For many, there’s nothing more delicious than enjoying a mince pie during the festive season. You’ll find them all over supermarkets, in restaurants and also many homemade varieties.

Unfortunately, the typical mince pie recipe is not FODMAP friendly. But don’t worry, we’ve adapted our recipe to make sure that you don’t have to miss out and you can still get to enjoy this festive treat!

Dried fruits are generally high in fructose and it’s recommended to avoid these if on a low FODMAP diet. Luckily for us a small serving of dried cranberries is low in FODMAPs so we’ve mixed these with fresh clementines, walnuts and festive spices to make the sweet mince pie filling that we all know and love.

Each mince pie is made with a buttery short-crust pastry made using gluten-free flour and our magic ingredient – xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is used in gluten free baking as it helps to mimic the elasticity that gluten usually gives. We’ve added this as an optional ingredient because even though it is low FODMAP, it can cause digestive issues for some when consumed in larger amounts. We’ve included a small teaspoon in this recipe but also feel free to remove it completely – your pastry will be a little more crumbly but still taste delicious.

Recipe

Difficulty Rating: Medium

Prep/Cooking Time: 1.5 hours

Serves: This recipe makes 12 mince pies

Ingredients

Pastry

1. 225g (7.5 oz) gluten-free white flour
2. 115g (4 oz) cold butter
3. 1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp of water
4. 1 tbsp sugar
5. Pinch of salt
6. 1 tsp xanthan gum (optional)

Mince Pie Filling

1. Flesh of 6 clementines (~ 300g / 10.5 oz)
2. Zest of 1 clementine
3. 100g (3.5 oz) dried cranberries (9g per pie)
4. 30g (1 oz) crystallised ginger
5. 100g (3.5 oz) roasted walnuts
6. 100g (3.5 oz) sugar
7. 100g (3.5 oz) butter
8. 1 tsp vanilla extract
9. 1 tsp mixed spice
10. 1 tsp nutmeg
11. 1 tsp cinnamon
12. ½ tsp ground ginger
13. 40ml water

Method

Pastry

1. Sieve the flour and xanthan gum (if using) into a large bowl, followed by the sugar and a pinch of salt.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Slowly add the egg and water mixture and mix together with a fork until it forms a smooth ball. If it is too crumbly then add a little more water but don’t make the mixture too wet as it will be difficult to roll out.
4. Wrap the ball in clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

Filling

1. Peel and chop the clementines and add to a large saucepan.
2. Add in the remaining ingredients and leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
3. Take it off the heat when the mixture has become sticky and the liquid has reduced and set aside to cool.

Assembling the mince pies

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180°C / fan 160°C.
2. Dust a work surface with gluten free flour before rolling out the pastry. When about 1cm thick cut out circles using a pastry cutter, you can also use the top of a glass.
3. Grease a muffin tin before placing the circles into the muffin tin and press into the edges.
4. Add a scoop of the filling into each pie, you can fill them right to the top.
5. With the leftover pastry you can cut out the tops for the pies. We used a star-shaped cutter but use whatever you have.
6. Bake in the oven for roughly 15 minutes. They should start to turn a golden brown colour.
7. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.

Top tip: For extra colour and shine, brush the top of your pastries with an egg yolk.

Aine Moran, BSc Nutritional Sciences

14 December 2020 | Food, Recipes