Fruit mince! YUM!

Firstly, I apologise for not posting this recipe earlier. I had all these hopes of posting lots of gluten-free Christmas recipes, but sometimes things never work according to plan. Just like yesterday, something that the media are calling a "swarm of earthquakes" happened. (Seriously? A SWARM?!) So for many people Christmas will be filled with joy, sadness and a little bit of fear again this year.

At least the weather is Christmassy! People can sleep outside on the trampoline and not worry about getting too cold. It is so warm and sunny, it feels like Christmas.

Hi norther-hemisphere people! To me Christmas wouldn't be right if I wasn't wearing a singlet and shorts.

So I give you Summer fresh fruit mince! Fruit mince pies are usually so heavy and dense that you can't stomach more than one. I changed that, with a lot of inspiration from Nigella Lawson. Below is the fruit mince recipe that I have tailored to New Zealand ingredients - feel free to add some fresh raspberries, currants or strawberries if you like. I would have, but I prefer to eat them fresh!


50ml cranberry juice
6 Tbsp brown sugar

495grams tin of dark pitted cherries (and juice from tin)

1/3 C dried currants
1/3 C raisins
2/3 C cranberries
1 tsp ground ginger
1 (scant) tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 medium lemon or orange (the rind of one fruit, but only juice of half)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond essence (I ran out, so left this out of my second batch)


Make this in a medium sized pot, with a wide enough base to help the mixture reduce quickly and high enough sides to protect your kitchen from boiling red missiles.

Dissolve 50ml cranberry juice and 6 Tbsp brown sugar over medium heat.

Add the tin of cherries, including all of the liquid from the tin. Crush the cherries gently with the back of your spoon and bring to the boil.

Add the dried fruit and spices. Let the mixture simmer, stir occasionally to smash up the fruit, for about 15 minutes. By then it should look like a lumpy red paste and the liquid should have evaporated, leaving a delicious looking thick sauce behind.

Now add the rind of one lemon/orange and the juice of half a lemon. Add the vanilla and almond essence.

Taste and check the texture. If it is still quite liquid, and less of a thick syrup with gleaming lumps of fruit - try adding some grated apple. The only reason I haven't included that in the recipe is that I didn't have any for my second batch and it worked out just as well. So this part is completely optional, same with the almond essence.


The pastry: I used the new Pavilion gluten-free pastry range. It comes pre-made and should be in most supermarket freezers. The short-crust and sweet pastries work great with this fruit mince.
OR: I recommend trying Bakels' pastry mix.
If you're not a pre-mix person, check out Karen Morgan's amazing book: Blackbird Bakery.

I only made little pies, using my mini muffin pans which turned out to be the perfect size for fruit mince pies.

Grease the muffin pans.
Roll out your pastry as normal and use a round cookie cutter to make shapes that are a little bit bigger than the circumference of the muffin size. Press the rounds into the holes, spoon the fruit mince to fill and place a little pastry star (or heart? awww!) on top.
Bake for about 10-15 minutes, depending on your pastry.



ENJOY!