Gluten free - can be dairy free- egg free - contains sugar.
This is such a simple yet yummy Christmas-time treat. Ok, I'll admit this is basically just a white chocolate Rocky Road, but it has a very festive twist! I use dried cranberries and pistachios to give them a red and green theme, and I make it flat and cut in into angled 'shards' instead of in the traditional Rocky Road squares. You can try it either way- this year I did a bit of both. I know not everyone can eat white chocolate for various reasons. There are dairy-free white chocolate options out there. I haven't found a low sugar version yet, but that's why it's called a treat! You can also use a high-cocoa-content dark chocolate if you prefer to make it lower in sugar and dairy free. I have no set quantities for this recipe...I kinda wing it each time, depending on how much I want to end up with at the end. So here are the list of ingredients- all completely optional and replaceable with any similar produce (other dried fruit and nuts), and ratios depend on your own taste buds! INGREDIENTS
Stir all your 'mix-ins' into the melted chocolate. Poor onto your baking tray and use a spatula to spread and flatten the mix. Place in fridge till set and cut into desired shapes. As an extra treat, for my Rocky Road this year, I also melted some dark chocolate (about 1/4 of the amount of white chocolate I'd used) and spread it over the base of the set Rocky Road. This gave it a lovely contrasting base and I love the way the less-sweet dark chocolate cuts through the super-sweetness of the white. I was so happy with these that I included them as part of my Christmas gifts to my girlfriends. GLORIOUS! It's not Christmas without fruit mince pies. There is now a range of gluten free mince pies in the supermarkets, but I've they're full of a bunch of stuff that frankly I don't want to put in my body. Making your own is not hard, and can be lots of fun. The kids love cutting out the pastry with the shaped cutters and spooning the fruit mince in. Today I'm posting the gluten free pastry recipe that I've always used, given to me by a friend a few years ago.
This pastry is, of course, not just great for mince pies. It's an all purpose pastry for sweet or savoury pies or tarts. I always double it so I have lots of mince pies If you're making a large pie with both a base and a top, you'll also need to double it. INGREDIENTS
METHOD
For mince pies: After rolling the pastry, use a cookie cutter or top of a glass that is slightly larger in diametre than the size of the hole of your muffin tin. Press the cut circles into the greased muffin tins (a light spray of oil is enough). Use a slightly smaller circle to cut the tops of the pies, or use a more festive shape like a star or Christmas tree. Roll out any excess dough and make more! For large pies: Trace the shape of the pie dish with a pencil on the top piece of baking paper and place pencil-side-up when rolling out the dough so you know what size to make it. Use an egg wash (lightly beaten egg) to brush over the top of pastry if using a pastry lid. Bake at 200 C for about 15 mins if blind-baking your large pie before placing filling it it. For mince pies, bake for about 15 mins or till golden (check regularly after 10 mins to make sure it’s not over-cooking). gluten-free - dairy-free - refined-sugar free -
can be preservative and additive free - egg free - nut free Christmas is my favourite time of the year- I love the hot weather, the anticipation of good things coming, the excitement of the kids, the gatherings with family and friends, the opportunity to focus on giving and generosity. If you can get this made a few weeks (or months!) before Christmas, it tastes so much better! I make this fruit mince every year and make a couple of big batches of gluten free mince tarts, and my in-laws have an Aussie Christmas tradition of making a frozen Christmas Pudding rather than a boiled one. I use this fruit mince and make one frozen pudding with dairy free ice cream for those of us that need it, and another with regular ice cream for everyone else. You don't have to follow the exact mix of fruit that I use. If there's something you don't like, replace it with more of something that you do. Just stick to the overall quantities. I always try to use organic dried fruit, as it doesn't contain preservatives. It's almost impossible to find dried cranberries or glace cherries that don't have additives and preservatives, so if anyone in your family is sensitive to these, leave them out. You could try replacing them with gogi berries if you want something red in your mince. There is extra sweetness and moisture added to the mince with some jam. I always use fruit-juice sweetened jam that is refined sugar free. Most supermarkets carry at least one brand of this. If you don't like, or can't eat, citrus peel, try using apricot jam rather than marmalade. If alcohol is not your thing, other than the fact that you have my commiserations (!), try replacing it with grape juice. So, take my advice- get out there and buy your favourite mix of dried fruit then get it 'brewing' in the fridge as soon as possible. You can thank me for it later! INGREDIENTS
METHOD
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