Meat-free – Mince Pies Recipe

Makes

Ingredients

For the pastry:

60g/2oz vegan butter, plus extra for greasing
4tbsp coconut palm sugar
½tsp vanilla extract
85g/3oz rice flour, plus extra for dusting
50g/1¾oz chickpea flour (gram)
60g/2oz cornflour (cornstarch)
¼tp xanthan gum
A pinch of Himalayan pink salt
3tsp water

For the filling:

60g/2oz unsweetened dried blueberries
100g/3½oz unsweetened dried cranberries
50g/2½oz sultanas
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Juice of ½ orange
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
¼tsp grated nutmeg
1tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. To make the pastry, in a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, xanthan gum and salt. Pour the flour mix into the butter mixture. Add the water and use your fingers to mix it together to form a dough. Knead for a minute and then roll into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, put all the ingredients for the filling in a food processor and pulse until you achieve a rough consistency.

3. Preheat the oven to 170˚C/325˚F/gas mark 3 and grease a 12 hole muffin tin with vegan butter.

4. Dust a work surface with some rice flour and roll out the pastry until 3mm thick. Using a pastry cutter, stamp out 12 rounds, rerolling the trimmings and cutting again; keep the remaining pastry aside. Use these rounds to line the base and sides of each muffin hole.

5. Fill each pie with 1tsp of the ‘mincemeat’ – do not overfill.

6. With the remaining pastry, roll out to the thickness of 3mm and using a shaped cutter, cut out 12 shapes that form your pie lids. Place over the filling, pushing the edges of the lids down. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

7. Remove from oven, transfer to wire rack, dust with rice flour and agave powder.

Courtesy of Honestly Healthy For Life: Healthy Alternatives for Everyday Eating by Natasha Corrett and Vicki Edgson.
Photography by Lisa Lindner. Published by Jacqui Small.

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