It was great to meet the lovely Paulette Edwards at Radio Sheffield today, as well as Richard Setchell from the British Oak Ale House in Mosborough. We were talking about gluten free cooking at Christmas, and you can listen to the show here. It’s about 2 hours in, after Rod Stewart! I promised to share the recipe for my gluten free mince pies, so here it is:

Gluten free mince pies with macaroon topping

This year I’ve tried a new recipe for the pastry, which is much easier to work with than my previous one. It’s from Leiths, and uses xanthan gum to replace the gluten. You can find the pastry recipe here. I used all butter instead of half margarine and it worked fine. You do need to make sure you refrigerate the pastry as suggested. This is the first time I’ve been able to make pretty mince pies with scalloped edges because I didn’t have to wrestle with the pastry putting it in the tin!

After refrigerating the pastry in the bun tray, I filled the pies with some nice shop-bought mince meat, and topped them with the macaroon mix, which is made as follows:

2 egg whites
100g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour
2tsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Flaked almonds

Lightly beat the egg whites. Fold in the caster sugar and ground almonds. Stir in the cornflour blended with water and vanilla essence. This is easy – just don’t over-whip the egg white! This mixture tops about 12 regular sized mince pies.

Spoon the mixture on each of the mince pies instead of using a pastry top. Pop a few almond slices on each mince pie, and pop them in the oven at 190C for about 20 mins. They rise into beautiful little domes and go lovely and brown.

Cool the pies on a wire rack. They freeze nicely and can be defrosted either at room temperature or in the oven.

I have no idea of the origins of this recipe, but it’s become a firm family favourite.

Another alternative to a pastry top is to cover the mince meat with a sprinkling of the flaked almonds. This worked out nicely when I had more pastry than topping, and it’s a tiny bit healthier – not that that’s the aim!

Christmas ice cream

This is one of our family favourites, that we’ve been enjoying for a long time before any of us were coeliac. I’m not so much into Christmas pudding so this is our usual Christmas dinner dessert.

It doesn’t take very long to make, and you don’t need an ice cream maker (I’ve never allowed myself one!) You just have to remember to give it a good stir every couple of hours or so as it freezes. So don’t make it in the evening.

I have no idea where to attribute this recipe – it’s one of those that was passed down on a scrap of paper!

2oz sultanas
2oz raisins
2oz glacé cherries – chopped
2tbsp Cointreau
Zest & juice of 1 orange
5 egg yolks
5oz caster sugar
1/2 pint each single & double cream
6oz plain chocolate

• Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over Cointreau, orange juice & zest.
• Put egg yolks and sugar in separate bowl & whisk well.
• Heat single cream gently until almost boiling and pour over yolks. Stir well and return to pan. Heat until it thickens then remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until melted then leave to cool.
• Whip double cream until thick and add to mixture with the fruits and liquid. Pour into a tub and freeze. Stir every couple of hours until frozen.
• (Use the egg whites to make meringues or the macaroon topping for mince pies above!)