Pear Mincemeat & Caramel Tart

This delicious pear, mincemeat and caramel tart is really lovely served with the Scottish real dairy traditional Ice cream from Mackie’s of Scotland. It works so well with the caramel sauce and the tart is so sparkly with all of the sprinkled glitter. Its the perfect dessert around the Christmas and Hogmany period.

This tart is made up of homemade shortcrust pastry, a delicious sponge base with mincemeat and topped with sliced pears, delicious caramel sauce and a good helping of Mackie’s of Scotlands traditional Ice Cream. The ice cream and the tart work so well together. You can watch the full recipe video below:

This recipe is made in collaboration with Mackies of Scotland and will be using their delicious real dairy Traditional Ice Cream. The real dairy ice cream works so well with this delicious tart and the caramel sauce its sooo very good! This is the perfect indulgent treat to have around Christmas and Hogmany time. You can make this ahead of time making it the perfect time saver for Christmas day or Hogmany or its quite easy to whip up on the day.

Mackies of Scotland are a family run business in the North East of Scotland and are well known across Scotland for their delicious range of real dairy ice creams, chocolate bars and crisps. They also have their own chocolate factory which is biult in an old tractor shed. Pretty cool!

Mackies are one of our favourite Scottish brands and we literally grew up eating their Ice cream in the Summer months and enjoyed it with hot puddings in the Winter too. Their traditional Ice Cream goes really well with hot desserts like Apple Pie, Fruity Tarts and perhaps some Clootie Dumpling or Christmas Mince Pies. Their New Orange chocolate is so creamy and delicious and is perfect for creating chocolate dishes with a difference or if your anything like me snacking on it watching Christmas TV.

They have a new website coming soon but in the meantime you can find out more about their products at – https://www.mackies.co.uk/

Mackies Instagram Page – https://www.instagram.com/mackiesofscotland/

Mackies Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/mackiesofscotland

Mackies also have an awesome Ice Cream parlour in Aberdeen City and they have a whole range of delicious Ice Cream treats and desserts on offer. Its a great fun filled place to go with the family and we love a trip there when we are in the town with the kids.

If your enjoying the sound of this recipe you may also like some of my other dessert recipes. The delicious Orange chocolate brownie uses Mackie’s of Scotlands New Orange chocolate bar which is delicious and creamy! Its perfect for the brownie recipe and its also served with the traditional Ice cream. My traditional Scottish trifle is another special dessert to serve around this time of year and is really popular on my Youtube channel. You can watch my videos below.

Tips for making this recipe:

You can use premade shortcrust pastry if you prefer. I always think homemade is better but if your short on time there is no shame in making things a little easier by using the premade shortcrust pastry.
This tart can also be made ahead of time and kept covered. You can reheat the tart before serving or serve it at room temperature. Personally I prefer it warm as its so delicious with the cooling ice cream and warm caramel sauce.
I would recommend getting a tart tin with a pop out base. It works so well for making this recipe. When the tart has cooled down a little you can pop it out clean from a well greased pop out base tin.
You will need baking beans for this recipe but instead of purchasing them you can just use some old dried beans from the kitchen cupboard. I have been using some black beans for a couple of years now. Chickpeas and butter beans also work really well.
Leave the tart to cool a little before serving up with the ice cream and hot caramel sauce. It works better warm rather than piping hot as the ice cream sits better. It is delicious when it melts on the tart though with the caramel sauce. Yummy!
An electric hand held mixer is perfect for this recipe as per the video but you can also use a standing mixer too.

Pear, mincemeat & Caramel Tart Recipe:

Shortcrust Pastry Base:

225g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g lard
50g soft butter
25g caster sugar
cold water

Caramel Sauce:

100ml double cream
2tbsp golden syrup
200g brown sugar
1tsp vanilla
40g butter

Pear Tart:

175g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
50g soft butter
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
Lemon rind (of 1 lemon)
100ml whole milk
414g mincemeat (1 large jar)
2 large sliced pears
50g cubed butter (for the topping)
granulated sugar to sprinkle (for the topping)

Topping:

Mackies Traditional Ice Cream
Edible Glitter Sprinkle

Recipe Instructions:

Add the flour, salt, lard, butter and sugar to a large bowl. Rub the fats together with the other ingredients until you get a bread crumbs type consistency. This will take a minute or so.
Add in a small amount of cold water to this bread crumb consistency and start kneading together to form a soft dough. Keep adding a little cold water at a time until you have a soft pastry dough ready for rolling.
Preheat the oven to 180oc (fan). Grease up a tart tin with a pop out base. If you don’t have a pop out base then add in a sheet of greaseproof paper to the bottom of the dish to help get the tart out.
Roll out the pastry until it is large enough to lay inside the tart tin and up the sides. Place the pastry into the tart dish and cut off the excess for the top of the tart dish as per the video.
Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper over the pastry inside the tin and pour enough baking beans into your dish to come right up to the top of the tart. Bake the pastry with the beans in the oven for 20 minutes.
While the pastry is cooking we are going to mix together the sponge mix. Add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and butter to a large bowl and whisk up until it is like bread crumbs. Add in the egg, whisk further. Then add in the milk, vanilla and lemon rind and whisk further until the mixture is of runny cake like consistency.
Remove the pastry from the oven and leave to cool slightly. While cooling lift the greaseproof paper gathering it at one end to help pour the beans back into your storage container. Leave the pastry to cool for a few minutes.
Once the pastry is cool enough pour the sponge mix into the pastry. Dot the top of the sponge mix lightly with the jar of mincemeat so that it covers the sponge mix as per the video.
Add the sliced pears on top of the tart in a circular pattern and dot with the 50g of cubed butter and sprinkle generously with granulated sugar. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes.
While the tart is cooking whisk up the caramel sauce in a small pan. Add all of the ingredients for the sauce into the pan and whisk together. Bring the heat up to medium until the butter has melted and it has all combined together.
Bring the caramel to the boil and boil for 3 minutes while whisking continuously. Be very careful with this hot caramel!
Pour the hot sauce into a serving jug and leave to cool before serving. The sauce thickens upon cooling. You can add more double cream into it if its too hot.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly but still serve warm if you can.
Slice up the tart and serve with a generous helping of Mackies of Scotlands traditional ice cream and drizzle with the caramel sauce. Sprinkle with the edible glitter if you are using some.