DAY 21: Homemade gluten dairy free mince pies

4 DAYS TO GO! And that means there is a definite need for some mince pies. I recently discovered I coudn't eat gluten, at least not in heavy concentrated doses and this meant no more mince pies. However, Genius shortcrust gluten free pasty has come to the rescue. 

I have made gluten free mince pies before but they weren't as successful. They crumbled a lot and fell apart whilst eating them... not ideal. But let's call that a practice run! These however were much better. So let's get down to it. 

You will need;

Genius shortcrust gluten free pastry

Mincemeat

Orange

Cinnamon

Icing sugar

Cutters

Rolling pin

Grater

Preheat oven to roughly 180 degrees C (gas mark 4)!

(This was half the pastry... I forgot to photograph it before I started making). I split the packet into two just to make it more manageable. Dust your surface with some icing sugar, this not only adds some sweetness to the pie but too much (gluten free) flour can dry the pastry out. 

Kneed your pastry into a round ball making sure there's plenty of icing sugar on the surface so you don't end up stuck! 

Roll out your pastry to about the thickness of a pound coin. Half of the packet should make roughly 12 bases for the pies with the other half used for the tops. I chose not to grease my pan and in hindsight this may have been a mistake as some of the bottoms did get a little stuck (screw you not stick pan). I would advise a very small amount of butter or some oil just to make sure they wont stick.

Now it's time for the mincemeat. You could use the mincemeat straight from the jar but me with my massive sweet tooth prefers it a little sweeter. For half the jar I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon and the gratings from the skin of a quarter of a small orange.

Now it's time to cut out the tops. I did the same process as before instead using smaller cutters. 

This is what you should have! Make sure you only use about a teaspoon size of mincemeat per pie. You're welcome to use more but it may escape from the pie and burn and well from experience it makes a bit of a mess!

Once you've put on all the tops I brushed the top of the pies with almond milk just to give them a little crispyness when they came out of the oven. I then poked the pies with a cocktail stick to allow air to enter the pie. This hopefully means they won't blow up in the oven. Lovely. 

I put them in the oven for about 20 minutes but it really does depend on your oven. They should be cooked all the way through and a light golden in colour. Sprinkle with some icing sugar and you are set to start munching! 

Good Luck.

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