How to Bake Festive Short Bread - Shortbread Topped with Fruit Mince and Crunchy Almond Coconut!!!
Author: Whats4Chow
Recipe type: Baking
Festive shortbread is an amazing replacement for the traditional fruit mince pies. Super easy to make, and super quick, this tasty treat can only make your festive season better.
Ingredients
For the Base
- 125g Butter, softened
- 125ml Caster sugar
- 1 Egg, Beaten
- 5ml Baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 500g Fruit mince
For the Topping
- 250ml Sugar
- 310ml Shredded coconut
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 50g Ground almond
Instructions
- For the first step, measure out the softened butter and caster sugar and beat one egg.
- For the second step, sift the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Place the sugar and butter in you stand mixer with the beater attached. Beat the mixture until it is combined.
- Swap out the beater for the whisk and zap the sugar butter mixture on high speed until well creamed... about 2 minutes.
- Add the beaten egg and mix this in for 60 seconds.
- Swap out the whisk for the beater and add the sifted flour mixture.
- Beat this at high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until everything is well mixed, and you have a crumbly pastry that holds together when compressed.
- Grease an 8 inch square baking pan with butter.
- Pour in the pastry and spread it around the pan.
- Press it down lightly to smooth out the surface.
- Pour in the fruit mince and spread this evenly across the pastry.
- For the crunchy topping, measure out the sugar, desiccated coconut, and ground almond, and beat one egg.
- Pour this all into a mixing bowl and use a fork to blend this to a sticky crumbly mass.
- Pour this over the pan and spread it evenly without compressing the mixture.
- Bake the festive shortbread in a preheated oven at 180c or 350f for 35 minutes until crispy and golden on top.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 15 minutes before cutting into squares.
- You can serve this immediately, however, like any fruit mince treat, it ages excellently over the following 2 to 3 days, and only gets better.
