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Monday 28 November 2016

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

22 comments:

Francisco Manuel Carrajola Oliveira said...

Uma bela receita.
Um abraço e boa semana.
Andarilhar

Lowcarb team member said...

Francisco translation:

A beautiful recipe.
A hug and a good week.

Anonymous said...

That was so sweet with your grandchildren. Recipe looks delicious.

Jenny S

Jo said...

We're a funny bunch here, none of us like mince pies, Christmas cake or Christmas pudding. We do enjoy lots of other lovely treats in their place though.

Tom said...

...I'll pass, thank you!

sage said...

I may have to try this! I like mincemeat pies but have never tried to make one.

Christine said...

I never thought there was such a thing as low carb mince pies! Bring them on!

Stephanie said...

Ooooh, Father Christmas will love these...and so will I {{smiles}} What a wonderful recipe, dear Jan. Thank you for sharing!

Have a lovely week. Hugs!

Martha said...

What a delightful recipe!

Anonymous said...

Yes please,
My Christmas wouldn't be Xmas without one:)

Judith @ Lavender Cottage said...

What a great recipe, and using cranberries - a real favourite. Mincemeat tarts come from my English heritage which I love but so many people in Canada haven't heard of, or don't like them. They don't know what they're missing.
Thanks so much for your recipe!

Sara - Villa Emilia said...

I have never tasted mince pies... and this post made me think it's a real pity. :)
Their ingredients sound all very good. I'm sure I would love them.
Thank you for the fun and interesting post! xx

Lisabella Russo said...

I'm not usually a fan of mincemeat pies, but these look wonderful!

Revrunner said...

Part of my childhood.

Karen @ Beatrice Euphemie said...

My Grandmother always made mince pies for the holidays and these look absolutely wonderful! Thank you for the recipe! xx Karen

sandy said...

I don't bake much but if I did it would be these - they look great! When i was a kid we had two kinds of pies at the holidays - mince meat and pumpkin pies. Only my aunt and i ate the mincemeat - all others had the pumpkin.

Lady Fi said...

Part of my childhood too although these days I don't much like mince pies...

Bob Bushell said...

I think you needs more than one to satisfy father christmas' appetise???????

Snowbird said...

I'm sure santa will just love these!xxx

Red Rose Alley said...

Now, these are the kind of mince pies that I like, with the raisins and cranberries and spices. I was talking to a friend, and I guess they used to make mince pies with real meat? Now, that doesn't sound too good. I think people either love mince pies or they dislike them, and I happen to love them. My mom made them when I was growing up, and really miss the taste.

~Sheri

Magic Love Crow said...

Thank you! This looks so good! I know my mom will love this too!

Lisa said...

If you put those out for FC he may stay too long muching and not get on with his delivering, they look scrummy.
Lisa x