Frangipane Mince Pies

Ingredients:

For the Pastry:

• 100g rice flour
• 50g sorghum flour, or gram / garbanzo bean or buckwheat flour
• 2 tbsp polenta (fine ground cornmeal)
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp psyllium husks or 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 75g butter, cold and cubed (plus a little extra, softened, for greasing the tin)
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• zest and juice of an orange
• 1 egg yolk

• 411g jar of mincemeat (you won’t use it all)

For the Frangipane:

• 50g butter, softened
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 50g ground almonds
• Flaked almonds for decoration

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius / 160 fan / 350 Fahrenheit. Grease the cavities of the tin with a little butter.
2. Using either a stand mixer or your hands, place the flours, polenta and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Add the butter and mix (or rub between your finger-tips)  until it resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add the sugar, psyllium husks and the orange zest and mix.
4. Add the egg yolk followed by the clementine juice, gradually adding it until the mixture starts to form a dough. Using your hands, bring the dough together in the bowl, adding more liquid a little at a time if needed (if you run out of juice, use water instead) until it forms a ball. It should feel quite moist.
5. Leave the dough to sit for 30 minutes to allow the psyllium husks to become gummy. If you are using xanthan gum then there is no need to let it sit.
6. Make the frangipane by creaming together the butter and sugar in a small bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg then mix in the ground almonds. Set aside.
7. Roll the dough out between two pieces of cling-film until it is approximately 5mm thick (do this is two batches if it is easier). Using a round fluted cutter, cut out the bases for the pies and place in the tray. Gather the pieces of dough together and re-roll as required, until you have used as much of the dough as possible.
8. Place a heaped teaspoon of mincemeat into each pie and then top with a teaspoon of the frangipane mix. Top with flaked almonds.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown all over.
10. Allow the pies to cool for 10 minutes in the tray before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

© The Pink Rose Bakery 2014

Adapted from my Mince Pie recipe.