Frangipane Mincemeat and Apple Slice

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This fabulous festive slice is made up of a layer of crispy, buttery, homemade pastry, topped with spicy mincemeat, fresh grated apple and finished with a layer of moist, nutty, light frangipane. With all the flavours of Christmas, this delightful slice works as well served with a cup of tea, as it does for dessert, warmed and served with cream, ice cream or custard.

If you love mince pies and frangipane or Bakewell tart, if you don’t like fiddling around rolling out pastry and making individual pies, but you want to whip up some homemade Christmas fare, these are definitely for you! You don’t even need to roll out the pastry – you grate it! It really is the easiest pastry base to make, but it yields the most delicious, buttery, sweet, short pastry.

Where is this recipe from?

The pastry and frangipane in this recipe are from an incredible Pear and Almond Tart recipe I have been making for years, from the blue River Cafe Cookbook. I have simply replaced the pears with mincemeat and grated apple and baked it in a square tin, to make a slice rather than a tart.

There are so many wonderful recipes in the book, which I constantly return to, time and time again. If you don’t own a copy, I can’t recommend it enough.

How to make Frangipane Mincemeat and Apple Slice

Collect all your ingredients together and line the baking tin:

In order to guarantee the slice cooks properly, it is important to use the correct size tin – in this case it is a 20cm/8inch square tin. If your tin is larger the depth of your cake batter will be less and the cake will cook more quickly. Equally if the tin is smaller, your cake batter will be deeper and cook more slowly.

1. Sit the tin on greaseproof paper making sure the paper is large enough to line the tin, come up the sides and have a little overhang.
2. Cut out the corners of the paper so it will fit easily into the tin
3. Fold the paper from corner to corner so the size of the centre of the paper matches the base of the tin. Slot inside the tin.

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Ingredients for the slice:

For the pastry –

• plain/all-purpose flour
• fine salt
• cold unsalted butter, in cubes
• icing sugar
• egg yolk

Mincemeat layer –

• Christmas mincemeat
• medium apple, peeled, cored and grated

Frangipane topping –

• unsalted butter, at room temperature
• caster sugar
• fine salt
• egg
• ground almonds
• flaked almonds

How to make this fabulous Christmas slice:

Make the pastry base –

1. Weigh the flour and salt into the food processor and pulse to mix. Alternatively weigh it into a mixing bowl and stir to mix.
2. Add the cold, cubed butter and either using the pulse function on your food processor or using your fingertips, rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
3. Add the sugar and pulse or stir to mix.
4. Finally add the egg yolk and pulse until the mixture just comes together. Alternatively, mix the egg in by hand. Do not over mix.
5. Tip the mixture out of the food processor or mixing bowl and push, rather than knead, gently with your hands to bring the dough together. Kneading stretches the gluten in the flour and will make your pastry tough, so handle it as little as possible.
6. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour.
7. After one hour, take the pastry out of the fridge and, using a coarse grater, grate it directly into the baking parchment lined baking tin.
8. Use your fingers to press the grated dough into an even, flat layer on the base of the tin, making sure it goes into all the corners. Prick all over with a fork.
9. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

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As the base cooks, prepare the toppings –

1. Mincemeat and apple: peel the apple, cut into quarters and remove the core. Grate it using a coarse grater. Tip the mincemeat and apple into a mixing bowl and stir to mix well. Set aside.
2. Frangipane: beat the butter with an electric whisk until soft. Add the sugar and salt and beat again until light and fluffy.
3. Next add the egg and beat again.
4. Finally, fold in the ground almonds.
5. Now, put it all together: when the pastry base has been cooking for 15 minutes, take it out of the oven and decrease the temperature. Cover with the mincemeat mix and top with the frangipane, making sure you spread it into the corners.
6. Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, cover loosely with foil and cook for a further 20 – 25 minutes, or until cooked. It is cooked when the centre feels springy when lightly touched with your finger and no imprint remains.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes and then transfer, in the baking parchment, to a cooling rack.
8. When cold, cut into 16 squares and serve.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.