Sugar Free Mince Pies
I can say with certainty that Christmas is the hardest time of year to be sugar free. Mostly because people keep saying: “but come on, it’s Christmas!” over and over, and before you know it, your “one or two treats a week at Christmastime” limit has ended as you realise a mince pie here and a hot chocolate there has resulted in you scoffing a sugar-filled “treat” a day just because it’s Christmastime.
Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy seasonal treats and perhaps relax the rules a little at this time of year. We usually do, and then do a mini-detox in January to make sure we have not allowed sugar to get too much of a hold of us over the season. But still, I try and grab every chance I get to make treats sugar free or low sugar so that most of our indulgences are actually not too bad in the long run!
One of the things I’ve struggled with has been mince pies. Mostly because I couldn’t even begin to fathom how you make mincemeat without sugar or dried sugar fruit! I mean, that is mincemeat. There is basically nothing else to it!
But a bit of Googling and a great discovery of a low carb, low dried fruit mincemeat from a favourite food blogger started me off on the testing of the Christmas recipe I am most proud of. I mean, the peppermint hot chocolate was a pretty great one. But this… well, this is the star on top of the tree for me. Mince pies without sugar, and just a tiny smattering of dried fruit, which you are free to leave out if you want. It just makes it a little more authentic. 🙂
The first batch I made was deemed by my husband to be “the best mince pie I’ve ever tasted“. I thought that was a little overly generous as to me they were just “pretty great”, but lacked some of the Christmas flavour and spice. But by the time I had played around with the spices to perfection, I had to agree with him. I had a shop-bought mince pie the other day, and I can honestly say that these were better.
So why not make a batch for family, or friends, or neighbours, or carollers this Christmas? They are cheap, easy, and sugar free. What a great way to convince the sugar free skeptics in your life! Or to treat anyone who simply does not enjoy dried fruit (which I gather is quite a lot of people!).
Merry Christmas everyone!
Easy sugar free mince pies made with vegan, gluten free, low carb mincemeat that contains barely any dried fruit! Use gluten free, low carb or vegan pastry with the mincemeat to make it suitable for anyone with these dietary preferences. And make an extra big batch to bring with you to any parties or family celebrations this year so you know there is at least one thing you can enjoy after the Christmas dinner! Adapted from this recipe.
- 3 satsumas
- 3 tbsp raisins
- 2 tbsp walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
- 4 tbsp sugar free cranberry sauce*, or use fresh cranberries and add extra xylitol
- 1 apple, grated (a pear would also work)
- 4-8 tbsp xylitol, to taste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 1/2 tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin spice)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 stick (110g) unsalted butter, cold and diced
- 1 3/4 cups (250g) flour (plain, wholemeal or gluten-free all work fine)
- 1 tbsp xylitol
- 3-4 tbsp ice cold water
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Peel and chop the clementines, and chop about 1 tbsp of the clementine skin really really finely. Discard the rest, or add to some vodka to make orange extract (it'll take about 8 weeks to infuse - the longer you leave it, the stronger the flavour will be).
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Add the clementines and chopped peel, along with all the other ingredients except the cornflour, to a pan.
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Bring to the boil and then turn the heat right down, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 10 mins. Take the lid off, mix about 1 tbsp of the mixture with the cornflour in a separate bowl, then pour the cornflour paste back into the pan. Simmer for another 5 mins until thickened. Taste a little (be careful - it will be very hot!), and adjust the sweetness to your liking, stirring in more xylitol if you wish. Allow to cool.
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Meanwhile, make the pastry: Add the butter, flour and xylitol to a food processor and pulse until the mixture starts to look like breadcrumbs (a little tip: don't wait for fine "breadcrumbs", it's best when it looks a little "bitty" like it is lots of different sizes of breadcrumbs in the bowl). Turn the food processor on and gradually pour the water, 1 tbsp at a time, in through the spout. Wait for at least 30 secs between each tablespoon to see if the dough starts to come together. Once it has come together into a rough ball, stop the food processor, take the dough out and bring it together until smooth. Press into a disc, cover with cling film, and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 15 mins, but ideally 30 mins.
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Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas Lightly grease a muffin tin with coconut oil or butter.
