Christmas mince tarts need not be ho-hum! Gather a couple of handfuls of fresh cherries and toss them with chocolate chips and some dried fruits to make a fabulously modern take on classic mince. Homemade sweet short pastry will ensure these tarts are truly sensational.

Ingredients

Cherry and Chocolate Mince

• 250-300 grams fresh cherries, washed, destemmed and stoned
• 1/2 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup currants, raisins or dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup sultanas (if large chop roughly)
• 1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) dark chocolate chips (if large chips, chop into small pieces)
• 3-4 tablespoons Kirschwasser (cherry eau de vie )
• 125 grams butter, melted and cooled, optional

Sweet Short Pastry

• 1/2 cup caster or icing sugar
• 4 egg yolks (egg whites can be frozen or used to make a pavlova or meringue)
• 100 grams butter (preferably unsalted), at rom temperature
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Method

1. To prepare the mince, toss all the ingredients together. Preferably, refrigerate overnight to allow the dried fruits to soak up all the liquid and for the flavours to marry. The mixture will last up to a week in the fridge (well-sealed) depending on the ripeness of the cherries. To store any longer, it is best to freeze the mixture until required. The butter softens the sweet / sharp flavour of the dried fruits but it can be omitted if wished.
2. For the pastry, place the butter, sugar, and egg yolks into a food processor and process for 30 seconds until well blended. Add the flour and pulse to mix. The mixture should look like moist crumbs. Do not process to a homogeneous paste as the pastry will be tough when cooked.
3. Turn the mixture out and bring together, dusting the bench top with flour as necessary. Knead lightly to bring the dough together. Wrap in baking paper and refrigerate for 1 hour before using. At this stage the pastry can be left for serval days, alternatively, it can also be frozen.
4. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness and cut out 18, 7-8cm rounds and use them to line 18 patty tins. Keep the scraps to cut out stars for the top - or whatever shapes you prefer.
5. Fill each pastry case with a decent dessertspoonful of mixture. Place a pastry star on top.
6. Bake at 190 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes until the pastry of the tarts is golden brown. Allow to cool in the tins before removing. If removed when warm, the tarts are likely to crumble. Dust with icing sugar to serve.