Christmas is not Christmas in my house without mince pies. Apart from the years when we went against the grain and had ice cream for dessert (ooooooo mince pies and salted caramel ice cream – yum – storing that away) on Christmas day, mince pies have always been the pudding of choice.

Since at least half of my vast array of Kilner jars are currently full of the most divine homemade Christmas mincemeat I thought now might be a good time to start experimenting with some pastry.

Not that I’m against heating a little mincemeat and eating it with some coconut milk in place of single cream, it’s just that there is something about being able to hold warm mince pies in your hand.

One of the reasons, after much deliberation, I settled, this year, for a basic pastry mince pie.

Just as a side note the beautiful cutters I stumbled on in Lakeland plastics – they are so gorgeous I will definitely be making use of them with Christmas cookies in the future.

A couple of tips when making the pastry - firstly try to handle it as little as possible.

It is necessary to roll it out on some flour to prevent it from sticking but as this will gradually fold into the pastry try to cut as many bases and tops from the first roll as you can. The less you handle it the lighter the pastry will be.

So here you have a great little mince pie – ready for dessert for Christmas day lunch, to take to friends or to hand to carol singers that drop round (although I must say whilst I’ve read about them extensively in literature they have never actually made it to my doorstep.)

Hope you enjoy! :)

Shortcrust Mince Pies Prep Time: 25 mins                                    Bake Time: 8 mins                              Makes 24 Pies

Ingredients: Base: ½ Cup Coconut Oil - melted 1¼ Cups Ground Almonds ½ Cup Almond Flour ¼ Cup Powdered Coconut Sugar 1 tsp. Powdered Vanilla 2 tbsps. Maple Syrup ½ tsp Baking Powder Pinch of Himalayan Salt ¼ Cup Iced Water   Mincemeat Filling: 1 Jar Mincemeat

Instructions: 1) In a bowl mix together coconut oil, ground almonds, almonds flour, coconut sugar, vanilla, maple syrup, baking powder and salt.   2) Stir in the ice cold water – this should form a dough that leaves the side of the bowl clean. Rest the dough in the fridge for 15 mins.   3) Preheat the oven to 160˚C   4) Roll out on a floured surface (I used a mix of tapioca and rice flour) and cut as many bases and top as you can from the first roll. Repeat until the dough is all used – try to handle as little as possible. I used a snowflake cutter for the shapes for the top.   5) Using an oiled cupcake tin place a base in each cavity.   6) Spoon about as much mince as you can fit into each pie (mine was about 1½ tsps.) and place a snowflake on the top.   7) Place in the oven for 8 mins.   8) Remove and allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack.