I make - Gluten-Free Minced Pies 2020

It took me three rounds to finalize the pastry recipe which I'm pretty pleased with. It's light, crisp and with good taste. This year I opted for Mary Berry's mincemeat recipe because I couldn't find fresh cranberries this year. It's a good substitute but personally I still prefer Nigella's version with fresh cranberries. Nevertheless, they are still good mince pies and will do for this year.

Gluten-Free Mince Pies 2020

Homemade Mincemeat (adapted from Mary Berry's recipe):

350 g dried fruits (sultanas, cranberries or currants)
50 g mixed peel
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped
50 g butter, cut into cubes
100 g light muscovado sugar
½ tsp mixed spice
finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon and 1 small orange
100ml Rum or Amaretto (I used half each)

Pastry:

150 g gluten-free flour (your favorite blend)*
50 g ground oats (aka oat flour or substitute GF flour instead)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (if your blend does not have it)
1/4 tsp baking powder
a scant 1/2 tsp salt
50-70 g icing sugar**
100 g cold butter, cubes
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Zest from 1 orange
1-3 tbsps*** vodka (or just water)

Frangipane filling:

50 g butter, melted
50 g sugar
50 g ground almond
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
Note: The butter, sugar and ground almond can increase to 100 g each if more frangipane is required. There is no need to increase the egg or the almond extract.

First prepare the mincemeat by cooking together everything except alcohol until fresh apple dices become mush and no standing liquid left in the pot. Turn the heat off and stir in alcohol. Cool the mincemeat completely before using. This recipe of mincemeat is enough for 24 mince pies.

Next is to prepare the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like fine bread crumbs. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the water-vodka mixture in. Work the dough together with your hand. Add a tablespoon more of the liquid each time if the dough is dry. Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour before rolling and cutting out to line a 12-hole muffin tin. The pastry is enough for 12 deep mince pies (without lid) with some scrap left.

Fill each lined muffin hole with 2 teaspoons of mincemeat and top with one teaspoon of frangipane. Bake the mince pies in a muffin tin at 200C for 15 minutes and lower to 175C for another 5 minutes.

*My blend is: 20% Buckwheat + 20% Brown Rice + 20% Millet + 20% Sorghum + 20% Tapioca

**The pastry is actually the same recipe for shortbreads. Should you only want to use half of the pastry for mince pies, 70g sugar turns half of the pastry into shortbread cookies easily with just the right amount of sweetness. Or 50g sugar gives a more subtle sweetness as pie crust.

***I've made this pastry three times and each time needs a different amount of liquid. So my advice would be to check how dry the dough is before adding any liquid. Start with 1 tsp if the dough doesn't seem dry or with 1 tbsp if the dough has loose crumbs at the bottom of a bowl.