP You know when people say they hate marzipan? What they really mean is they hate persipan – the fake marzipan sold in most shops which is actually made from peach and apricot kernels and tastes like almond essence (also fake). Woolies now sell proper marzipan so do yourself a favour and give the real deal a try.

Cheat’s Christmas Almond Croissants

Cheat’s Christmas Almond Croissants

by | Dec 21, 2015 | 1 comment

Imagine waking up to the warm smell of baked buttery, sugary, spicy goodness wafting from your oven on Christmas morning? It can be a reality, people! I’m not saying you have to make croissants from scratch – heck, ain’t nobody can’t time for that! But fancying up some store-bought croissants, stuffing them with festive spiced fruit mince (also store-bought) and a generous helping of almond frangipane filling can turn plain, ordinary croissants into something rather special for Christmas breakfast!

Almond croissants are any bakery’s darkest secret. I learnt to make them in the ridiculous hours of the morning when I was interning at a French patisserie in my high school years. You know how you fork out a small fortune for an almond croissant? Well, sorry folks, but actually, these almond pastries are made using YESTERDAY’S croissants – jip, all the croissants that weren’t sold yesterday? The stale pastries are dipped in a sugar syrup, stuffed with an almond filling and rebaked to become today’s deliciousness. Oh the shock and the horror! Actually, it’s a pretty darn clever way of using leftovers and one that now, thanks to me, is no longer a secret (the things I do for you guys!).

Lucky for you,  you won’t have to wake up at 3am to make them! Smile and bat your eyelashes at the baker at your supermarket to give you some stale croissants (or use leftover one’s – although I struggle to fathom in what universe someone would have leftover pastries) then dip and fill them, cover and refrigerate til morning. When you wake up, pop them in the oven and by the time you’ve opened up all your Christmas gifts, your house will smell like a French bakery. Oh and I give you full permission to pretend as though you made them from scratch – just don’t tell a French pastry chef I spilled the beans!

Christmas Fruit Mince Almond Croissants

Makes 6-8

250g sugar

250ml water

6-8 stale, day-old croissants

165g butter

160g icing sugar

2 eggs

200g ground almonds

20g corn starch

8 tbsp store-bought Christmas fruit mince, to spread

Flaked almonds, to garnish

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until dissolved completely then bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Set aside.Make the almond by creaming the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time beating well in between each. Add the ground almonds and corn starch and mix until combined. Place in a piping bag. Cut a 5-7cm pocket into each croissant then dip into the warm syrup briefly. Remove from the syrup, spread a layer of fruit mince inside then pipe in some almond filling. Pipe a little of the almond filling on top and sprinkle with almonds. Place on a lined baking tray then repeat with the remaining croissants. It’s at this point where you can cover and refrigerate the croissants until the next morning when you’re ready to bake them. Bake at 170 degrees Celcius for 15-20 minutes until golden and crispy. Allow to cool slightly then serve warm, dusted with icing sugar.