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Roll out the chilled pastry and use a circular cutter slightly bigger than the muffin tin holes to cut out 12 circles. Place each of these in the bottom of the muffin tin holes and press them lightly up the sides (they don't have to go all the way up). Roll the pastry back out, choose a smaller circular cutter roughly the same size as the muffin tin holes, and cut out 12 circles.
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Fill each pie base with a tablespoon of mincemeat and top with the smaller circles. Press along the edges slightly to seal the pies, brush the top with a little beaten egg (or milk if you don't have egg), and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins, until the tops are golden and the filling is bubbling.
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Allow to cool before removing from the tin and serve them warm or cold with clotted cream or pouring cream or even whipped dairy or coconut cream.
*you can find my delicious sugar free cranberry sauce recipe here - make a batch and serve some with the Christmas dinner as well as using some for mince pies! You can also freeze it in portions for up to 3 months, so no worries if you don't use the whole thing!
Hello. I’m so glad I stumbled across your site on Pinterest. So keen to try these mince pies out this year. Can you use maple syrup or honey instead of xylitol? It’s not the sort of thing I usually keep at home. Thanks so much!
Hi Lindsay,
If you want them to be sugar free then it’s best to use xylitol or a different natural sugar free sweetener like erythritol, dextrose or stevia (although you will have to adjust the amounts). Unfortunately maple syrup and honey are both classed as “free sugars” by the World Health Organisation so we tend to only use them occasionally as a treat and keep to the recommended maximum 6 teaspoons of free sugars a day (also includes fruit juice and table/caster sugar, etc). However, if you are happy to make them with sugar and make them a treat, then you could definitely give it a go, although it would be easier just to replace the xylitol with white sugar rather than liquid sweeteners as it would act far more like it. Liquid sweeteners would need to be added to taste and adjusted a lot more to make sure the texture and taste was right. If you are interested in getting hold of some xylitol you can find it here: http://amzn.to/2khYpt8 . Some supermarkets in the UK even stock it now (look for Total Sweet in with the sweeteners). It’s a sweetener that is known for its dental health benefits and is used to treat ear infections in children, but should be kept out of reach of dogs as it is dangerous for them to consume. You can read more about our stance on sweeteners here: https://www.raisingsugarfreekids.com/well-stocked-pantry/a-guide-to-sweeteners/
Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello there,
I’ve just found your beautiful recipe and I want to try it soon! I’m wondering, how much meat is enough for this recipe? And also type of meat will help. (: I do not have xylitol and gonna use honey but I saw that you wrote that honey is free sugar then I change my mind. I think I’m gonna add vanilla extract to make it sweeter. What do you think?
Have a great weekend and also merry xmas by now!
Hi Ece,
“Mincemeat” is an unfortunate name and I’m not entirely sure why we in England call it that, but there is actually no meat in it at all. If you follow the “mincemeat” recipe (the fruit, xylitol, nuts, water and spices) then you will have more than enough mincemeat to fill the pastry with for mince pies. If you want to get hold of xylitol, you can get it online here: http://amzn.to/2jwCFGS or in some of the bigger supermarket in the UK (not sure where you are, but if you type xylitol into the Amazon for your country you will usually find some!). Honey is indeed counted as a free sugar so we tend to keep its use minimal in our house, but you could use stevia (a couple of drops of liquid stevia like this one: http://amzn.to/2j7IMEw works well) or sweeten to taste with vanilla if you want. I think for a recipe like this one that calls for quite a bit of sweetener you may find it isn’t sweet enough with just vanilla or cinnamon or licorice root, but if you use more of the sweet fruit (like the satsumas/clementines, apple and raisins) and less of the more bitter ingredients (skip the clementine peel and use sugar free ready made cranberry sauce or just skip the cranberries and use more apple and raisins) then you should be able to get a sweeter taste without the sweetener. I have not tried it myself so I’m not 100% sure what would work but you could have a play around and keep tasting it as you cook it so you can adjust to taste! 🙂
Hope that helps.
what a great recipe! I just prepped the dough and the mincemeat but have yet to bake them. I have two questions though:
when you listed “mixed spice”, do you mean allspice?
and also, you listed corn flour to thicken the mincemeat, is there a reason you used that instead of corn starch?
thank you!
