Mega Mince Pie

After getting into the Christmas spirit back in September by making Cranberry Chutney and some mincemeat, I decided it was about time the mincemeat got used. Well, some of it at least. I remember making some mince pies with a frangipane topping a year or so ago so dug out the recipe and got baking.

I decided to follow the recipe to the letter, just substituting normal flour for gluten-free. The pastry had the addition of ground almonds, some icing sugar and the finely grated zest of an orange and seemed to be coming together really well.  Since gluten-free pastry is very fragile - gluten gives pastry and dough a stretchy quality that is entirely lacking without it - I always roll it out between two sheets of clingfilm as this helps to keep it all together and also helps when transferring it into any sort of pie tin or flan case. However, my patience was growing rather thin as I attempted to cut out 9cm discs of this very fragile mixture and line deep mince pie tins with it. I was up against the clock as I had a date with a friend, and things weren't going at all well. I had already scrapped two attempts to line just the first of 12 pie 'holes' and the pastry was in danger of being over worked or even thrown in the bin in frustration.  I therefore took the executive decision to make one giant mince pie rather than the more traditional individual ones. Well, the baking process was supposed to be enjoyable and it was rapidly becoming the opposite. I'm also a firm believer in cooking and baking with love for the people I love and things were feeling rather doomed at this point!

A quick re-roll of the pastry on fresh clingfilm gave me a large circle which I easily lifted into a 23cm flan tin. The rest was simple - spread it with a jar of homemade mincemeat and make up a frangipane mixture to cover it, finishing with a sprinkle of flaked almonds.

The mega mince pie came out of the oven (180C or gas mark 4) about 35-40 minutes later and was bundled straight into the car for the drive to my friend's house. I have to admit that my car has never smelt so good! The pie went down a storm and the addition of the orange zest in the pastry was sheer genius. This is definitely a recipe to be repeated!

For the pastry:

125g plain flour, or gluten-free equivalent

50g ground almonds

75g lightly salted butter, chilled and cubed

25g icing sugar, sifted

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1 large egg yolk (add a bit of the white if using gluten-free flour)

For the frangipane topping:

100g lightly salted butter, at room temperature

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

100g ground almonds

1 tbsp plain flour (or gluten-free equivalent)

A sprinkling of flaked almonds for the top