Paleo Frangipane Star Topped Mince Pies

As my Paleo Star Topped Mince Pies were such a hit I thought I’d give them a quick and fancy little upgrade which will quickly make your boring old regular mince pies into a show stopper on your big day! They taste absolutely amazing and people will think that you have been working your socks off… really they are super easy to make and the frangipane doesn’t really add too much to your prep time but shhhhhhh I won’t tell if you don’t!

When you tuck into these bad boys you won’t even notice that they are Paleo, in fact nobody will! These have been a big hit in my household so I hope they are for you too!

Happy Christmas everybody! I hope that Santa brings you all that you wish for,

Lots of Chrimbo Love…

Georgie xxx

Makes: 12 Mince Pies

Preparation Time: 1hr 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Please note that all cup measurements used are British cups and equal to 250ml.

Ingredients:

For the Pastry:

100g tapioca flour
50g Sukrin Almond Flour
100g cold raw grass-fed unsalted butter (can use 50g coconut oil)
Pinch of Himalayan pink salt
Juice of 1 orange

For the Frangipane:

50g raw grass-fed unsalted butter (cubed & softened)
1/6 cup raw honey (or 40g coconut sugar)
20g Sukrin Almond Flour
5g tapioca flour
30g ground almonds
1 large egg
3 apricot kernels finely ground (optional)
1/2 tbsp almond extract

For the Filling:

Just over 1/2 cup of Paleo Mincemeat

For Decoration:

1 tbsp of Paleo Fragrant Spiced Faux Icing Sugar

Utensils:

7 cm/2.75″  Stainless Steel Crinkle Cutter
4.7cm/1.85″ Star Cutter (a 2″ one would work fine)
Fairy cake tin with indentations 0.5″ deep with the bottom diameter of 2″ and top 2.75″ (I picked mine up at Morrisons!)
Rolling pin

Method:

1. Either purchase or make your own mincemeat in advance! Click the link in the ingredients and follow the cooking instructions there.
2. In a small mixing bowl sieve in your flours and salt.
3. Chop your butter into small cubes and throw in.
4. Cover the bowl with cling film, give it a good shake until the butter is covered by the flour and then place into the freezer for 20 minutes. This is what makes your pastry lovely and light and crumbly.
5. In the meantime freshly squeeze your orange juice and pop that into the fridge to chill until needed.
6. Remove your flour and butter bowl from the freezer and pour into your food processor. Process until it comes together into small oat like sized balls.
7. Pulse in your orange juice by the tablespoon. It is not likely that you will require much more than half of it at this stage. You just want to use enough for it to only just form the beginnings of a dough ball. Place your orange juice back into the fridge.
8. Remove the pastry from the processor and form by hand into a ball. Cover in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
9. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and gather all of your utensils.
10. Prepare your frangipane. Combine all of the ingredients into a food processor or in a mixing bowl hand beat together until completely smooth and pale in colour. Set to one side.
11. Remove your dough from the fridge place back into the food processor and pulse in 1 tsp of your chilled orange juice. Process on full speed until the dough has warmed up enough to be handled.
12. Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin with some tapioca flour.
13. Take a small handful of dough at a time to work with (enough for 2 pies) and roll into a ball with your hands. Place the dough onto the work surface and roll it out fairly thin but not so thin that it will break when placed into your cake tin. Roll this pastry very lightly otherwise it will likely tear apart. Also keep on top of the dusting as it may stick to your work surface!
14. Cut out your bases with the large crinkle cutter. If you want a traditional look use the crinkle side if you want to go for a more modern look like I have then use the back. If you have trouble removing the dough from the work surface use a small cake spatula to scrape underneath carefully and then lift.
15. Cut out your stars.
16. Pop the bases into the cake tin and gently press them down and around the outer edges.
17. Fill with 1 heaped tablespoon of frangipane followed by 1/2 tablespoon of mincemeat. You want them to be full to the top and slightly brimming! I found that they were tastiest 2/3 frangipane and 1/3 mincemeat.
18. Top with your stars pressing down as gently as possible. Repeat this process until you have fille the tin. Sometimes the dough may need a quick blitz in the food processor but it should be ok.
19. Place your mince pies into the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. This may take less or more time so keep a watchful eye as they love to cook quickly! They will be ready when they start to come away from the edges and the mincemeat is bubbling. The frangipane will rise up too.
20. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them and placing them onto a wire rack.
21. Once completely cool lightly dust them with the Paleo icing sugar and enjoy!

 

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