Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups almond meal or ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons honey, organic maple syrup or rice syrup
- 30 ml / 2 tablespoons, macadamia or light olive oil, almond oil, melted butter or cold pressed coconut oil (I used butter)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 200 g ( 7 oz) fruit mince pie filling ie enough for 10 pies
Fruit mince
- 500 g (17 1/2 oz) apples, finely diced with the skin (royal galas are in season in Western Australia)
- 250 g (8 3/4 oz) raisins
- 100 g (3 1/2 oz) cranberries or sun-dried cherries
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 orange (you will need the zest from ½ orange)
- 500 ml (2 cups / 17 1/2 fl oz) fresh apple juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
Directions:
- Combine almond meal, honey, oil, vanilla and egg into a large bowl
- Mix by hand until you form a soft dough
- Add a splash of water if needed to form into a soft dough
- Roll out carefully between 2 sheets of baking paper and cut into circles, large enough to to cover the base and sides of your tart shells
- Prepare 10 tart shells before lining with a light coat of butter, followed by a dusting of coconut or ground almonds to prevent sticking
- Fill lined tart shells with 1 tbsp of the fruit mince.
- Roll out rest of the pastry and cut out in the shape of stars
- Arrange stars over the top of the mince pies.
- Bake in a low 150 C (300 F) oven for 30 minutes or until golden
- Cool completely before turning out of the tin.
Makes 10 delicious fruit mince pies
Store in an airtight container for 7 days.
- Combine the apples, raisins and cranberries into a pot
- Add the apple juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, vanilla and the zest from 1 orange
- Cover the pot and simmer over a gentle heat for 30 minutes, making sure to stir every now and then. (Make sure not to boil too fast, just a slow gentle simmer)
- Add more apple juice if needed to keep the mixture plump and moist then simmer for another 30 minutes
- Turn off the heat and allow to cool.
- Now at this stage your fruit mince will be ready to enjoy – but for those who want to add that festive cheer, you can stir through a generous splash of calvados ( apple brandy).
Your fruit mince is now ready.
Notes
- Rather than rolling it out I took a small piece of dough, rolled it into a ball, flattened into a circular shape & then lined the tin with it.
- I used leftovers to make star shaped biscuits. Or make double the amount of dough to make extra biscuits / cookies as christmas gifts.
- If you follow the recipe above, you shouldn’t have problems. Then if you do find it is too sticky try my method as suggested above.
Inspiration for this recipe came from Teresa Cutter, The Healthy Chef, www.thehealthychef.com
