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With the holiday season fast approaching, our festive range is now on its way to your local Irrewarra retailer!
It is a magical time of year at Irrewarra Bakery, where the sweet scent of buttery pastry and iconic festive spices mingle in the air. It’s also a much-anticipated opportunity for our wonderful team to showcase their exceptional baking skills, hand-crafting seasonal treats to share with you for a very limited time.
So gather your nearest and dearest, pull out the decorations and create new treasured traditions – read on to discover some of our favourite ways to celebrate with the Irrewarra festive range.
If you have any memories of your own with our products, we would love to hear them! Please send us an email at info@irrewarra.com.au for us to share with our team.
“Folklore also has it that eating a pie on each of the 12 days of Christmas brings wealth and prosperity for the future 12 months. Whether they truly assure good fortune or not, these sweet treats are worth the eating.” — Gourmet Traveller, Australia
A wonderful treat in the lead-up to Christmas, make lasting memories with Irrewarra Fruit Mince Tarts this festive season.
We treasure the small moments spent with family each year, like hanging Christmas lights, writing in cards for far-away relatives or adorning a Christmas tree with children’s handmade ornaments. To add even more cheer to your holiday traditions, why not pick up some boxes of Fruit Mince Tarts from your local store and share as you decorate your home – the signature star cut-out in the lid of each tart will even match your festive trimmings!
The fruit mince tart (or fruit mince pie) is a Christmas classic, and while it takes a lot of work to create these small tarts, the process is very rewarding!
At Irrewarra, we make our own fruit mince from scratch. We grate Granny Smith apples, then macerate the apples and dried fruits – currants, raisins, dates and prunes – in proper French brandy and a mix of spices. The secret to our mince is the unique blend of fruit: the whole vine fruits return to their plump, pre-dried forms as they absorb the brandy and juice from the apples. Instead of mixed peel – which we find too firm and harsh – we add a burst of citrus to our fruit mince tarts with a small amount of fresh, finely grated orange zest.
Our tarts are crafted from a rich shortcrust pastry made with fresh local butter, local free-range eggs and Laucke pastry flour, plus Australian sugar – all rolled and cut by hand. The best mince tarts have the perfect balance between buttery pastry and spicy, moist fruit – and we’ve worked hard over many years to perfect our recipe and achieve that balance.
Baked daily to a traditional recipe, Irrewarra Fruit Mince Tarts are delivered fresh to our retailers every day from now right up until Christmas – so you can enjoy them to your heart’s desire with a coffee, sweet dessert wine or warm with a dollop of cream.
Packaged in a beautiful custom printed box, featuring the stars that we decorate our tarts with, Irrewarra Fruit Mince Tarts also make a wonderful gift for friends and family, or a stunning centrepiece at any festive occasion.
Available online for delivery direct to you, or find your local stockist here.
Cheers to a year well spent at your end-of-year holiday party or annual Christmas lunch with a glass of Irrewarra Wines Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.
Irrewarra Wines are crafted by the award-winning By Farr Winery, from grapes grown in our 10 acre vineyard at Irrewarra, planted in 2001. John and Bronwynne Calvert were inspired to grow their own fruit during a wonderful vintage spent in Burgundy in 1992, which further fuelled their passion for exceptional food and drinks.
Fruit grown at our unirrigated site shows wonderful varietal expression, producing wines with a deceptively long and mineral palate. Now, we entrust this fruit to Nick Farr, 2020 Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year, to produce fine cool climate wines. Of the most recent releases, he said:
“A deliciously mineral and slippery drink. An array of citrus and complexity lined with a fantastic backbone of acidity. Perhaps a bottle to be consumed by yourself.”
“Sit back and take in the aromas from a glass of this pinot as you think about sitting at the top of the vineyard surrounded by cows, water, grass and all things Western District farming. Sweet and sour cherries, earth, spice and a lovely elegant structure.”
There is simply nothing better than receiving the gift of artisan baked goods! Share the joy this Christmas and treat your family, friends or colleagues to Irrewarra’s Chocolate Panforté.
Chewy and addictive, the nougat-like Panforté – meaning ‘strong bread’ – is an Italian festive sweet enjoyed with fervour at Christmas. Our team lovingly craft each Panforté by hand, following a time-honoured process and the classic Italian recipe: dark chocolate, cocoa, dried figs, roasted almonds, glacé citrus, raisins and spices, all sweetened with local Victorian honey. The almonds are roasted, the chocolate melted and the honey and sugar heated, before all ingredients are mixed. Then it’s all hands on deck as our team comes together to expertly hand-press the mixture into special tins for baking.
In keeping with Italian tradition, we hand-wrap the finished Panforté in decorative patterned paper. This ornate design makes the Panforté the perfect pre-wrapped gift for all the foodies in your life! Once unwrapped, the Irrewarra Chocolate Panforté transforms into a showstopping festive centrepiece for the holiday table – simply dust with icing sugar, slice into small wedges or slices and enjoy with a well-earned coffee or dessert wine, such as Australia’s finest De Bortoli Noble One.
Like all our products, Irrewarra Chocolate Panforté is preservative-free – however, it will last for a long time wrapped in its original packaging and stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Available in a whole 500g round, this special festive treat is only available for a limited time in the lead-up to Christmas.
Shop Chocolate Panforté online or find your local stockist here.
A much-anticipated festive treat, our Christmas Fruit and Nut Loaf is available only in the week leading up to Christmas, in selected Victorian stores.
We created this loaf as a unique alternative to the German Christmas favourite, Stollen. Our handcrafted sourdough loaf celebrates the best of the season, making the most of the fragrant festive spices that are synonymous with European Christmas traditions. The Christmas Fruit and Nut Loaf is a rich, artisan sourdough bursting with plump and juicy raisins, sultanas, currants, citrus peel, crunchy walnuts and whole almonds, as well as our own blend of four festive spices.
The sourdough we use for our Christmas Fruit Loaf undergoes the same fermentation process as all our breads, using the Irrewarra culture founders John and Bronwynne Calvert brought to life in 1995. This extensive proving time, plentiful fruit and nuts and perfect balance of subtle spices that make the Irrewarra Christmas Fruit Loaf an unforgettable treat to share with friends and family come Christmas morning.
We love to enjoy thick, toasted slices of this loaf, generously topped cultured or brandy butter (try Bronwynne’s deliciously decadent recipe here) – it’s a fittingly joyous start to one of our favourite days of the year.
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We wish everyone a safe and happy festive season and look forward to being part of your Christmas celebrations!
Irrewarra Fruit Mince Tarts and Chocolate Panforté are available online or in Victoria, NSW, QLD, SA and WA at your favourite fine food retailers – click here to find your local stockist. If you find your local Irrewarra stockist does not currently have stock on hand, please encourage them to place an order for you.
Ensure you place your online orders by 18th December 2023 to ensure delivery before Christmas Day (excludes WA and NT).
You’ll need to wait a little bit longer for our sourdough Christmas Fruit Loaf, available in the last week before Christmas (Tuesday 19th December - Sunday 24th December) at our Victorian stockists.