Hi Abigail,
Glad you like the recipe so much! Mixed spice is found in practically every UK spice rack in the supermarket, but I’m guessing from this being the second time someone has asked me about it that it is not commonly found in the US? From having made a pumpkin spice mix myself before they seem remarkably similar, so you could perhaps use that. Commonly it is a mix of ground spices including mostly cinnamon, some allspice, nutmeg, a little pinch of cloves and some ginger, but it sometimes also contains a fair bit of ground coriander and sometimes a little ground caraway, too. You could make your own – this recipe from GoodFood looks like an accurate one: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/181605/mixed-spice, or just use pumpkin spice and maybe add a little pinch of cloves and/or some coriander (cilantro, but dried and ground, not fresh). It should basically smell like Christmas once mixed! 🙂
Ooh, sorry, I usually add a note for American readers with translations of ingredients like bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) or cornflour (cornstarch), which are UK English terms! I will change that now, but yes, it is cornstarch!
Hope you enjoy them – I’m off to make some more now because we’ve eaten all of ours…again. 🙂
Hi, if you don’t freeze and the mincemeat how long will it last before you bake the pies?
Hi Jan,
I have successfully kept the mincemeat in an airtight jar in the fridge for about 2 weeks (it’s usually gone by then so not sure if it would last much longer!). If you put it into a hot sterilised jar while still warm and seal and store in the fridge once cooled it may well last longer (although once opened I would recommend using within a week or so). It lasts quite well, but not as long as the sugary store-bought stuff so it won’t last for months or keep well out of the fridge like that would. Certainly if you see any mould appear, it’s no good, and it should still taste like it did when you first made it, but I’m always surprised how well it does keep!
Hope that answers your question! 🙂
Hello there would love to make these on stir up Sunday can I jar the mincemeat ready to pop in the pastry tarts nearer to Christmas?
Hi Chantal, I have successfully kept this mincemeat in the fridge for 2 weeks, but I am not sure if it would last beyond that as there isn’t enough sugar in it to preserve as long as regular mincemeat. So it depends how long you want to keep it for? I have heard of a reader or two keeping it up to 4 weeks, but can’t guarantee that works every time! Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. You could try freezing the mixture and defrosting fully in the fridge to use, but it’s fairly high in water content so the texture might not be exactly the same.
My wife ayI made these on Tuesday, I am type2 diabetic so was looking for something to ease my Xmas mince pie urge, these were just right, I have one each data’s my treat and they seem to get better each day, we are going to make two batches this week one without the walnut as my sons partner has a nut allergy so hope the flavour doesn’t suffer. Thanks
I’m glad you enjoyed them Paul! 🙂 They should be fine without walnuts – they mostly just add a little more crunch than flavour.
I have made this recipe and unfortunately, after baking them, the pastry was so crumbly that I could not get them out of the baking tray. They just collapsed and became some strange Xmas crumble.
Any idea why this happened?
Oh no! I’ve never had that happen before or had anyone tell me it has to them! Generally, pastry is crumbly if it is too dry. What flour did you use? Was it coming together as a smooth dough before baking? It should be a smooth dough when you chill and roll it out, not crumbly. If it is crumbly, it needs a little extra water. Another possibility (although it would be more likely to collapse than crumble if this were the case) is that either you over-filled the mince pies with the mincemeat or that there were holes/tears in the pastry when you filled it, which could cause the filling to leak and make the pastry stick to the tin and collapse/tear as you tried to remove them. If you make them again, make sure the dough has come together as a smooth (but not sticky) dough before chilling and rolling/cutting, that the filling is thick and has had time to cool completely, and that you lightly grease and/or flour the muffin tin and check the pastry for any tears/holes (and not roll it too thinly or fill it too much) to make sure they don’t get stuck. When cooked, allow to cool in the tin for a bit before removing them to let the pastry rest and then remove gently (I find a spoon or palette knife quite helpful for getting them out) and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack. The pastry should be flaky, but not crumbly! So sorry it didn’t work out for you, I do hope it tasted ok and that you will give them another go. Let me know how you get on. Claire x
Thank you for this lovely recipe. This was my second sugarless Christmas and last year I ached for mince pies – these more than made up for it! Such a nice, fresh, tasty mix of flavours.
I’m so glad Anna! Hope you had a great one! 🙂