Who doesn’t like a mince pie at Christmas? However those big boxes found at the supermarkets are not necessarily the healthiest choice. Making your own from scratch is a much healthier option and these use coconut sugar which is unrefined and full of vitamins and minerals which your body will thank you for. Of course they are still rich with fruit sugar so try and resist eating too many but if you do indulge the gluten free pastry will ease the guilt.
Prep time: 25mins
Makes 25
Ingredients:
1 large apple like Braeburn, Gala
75g raisins
75g golden sultanas
75g currants
65g dried unsweetened cranberries
60g other dried fruit (sour cherries, blueberries, mango, apricots - dried but unsweetened)
Zest and juice of an orange
50g coconut palm sugar (or 2 tsp Stevia)
4 tsp organic butter, cubed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp brandy
Add of the ingredients above (other than the brandy) into a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir. When the butter is fully melted, turn the heat to low, cover and cook for 15minutes, stirring often. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir through a tbsp of brandy, and decant into sterilised glass jars. Leave to cool with the lid slightly open, then secure tightly and store until ready to use.
For the pastry
150g ground almonds
75g coconut flour
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 sea salt
zest of an orange
115g butter frozen, plus extra for greasing
1 egg lightly whisked
Put the ground almonds and coconut flour into a bowl with the sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in the orange zest. Grate the frozen butter into the flour and mix together with your fingers until a crumb forms. Stir in the egg and bring together with your hands to form a dough.
Divide the dough in half, wrap each half in film and place in the fridge for 1 hour (or overnight). Pre heat the oven to 175C. Grease the moulds of a muffin pan with a little butter. Remove the dough from the fridge and place between 2 sheets of greaseproof / baking paper. Roll with a rolling pin to flatten out the dough oil it is pie-crust thin.
Using a cookie cutter (or an upturned jam jar - needs to be about 8cm diameter) cut out 25 circles and lightly press into the muffin pan moulds. The pastry can be tricky to work with as there is no gluten holding it together. Be patient. If the pastry splits just push it back together with your fingers and use any pastry scraps to fix it up.
Fill up each pie mould with a heaped teaspoon of the mincemeat. Using the remainder of the dough cut out 25 stars to top each pie. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes. Leave to cool in the tins before gently easing them out. Don’t be tempted to remove from the tin when they come out the oven. They WILL fall apart!
