Mince Pies : The Low Carb Way : Father Christmas Will Love Them !

Talking with the grand-children recently, I asked them, what was the best thing we could leave out for Father Christmas when he visits soon! Mince pies was the unanimous answer, with some carrots for Rudolph and the other reindeer. What a good idea I replied, and I just happen to know of a very nice mince pie recipe which is low carb - Sshh don't tell anybody else - but I just know Father Christmas likes them this way !!!

Fellow blogger and Type 1 Diabetic Ewelina writes 'Can you imagine Christmas without mince pies? Well, you don’t have to now as there is a solution to your festive cravings. Low carb pastry filled with aromatic low carb mincemeat. All covered with vanilla and brandy butter making your Christmas truly merry but still guilt free.

The recipe below makes six pies, and if you wish to make more, just double or triple the ingredients. Erythritol is used as a sugar substitute, but you can use any other sweetener of your choice (just remember to adjust the carb count for it).'

Ingredients:-
Mincemeat:
50g fresh or frozen cranberries
75g (its about ½) Bramley apple
25g chopped walnuts
1 tbsp. coconut oil
1 tbsp. ground almond
2 tbsp. erythritol (or any other sweetener of your choice)
2 tbsp. brandy
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. orange zest
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
Pinch of ground cardamom
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves

Pastry:
100g ground almond
15g coconut flour
15g soy flour
1tbsp arrowroot starch
½ tsp xantam gum
3 tbsp coconut oil (slightly warmed up)
1 tbsp cold water

Brandy butter:
50g butter
30g erythritol (powdered)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp brandy

Preparation:-
Mince meat:
1. Place all the ingredients (apart from brandy) in a small sauce pan and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes. Add brandy and stir well.

Pastry:
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add coconut oil and water and mix well. Form the dough into a ball and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4
3. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out to about 30cm/12inch circle.
4. Using 7cm /3 inches round cookie cutter (or a glass), cut out circles. You should have enough dough for 6 tartlets plus some dough for decorations.
5. Gently loosen circles of dough with an offset spatula and place in a mini muffin tin, shaping to fit the hole.
6. Prick the bottoms of pies with a fork and fill each shell with about 2 tsps of mincemeat. Decorate with leftover dough (I just cut out little circles using brandy bottle lid) and bake for about 20 minutes until pastry edges are golden brown.
7. Let it cool down before removing from the tin.

Brandy butter:
1. Beat butter with erythritol, vanilla extract and brandy until well combined and smooth. Dollop a tsp of brandy butter on each pie and serve.

Nutrition without brandy butter (using erythritol as sweetener).
Per mince pie: Carbohydrates 4.1g Protein 5.4g Fat 21g Calories 233

If you serve it with a tsp of brandy butter add about 70kcal and 8g of fat to each pie.

Please note that this carbohydrate count does not include the erythritol. Studies have shown that erythritol has little to no affect on blood glucose levels.

Recipe idea from here

Please make sure to save at least one for Father Christmas ...

All the best Jan