Ahhhh good old mince pies. These mince pies are buttery, crumbly, a little bit naughty and a whole lot nice! Santa will be pleased when you leave him some of these out with a glass of milk (or rum)!
This is probably the first year where I have made every little part of my Paleo Mince Pies. Yes it may be a little bit time consuming but it’s a whole lot rewarding and my kiddiewinks were more than blown away. Just seeing them get excited about Christmas all from taking a bite of one of my mince pies is well, just plain lovely!
It was quite amusing to hear my daughter say “But these taste like mince pies?!”. She was utterly shocked!
I had a play about with different depths and thicknesses of pastry. My favourite to look at was made in a muffin tin and was so incredibly deep that sadly I felt I was just eating far too much mincemeat. It looked super modern so next year I will be going on the hunt for a smaller but deeper tin!
I hope you enjoy these naughty little Paleo bites as much as I do!!!
Please note that all cup measurements used are British cups and equal to 250ml.
Either purchase or make your own mincemeat in advance! Click the link in the ingredients and follow the cooking instructions there.
In a small mixing bowl sieve in your flours and salt.
Chop your butter into small cubes and throw in.
Cover the bowl with cling film, give it a good shake until the butter is covered by the flour and then place into the freezer for 20 minutes. This is what makes your pastry lovely and light and crumbly.
In the meantime freshly squeeze your orange juice and pop that into the fridge to chill until needed.
Remove your flour and butter bowl from the freezer and pour into your food processor. Process until it comes together into small oat like sized balls.
Pulse in your orange juice by the tablespoon. It is not likely that you will require much more than half of it at this stage. You just want to use enough for it to only just form the beginnings of a dough ball. Place your orange juice back into the fridge.
Remove the pastry from the processor and form by hand into a ball. Cover in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat your oven to 180C and gather all of your utensils.
Remove your dough from the fridge place back into the food processor and pulse in 1 tsp of your chilled orange juice. Process on full speed until the dough has warmed up enough to be handled.
Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with some tapioca flour.
Take a small handful of dough at a time to work with (enough for 2 pies) and roll into a ball with your hands. Place the dough onto the work surface and roll it out fairly thin but not so thin that it will break when placed into your cake tin. Roll this pastry very lightly otherwise it will likely tear apart. Also keep on top of the dusting as it may stick to your work surface!
Cut out your bases with the large crinkle cutter. If you want a traditional look use the crinkle side if you want to go for a more modern look like I have then use the back. If you have trouble removing the dough from the work surface use a small cake spatula to scrape underneath carefully and then lift.
Pop the bases into the cake tin and gently press them down and around the outer edges.
Fill with 1 heaped tbsp of mincemeat. You want them to be full to the top but not brimming!
Top with your stars pressing down as gently as possible. Repeat this process until you have fille the tin. Sometimes the dough may need a quick blitz in the food processor but it should be ok.
Place your mince pies into the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. This may take less or more time so keep a watchful eye as they love to cook quickly!
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them and placing them onto a wire rack.
Once completely cool lightly dust them with the Paleo icing sugar and enjoy!
i’m curious as to why you’re using a ‘fat-reduced’ almond flour?
Right. Yes I’m aware that almond flour is preferable and I appreciate that this is a treat and not exactly an ancestral food- and I’m fine with that. I Just wasn’t sure if you’re using ‘reduced fat’ b/c of some weird emulsion thing or can I just use normal almond flour (with all the fat that’s there)…?