Fruit Mince Slice

‘Tis the season to get chubby, fa la la la la, la la la laaaaaaaa. Well it doesn’t have to be if you stick with making smart dessert choices like this one instead of being lured down the slippery slope of cookies, pavlova and that slop called trifle. I mean Santa is the poster boy for the season and lets face it, he’s probably not on the shortlist to be the next Lululemon Ambassador. I promise this tastes like the real deal, so put on some Buble and get your festive bake on, double lively.

Method

First get the fruit mince on the go. Prep all the fruit and throw into a large saucepan with all other ingredients. Stir everything, coating well with orange juice.

Bring to simmer, then lower heat to a slow simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

Grease and line a square baking tin (23×23 cm) with paper (I overhang my paper so its easier to lift out cooked slice. Genius).

Mix dry ingredients for the pastry together in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix well. I do this with a rubber spatula, its good to help you sort of press and scrape the mixture around the sides of the bowl to combine it.

Separate mixture into 2/3 and 1/3 split.

Put the 2/3 of mixture into prepared tin and press into base so its an even thickness and pressed right to corners and sides.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Once baked, spread her now cooked fruit mince over the base keeping it an even thickness and pushing into corners and sides. Press it down with the back of a spoon so its nice and compacted.

Crumble over the remaining 1/3 of pastry with your fingers, making sure there are no huge clumps and its evenly distributed over the fruit mix.

Scatter on the flaked almonds.

Bake for 35 minutes.

Cool in the tin.

Ingredients

For the fruit mince…

  • 2 apples, peeled, cored and diced small (I used Granny Smith)
  • 250g sultanas
  • 100g dried apricots
  • diced small 50g dried cranberries
  • 50g dates, chopped small
  • 1 cup of orange juice (2 large oranges)
  • Zest of 1 orange
  • 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • Pinch sea salt

For the pastry…

  • 2 1/4 cups almond meal
  • 3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
  • 3 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 3 tablespoons honey
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons flaked almonds