By Chef Laura Sharrad

We’re excited to have celebrity chef, author of My Italian Kitchen, TV personality and restaurant owner, Laura Sharrad, share some of her favourite recipes. Check out her incredible Fruit Mince Tart with Mascarpone.

Fruit Mince Tart with Mascarpone

Serves 8–10

INGREDIENTS

Pastry:

• 2 x rolls shortcrust pastry

Fruit mince:

• 2 small (about 150 g each) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and coarsely grated
• 130 g (¾ cup) sultanas
• 115 g (¾ cup) currants
• 130 g (¾ cup) seedless raisins
• 75 g (½ cup) mixed peel or chopped glace apricots
• 50 g (⅓ cup) chopped blanched almonds
• 125 ml (½ cup) brandy or apple cider
• 1 orange, zest finely grated and juiced
• 1 lemon, zest finely grated and juiced
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 100 g (½ cup, loosely packed) dark brown sugar

Egg wash:

• Egg, for egg wash
• Icing sugar

To serve:

• Tub Mascarpone cheese

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Line a 30 cm rectangle tart tin with pastry, ensuring all the corners and edges are well pressed in.
3. Combine all the fruit mince ingredients into a bowl and mix well (this can be made fresh or up to a year in advance and kept in the fridge in a sealed jar to develop the flavours).
4. Pour fruit mince over pastry in tart tin.
5. Using two star cookie cutters, cut out as many stars as possible and arrange then over the tart.
6. To make the egg wash, combine the egg and icing sugar then brush the top of your tart.
7. Bake in oven for 25–30 minutes or until golden.
8. Allow to cool and serve with a dollop of Mascarpone cheese per serve.

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Visit us online or at your local Early Settler store to check out this season’s furniture and homewares range. And find more scrumptious appetiser, dinner, cocktail and dessert recipes for your entertaining.

Laura Sharrad

Originally from Melbourne before relocating to McLaren Vale in South Australia, Laura Sharrad grew up with a wooden spoon in her hand cooking beside her nonnas. Her rich Italian heritage has played a heavy hand in her epicurean journey, which was further strengthened after living in Tuscany. A former MasterChef contestant and an extensively trained chef, the impressive career of this now-25-year-old has leapt from strength to strength. Laura recently opened her own restaurant, Nida Bar and Pasta, with her husband and fellow chef, Max Sharrad. With another restaurant and cookbook in the works, Laura says the long‑term dream is to buy a property on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, teach students to cook and grow produce for a small sustainable restaurant.

Instagram: @laurasharrad