To keep you on your toes, we thought we'd put a spin on the old traditional Mince Pies. These Caffè Latte Mince Pies just hit differently - they're super flavoursome and the coffee isn't going to blow your head off, but is subtle enough to make them taste delicious. Our lovely Amy has done a sterling job with these - don't miss out!
What you'll need:
For the pastry:
- 2 tbsp ground chia or flaxseeds + 4 tbsp water
- 100g Caffe Latte Porridge Oats
- 50g ground almonds
- 60g buckwheat/plain flour
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil or vegan butter/margarine (plus extra for greasing)
- 3 tbsp plant-based milk
For the filling:
- 200g mixed dried fruits, chopped small if needed
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp coffee or espresso powder
- 75ml water
- 10g ground almonds
What you'll need to do:
- Make the filling: add the mixed dried fruits, vanilla, cinnamon, mixed spice, coffee/espresso and water to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer over a gentle heat with a lid on for 10 minutes until plump and juicy. Stir in the ground almonds. Leave to one side.
- Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C and grease 12-15 small cupcake holes with coconut oil or vegan butter/margarine.
- Make the pastry: stir together the ground chia or flaxseeds and water and leave to one side to form a gel. Blitz the Caffe Latte oats to a fine flour and add to a bowl with the ground almonds, flour and salt. Stir in the melted coconut oil or vegan butter/margarine, plant-based milk and chia seed gel. Bring to a dough.
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to ½ cm thick. Cut out 12 bases and 12 star or regular tops, you may need to re-roll the scraps of pastry and continue to make up to 15 pies.
- Gently place each round base into the greased cupcake holes, fill with 1 heaped teaspoon of mincemeat and press on the star top. Brush the tops lightly with melted coconut oil/vegan butter/margarine and bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown and crisping on top.
- Allow to cool and lift gently out of the tins. Serve dusted with icing sugar.
PS....don't forget to check out our latest flavour of porridge!
