Gluten and dairy free mince pies!

These delicious little mince pies will ensure that you no longer have to miss out if you are gluten or dairy intolerant.

Using a combination of ready made gluten free flour and chestnut flour, we think we have the ultimate gluten and dairy free pastry. Easy to work with and with a great taste, this pastry is short but not too crumbly. Its really quite exciting!

150g gluten free flour*

*(Our Cloud 9 gf flour has Xantham gum in it, but if you make up your own flour, add a teaspoon of Xantham gum to the flour mix - this helps to stop the pastry from being too crumbly)

50g chestnut flour (if you are intolerant to nuts or can't get chestnut flour, use extra gluten free flour instead - we just like the taste that chestnut gives)

a pinch of fine sea salt

1tsp icing sugar

100g cold lard - cut into small pieces (if vegetarian substitute with 80g of Trex)

1 whole egg

15-20 ml non dairy milk - we have tried cashew and coconut milk - both are lovely!

1 jar of mincemeat

Pre-heat your oven to 200C

*Put flours, salt sugar (and Xantham gum if necessary) and fat into a food processor and pulse in short bursts until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

*Add egg and non-dairy milk and pulse again until everything comes together in a large clump *

(*If using a Thermomix - put everything in the bowl in the order above, and whizz for 21 seconds on speed 4.5)

Tip pastry onto a lightly floured work surface, and bring together into a flat round. Roll out gently until about the thickness of a pound coin, turning 1/4 each time you roll - magically you should end up with a square piece of pastry!

Cut with a circular cutter to fit your tart tins - gently pressing into the bottoms of the tin. Cut out a star shaped top for each pie.

Fill with a teaspoon of your favourite mincemeat (we used a home-made mincemeat, but a good shop bought one is easiest - check it is gluten free first!!) and top with a pastry star.

Place pies in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes to make sure the pastry is cold before it goes in the oven. (keeping the fat in the pastry cold, helps to ensure a lovely flaky pastry)

Cook for approximately 14 minutes, or until pastry is a lovely colour (the chestnut flour will make it go quite a dark brown - do not worry, as it will taste wonderful!)