Crème Brûlée is everyone’s favourite dessert. And what’s not to love about it? Hearing the sugar crack when you plunge your spoon through the caramelized toffee on top is sheer bliss. The silky smooth custard, the hint of real vanilla; these are all things that make crème brûlée a classic that you shouldn’t really mess with. Which is exactly why I’m about to change it! I have a killer crème brûlée recipe but have always felt the dessert needs short, buttery pastry to complete it – so I encased the custard filling in it to make tarts. The result is pure heaven! Find the recipe below…
For the pastry, blitz the cake flour and icing sugar in a food processor to combine, then add the butter and continue blitzing until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the 3 egg yolks and blitz until just combined. Tip out the pastry onto a clean work surface and bring the pastry together with your hands to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C for fan-assisted ovens). Roll out the pastry on a lightly flour-dusted work surface to 0,5cm thickness and line 4 fluted, loose-bottomed tart tins (10cm-diameters) with the pastry. Trim the edges with a sharp knife and refrigerate to rest, 1 hour. Once the pastry case has chilled, line it with baking paper, fill with baking beans or pulses, and blind-bake in the preheated oven, 8 –10 minutes, until crisp and light brown and crispy. Remove from oven, take out the baking beans and discard the baking paper used for the blind baking. Return the pastry case to the oven to bake, a further 8 –10 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack. For the brûlée, lower the oven temperature to 140C (120C for fan-assisted ovens). In a small saucepan, heat the fresh cream along with the split vanilla pod and seeds to just below boiling point. Cream the 2 egg yolks and castor sugar together in a medium bowl. In a steady stream, pour the warm vanilla cream into the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Strain the mixture through a sieve, discard the bits and divide the filling among the baked pastry cases. Bake, 35 – 40 minutes, until set and the centre wobbles slightly. Remove the tartlets from their tins and allow to cool down to room temperature. Store the tartlets in the fridge until needed. They can keep for 2 days in the fridge. Sprinkle a layer of sugar over each tartlet and brûlée them, using a kitchen blowtorch.
TIP: If a kitchen blowtorch is not available, preheat the oven’s grill and place the tartlets underneath the grill for a couple of seconds to caramelise.
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
2018-11-08 17:22:12
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
Calories6530
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.
250g Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and grated
1/2 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
200g Food Lovers Market Luxury Fruit Cake Mix
2 tbsp (25g) mixed peel or chopped crystallized fruit
30g cherries
¼ cup (55g) pecan nuts, toasted
1 tbsp brandy
COCONUT MERINGUE TOPPING
4 egg whites
1 cup (230g) castor sugar
2 cups (155g) desiccated coconut
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius with a large metal baking tray on the middle rack. Grease 2 x 12-hole muffin tins.
To make the fruit mince, heat the orange juice and brown sugar until dissolved.
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.
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.
Cut out rounds big enough to line your muffin tin.
Place a spoonful of the fruit mince into each pastry cup.
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.
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.
Pile the hertzoggies high on a cake stand and decorate with spun sugar and sparklers.
Notes
Roll out the leftover pastry and cut out stars. Bake them and use to decorate your tower of mince pies.
