Fruit mince pies, gluten free
Have a healthier Christmas this year without sacrificing on the festive treats! These traditional fruit mince pies use apple, dried fruits and maple syrup so that they’re naturally sweetened without the need for refined sugars. We’ve also made our shortcrust pastry gluten free.
Servings 14 mince pies
Equipment
- Round cookie cutter, large
- Star-shaped cookie cutter, medium
- Food processor
Ingredients
Gluten free shortcrust pastry
- 325 grams naturally gluten free flour* (2 cups) - we used Doves farm rice flour
- 150 grams unsalted butter, softened (⅔ cup )
- 4 tablespoons maple syrup (60 ml)
- 1 egg
- 1½ teaspoons xanthan gum
- 1 orange, juiced (50 ml)
- pinch salt
Mincemeat filling
- 3 pink lady apples (150 grams) finely chopped, with peel on
- 60 grams raisins
- 50 grams sultanas
- 50 grams currants
- 50 grams goji berries
- ½ orange, zest and juice of
- ½ lemon, zest and juice of
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 25 grams unsalted butter or coconut oil (2 tablespoons)
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt (remove if using salted butter)
Topping
- 1 egg beaten with a little water (for the eggwash)
- 40 grams Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Instructions
Gluten free shortcrust pastry
- To make the dough, sift the gluten free flour into the bowl of a food processor.
- Add the softened butter and mix on a high speed until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add in the maple syrup, egg, xanthan gum and the juice of 1 orange to the mixture. Beat again until it makes a dough.
- Remove the dough and knead it gently on a floured surface.
- Cut the dough into two pieces, wrap each one in clingfilm, and chill in the fridge while you make the mincemeat.
Fruit mincemeat
- Dice the apple. The pieces should be about as big as the raisins. The peel can stay on.
- Place all the mincemeat ingredients into a large saucepan and set on a low heat.
- Cook with the lid on for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking to the pan. Make sure it’s on a low heat and that you check on it every few minutes as the dried fruits can burn quite quickly.
- Towards the end of cooking time remove the lid to let any excess liquid evaporate. Empty the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
Fruit mince pies
- Preheat the oven to 170°C or 340°F fan setting.
- Grease a shallow cupcake tray with butter or oil spray.
- Take the pastry out of the fridge and working with one half at a time, roll it to approximately 3 mm thick. You can do this by flouring a flat surface or by rolling the dough between two pieces of greaseproof paper.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles that are roughly the same size as the holes in your cupcake tray. Press the cut out circles into the greased cupcake holes.
- One of your two pieces of dough should make about 12 circular bases. The rest will be used to make the stars on top, and a further 2 bases and stars.
- Fill each pastry case with 2 heaped teaspoons of mincemeat mixture.
- Roll out the remaining half of the pastry to 3 mm thickness and cut the stars out. You want them to be smaller than the width of the mince pies. Gently place each star on top of the mincemeat mixture.
- In a bowl make the eggwash by beating an egg with a little water.
- Brush the tops of the mince pies with the eggwash and place them on the middle shelf of the oven to cook for 20 minutes or until golden.
- Leave the pies in the tin to cool before releasing from the tin. Dust with sieved icing sugar before serving (optional).
Notes
*You can replace this with plain flour if you want regular mince pies. If you do this, remove the xanthan gum from the recipe as well as it's not needed with all-purpose flour.