We all know Santa loves a mince pie or two, but we also know that sometimes mince pies contain alcohol and drinking and driving is strictly prohibited – even for the elves – which is why these mince pies are alcohol free. I haven’t had a mince pie all year, so I was anxiously anticipating for the day to arrive when I could make my own and that day just so happened to be Friday – a week away from Christmas day – and they were worth the wait. I used the marmalade which I had left over from my St Clemente tartlets in my own variation of mince meat and I was impressed; I also added some Irish cream flavouring from the Skinny Syrups range too.

For the pie cases I used the same recipe that I made for the St Clemente tartlets, but doubled it so I would have enough pastry for the lids too. I would recommend making the mince meat a few days to a week prior to when you plan to make these mince pies as the longer it has to soak the better the end result, especially if you decide to use alcohol. I made my mince meat two weeks ahead and the flavour was delicious.

I also have a more up to date mince pie recipe here.

Ingredients: Mince Meat

• 100g Dried Figs
• 100g Soft Dates
• 100g Sultanas
• 50g Walnuts
• 60g Chunky Apple Puree
• 60g St Clemente Marmalade
• 45ml Orange Juice
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Mixed Spice/Pumpkin Spice
• 45ml Irish Cream Flavouring or Irish Whiskey
• 1/3 cup Sweetener

Ingredients: Pastry

• 100g Rolled Oats
• 50g Sukrin Coconut Flour
• 60g Grass-Fed Butter or Coconut Oil
• 1 Free Range Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/5 Cup Sweetener
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• 2 tbsp Ice-Cold Water

Directions

• Pre-heat an oven to 170c
• Add the rolled oats to a food processor and blend into a flour, before adding the eggs, baking powder, sweetener and coconut flour and proceed to blend the ingredients together.
• Cube the butter and add it to the mixture and pulse the food processor so that the butter isn’t blended up completely, but chunked through the flour. Continue to add the ice cold water to bring the ingredients into a ball of dough. Cover and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Sterilise a countertop and dust with some flour, before rolling the pastry flat and cutting 8 round shapes from it. Press the pastry into a greased muffin tin and fill with the mince meat. Follow the same process to make the lids, place over the top of the cases, press gently around the sides and pop into the oven for 20 minutes.

NB: You should have about half the mince meat left after you have made these mince pies, you can double the pastry recipe and make more mince pies, or save it and make the mini Christmas cakes I have coming up over the next week.

For more recipes and ideas follow me on Instagram – @TheHungryWelshGirl and tag me in any of the recipes -I would love to see what you create and hear what you all think.

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