Hello there lovely people, I hope you’re all doing well and are in a festive mood 🙂

With life being super busy and with all that’s going on in the country right now, I started feeling a bit unmotivated lately so I turned to you guys for inspiration recently.

I asked what you’d like to see more of from me and what Christmas themed recipes of ideas you’d want health-ified (for lack of a better word). The two most popular answers were by far a healthy and easy Christmas fruit cake – linked here https://holisticnutritionninja.com/2019/11/30/healthier-fruit-cake-just-in-time-for-christmas-%f0%9f%8e%84/ and mince pies.

So, after spending A LOT of time in the kitchen, I came up with a healthier mince pie recipe that I’m going to share with you all today.

These are not super fast to make, nor is this the easiest recipe, however, the result is delicious, the ingredients are healthy and wholesome and if you do enjoy cooking, you’re going to love this one!

I chose ingredients that are really wholesome for this recipe – I wanted to get all the flavour using only the best ingredients I could think of. This recipe is both vegan and gluten free, contains no added sugar or sweetener whatsoever – sweetness comes from both the dried and fresh fruit – and contains no artificial flavourings or strange ingredients. While dried fruit does contain a substantial amount of sugar, the fruit does still contain important nutrients that our bodies really need. In moderation, dried fruit are a wonderful addition to our diets 🙂

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Filling ingredients:

100ml fresh orange juice

6 medjool dates – chopped

2 small red apples – peels and finely chopped

100g golden raisins

50g dried cranberries

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Add all the above ingredients to a small pan and cook together on low heat for 45 – 50 minutes allowing the flavours to meld together and mix to thicken. Stir every now and again and if your mix is looking dry add some water – not too much though – you don’t want your filling to stick to the bottom of the pan, but make sure it’s thick by the end of the 50 minute mark.

Once your filling is on the stove, start making your pastry…

Pastry ingredients:

300g pure ground alomonds

200g pitted medjool dates

50ml melted coconut oil

25ml water

Method:

Add all the above ingredients to your food processor and blitz until a the pasty forms into a ball.

Now wrap in cling film / plastic wrap and allow to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Once pastry is chilled, add a generous amount of flour to your work surface and roll into approx. 2 cm thickness. Punch out round pieces – I used for 1 cup measuring cup for this – and place into a muffin tray. Fill with mince pie filling and add another round of pastry – this time I used my 1/4 cup measuring cup as it needs to be much smaller than bottom round – and place on top. Use your fingers to gently fuse bottom and top together. Repeat until you use up your ingredients.

Then brush the top of your mince pies with milk – this just helps with browning – you could also use and egg wash here.

Now, bake in a 180 Celsius oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool before serving – I couldn’t resit trying them immediately but the flavour is so much better once you allow them to cool and set.

I know this isn’t the simplest recipe however it really is worth the effort – I hope you try this one and love it! That’s it from me for now 🙂

If you like this, don’t forget to ‘like’ it – it helps let me know what you guys want to see more of!

If you have any questions or requests for future blog posts, please leave them in the comment section below. Don’t forget to click on the ‘follow’ button below to stay updated on all the content I share here. Also, I do share a TON of recipes over on my facebook and instagram pages – @holisticnutritionninja

As always, if you do try them out, please let me know 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to be here and read this ❤

Until my next post, be well xXx