Mincemeat and Almond Tart

I decided to make this tart, from Mary Berry's complete cookbook, this week as Gary. It looked like a bakewell tart but with mincemeat instead of jam and I like mincemeat!! 

The first step for the tart involved making a simple short crust pastry. Usual process of mixing butter and flour together then adding egg, sugar and water. This was placed in the fridge to cool for at least 30minutes. 

Pastry made and ready to go in the fridge

Once the pastry had cooled it was rolled and placed in a flan dish and again cooled until ready. 

To make the filling I cream together butter and sugar and then added ground almonds and almond extract. This was all whisked together. 

Almond filling whisked together

The mincemeat was then placed on the bottom of the case and the almond mixture spread on top. This was baked in the oven for around 1 hour until the middle felt solid. This did result in the top getting too brown though so next time I would cover this up. 

Cooling tart

While the tart cooled I made some icing by mixing together icing sugar, lemon juice and water and spread this over the top. I then sprinkled almonds on top. 

The tart was sliced into 10 pieces and then mine was cut in half again which resulted in my slice having 340 calories. So an unhealthy tart then!! 

My slice BEFORE halving.

The verdict: I really enjoyed this tart but mainly because it had mincemeat in it. I was disappointed with the cake mixture as when raw it tasted strongly of almonds, however, once cooked the mincemeat flavour was overwhelming and I couldn't taste it anymore. I would recommend less mincemeat and next time I would just make a standard bakewell tart. I would give it 7/10 as I found the flavour combinations disappointing. I also didn't find the recipe particularly easy to follow and felt that my tart came out too dark and my icing too runny.