Christmas past

Gav and I took the Christmas tree down this weekend and I'm so sad that the holiday's over - and the family have flown back south - I could sit and eat a dozen mince pies (if I had any left!)... washed down with a cup of tea or two.

I know these recipes are a bit late (okay about 16 days late!), but I've been in the kitchen mastering crispy, flakey gluten-free mince pie pastry with my sister, cooking the famous Christmas ham with my mom, and coming up with a gluten-free version of the Kidger sherry trifle that is so good you want to do a Nigella Lawson sneaky in the middle of the night and demolish what's left of it. I'm afraid the ham and the trifle recipes (absolutely NO red jelly or horrid canned fruit in this one!) are trade secrets, but I will share my mince pies and date snowballs. I'll be bringing them out again next Christmas.

Date Snowballs

Simple cocoa version

½ cup finely chopped dates

1 tsp g-free cocoa powder

Smoosh these very complicated ingredients together, roll into 6 balls, dust with cocoa powder and eat.

Adult version

½ cup chopped dates

1 tsp cocoa powder

¾ tsp Brandy

5 tsp powdered almonds

Follow the above steps and dust them with almond powder.

Coconut treats

½ cup dates

1 tsp cocoa powder

4 tblsp sweet shredded coconut

Follow the first steps and dust these with desiccated coconut. These are a brilliant snack even when it's not Christmas.

Mince Pies

This pastry recipe was the result of many attempts. Too hard, too heavy, too crumbly, too gritty. Gordon Ramsay would have fired me months ago. But, I've come up with a flour blend that works and I used it in the "May Kidger/Lucy Field Soda Water Pastry" recipe. For those of you who don't know, May was my grandmother and Lucy one of her dear friends, and we will never know whose recipe it really was :)

110g gluten-free flour blend (I used Dove's)

45g white corn meal

35g rice flour

10g glutinous rice flour

3ml salt

½tsp salt

100g cold butter

50ml soda water (use more or less depending on how well the dough comes together)

25ml brandy optional

1 jar g-free fruit mince (Robertson's is said to be gluten-free)

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the cold butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the soda water (and brandy) and work to a soft dough. It will seem a bit wet at first but the gluten-free flour quickly absorbs water. Roll into a ball, cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180C. When rolling out gluten-free pastry, the trick is to do it between two sheets of cling film. Roll out to the desired thickness (this pastry mix can go quite thin without falling apart when you cut it) and cut out your pastry rounds. Fill the pies with fruit mince and top with a pastry star or disc. Brush with a little milk and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown and bubbling.