These Gluten-Free Vegan Mince Pies are crispy, flaky, fruity and fragrant. They're not too sweet, healthier than the traditional version, refined sugar free and super easy to make. The best festive sweet treat for Christmas!
Mince pies, also known as mincemeat pies or fruit mince pies, are a sweet pie filled with a spiced dried fruit mixture, although they did originally used to contain minced meat too. They are traditionally eaten at Christmas.
"Mincemeat" is the filling inside mince pies. It originally used to contain minced meat, but nowadays it is made with dried fruits, citrus peel, nuts, grated apple and spices, often soaked in alcohol. It is often made using suet too, but this not included in this vegan version.
Commonly used alcohol types are rum, brandy or sherry, but you can use any alcohol you like.
If you need this recipe to be gluten-free, make sure to check that the alcohol you use is gluten-free.
If you need it to be vegan, you can use the website barnivore.com to make sure that your alcohol is vegan.
Mince Pies traditionally contain alcohol as the dried fruits are soaked in alcohol when making mincemeat. To make alcohol-free Mince Pies, you can replace the alcohol by soaking the dried fruit in orange juice or apple juice instead.
Yes - you can do this by placing the dried fruit and alcohol (or juice) mixture in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 1 - 1 ½ minutes. Then leave to soak for 30 minutes.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Place the dried fruit, walnuts, orange zest, grated apple, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and maple syrup in a bowl and add a generous amount of brandy or sherry, until everything is roughly covered.
- Keep covered in the fridge for around 24 hours, to allow the flavours to develop.
Tip: Use a box grater to grate the apple - and there's no need to peel it first.
- Combine the coconut oil, ground almonds and flour in a glass mixing bowl along with 7 tablespoons of water, until it forms a firm dough.
Tip: Add the water a few tablespoons at a time so that you don't add too much!
- Lay out a sheet of baking paper on a counter. Sprinkle the surface of the paper and a rolling pin with a generous amount of flour.
- Take just over half of the pastry dough and use the rolling pin to roll it into an even rectangular shape, as thin as you can without it breaking.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut out a circle of the pastry dough.
- Place the pastry circle in a greased muffin/cupcake tin and gently press down - make sure to do this carefully so you don't crack the pastry.
- Repeat until you get another 11 circles and place them in the muffin/cupcake tin too - you will need to roll out the pastry a few times.
- Roll out the remaining pastry dough and use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a star shape (or a smaller circular one if you don't have a star-shaped one).
- Place a heaped teaspoon of the mincemeat into each pastry crust.
- Place the pastry stars on top of the mincemeat in the pie crusts.
- Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, until the pastry crust is firm to the touch and golden brown.
How long do these Mince Pies keep for?
These Mince Pies keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of dried fruit: I used a mixture of dates, cranberries, figs, prunes and apricots, but you can also use raisins, sultanas, sour cherries, mango, papaya or pineapple.
- You can replace the walnuts with pecan nuts.
- You can replace the alcohol with orange juice or apple juice.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, date syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the gluten-free flour with rice flour.
- You can use plain flour, wholemeal (whole wheat) flour or spelt flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you're not gluten-free.
More vegan festive desserts
- Christmas Pudding
- Pecan Pie
- Apple Cake
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Christmas Fruit Cake
- Pumpkin Pie
- Gingerbread Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Mince Pies
Ingredients
For the mincemeat:
- 100 g (½ cup) dried fruit , finely chopped (I used a mixture of dates, dried cranberries, dried figs, prunes and dried apricots, but you can use whatever dried fruit mix you like)
- 25 g (¼ cup) walnuts , finely chopped (or sub pecan nuts)
- 1 teaspoon unwaxed orange zest (or sub ½ teaspoon orange extract)
- 1 apple , grated - no need to peel
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice (or sub a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves)
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- Brandy or sherry (ensure vegan/gluten-free if necessary - or sub apple or orange juice)
For the pastry:
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil
- 75 g (⅔ cup) gluten-free flour blend , plus more for rolling (or sub rice flour, or plain all-purpose flour if not gluten-free)
- 75 g (⅔ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 7 tablespoons water
Instructions
For the mincemeat:
- Place the dried fruit, walnuts, orange zest, grated apple, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and maple syrup in a bowl and add a generous amount of brandy or sherry, until everything is roughly covered.
- Keep covered in the fridge for around 24 hours, to allow the flavours to develop.
For the pastry:
- Combine the coconut oil, ground almonds and flour in a bowl, along with about 7 tablespoons of water, until it forms a firm dough - add the water a few tablespoons at a time so that you don't add too much!
To assemble:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Lay out a sheet of baking paper on a counter. Sprinkle the surface of the paper and a rolling pin with a generous amount of flour.
- Take just over half of the pastry dough and use the rolling pin to roll it into an even rectangular shape, as thin as you can without it breaking.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut out a circle of the pastry dough.
- Place the pastry circle in a greased muffin tin and gently press down - make sure to do this carefully so you don't crack the pastry.
- Repeat until you get another 11 circles and place them in the muffin tin too - you will need to roll out the pastry a few times.
- Place a heaped teaspoon of the mincemeat into each pastry crust.
- Roll out the remaining pastry dough and use a star-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a star shape (or a smaller circular one if you don't have a star-shaped one).
- Place this on top of the mincemeat on one of the pies.
- Repeat until you use up the rest of the pastry - you will need to roll out the pastry a few times.
- Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, until the pastry crust is firm to the touch and golden brown.
- Keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
Notes
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Mary Jean
Can this be made into a single 9" pie?
Rhian Williams
Yes! Just adjust cooking time accordingly - it will take about 30 minutes I think!
Angela Gabriela Horne
These mince pies look lovely. Thank you, Rhian.
I wondered if these could be made a week or so in advance and frozen before baking?
Rhian Williams
Thank you! I think instead of freezing them then baking, it would be better to bake them first, then freeze them and defrost/warm them up in the oven before eating. Hope that helps!
jacquie
i love mincemeat though not I'm not a fan of pie. I plan on making just that piece and having it w/ some almond milk ice cream. thanks for the recipe.
Rhian Williams
That sounds delicious thanks for sharing!
jacquie
i love mincemeat but not pie so i plan on using that to top almond milk ice cream. Thanks for the recipe!
Mandy
Can the pastry mix be made nut free, if so,what is the best thing to substitute the ground almonds (but is still GF).
Rhian Williams
You can use ground sunflower seeds. Hope that helps!