It's never too late to build a mince pie
“The future... seems to me no unified dream but a mince pie, long in the baking, never quite done.”
Edward Young
I know it's Christmas Eve and I promised you the mince pie recipe a few days ago but i've been playing with it to come up with a superior mince pie. You can give these pies to your loved ones and they'll never suspect they're raw unless you decide to tell them! These pies are causing quite a stir in households and offices across the land:-) Thanks to Emma Mihill for her ideas on the pastry and full credit to Elaina Love for the cream recipe...
Mince Pies With Whipped Cream
Recipe by Russell James
Makes 15 pies
For the pastry
1c almonds
1c walnuts
1c pecans
1c raw jumbo rolled oats
20 dried soft apricots
For the filling
7 soft dates
juice of 1 orange
1t orange zest
1 apple
½t mixed spice
1c raisins
For the cream 1c courgette, peeled and chopped ¼c agave nectar 1c cashews, soaked 2 hours 1t psyllium husk powder 1t vanilla extract Merry Christmas!!! xxx
• Soak nuts overnight and fully dry them in a dehydrator. To make the pastry, first process the nuts and oats in a Vita-Mix dry jug or coffee mill so that you end up with a fine ‘flour’.
• Transfer the mixture to a food processor with an ‘s’ blade. Add apricots one at a time until the whole mixture becomes sticky. If you are using apricots that have been soaked, you may find that you already have a dough-like consistency. If the mixture isn’t forming a ball in the processor at this point then add some water (soak water if you soaked the apricots) a few tablespoons at a time until it does.
• Roll out the mixture on a flat surface so that it is about twice the thickness of a pound coin. If mixture sticks to rolling pin, mill some more oats to dust the rolling pin and rolling surface with.
• Using a pastry cutter that will cut a base to the required size for your baking tray, cut the bases from the rolled out dough. Place these in a muffin baking tray that has been lined with Cling Film. You will need to re-form and re-roll the dough to get the most from it. Use any left over dough to build extra pies!!! Place the baking tray in a dehydrator at 115 degrees F.
• To make the filling, remove stones and flowers from dates and place in food processor. Add the orange juice, zest and mixed spice. Process and add water as needed to produce a creamy consistency. Mixture will need to occasionally be scraped from the sides of the processor using a spatula.
• Chop apple into small pieces and add to mixture. Process for a further 15 seconds.
• Add raisins to mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon/spatula.
• Remove bases after the 3 hours and fill with raisin mixture.
• To warm the pies, return them to the dehydrator on mesh sheets for as long as you can keep your hands off ‘em!!! They should be ready after an hour.
• Whilst they are warming, process the courgette, agave and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Add the cashews and process again until mixture becomes smooth again. Add the psyllium and blend a final time. When fully blended leave the mixture to firm up for 5 minutes. Transfer this mixture to a piping bag and pipe onto the warmed pies. You are now ready to enjoy raw mince pies with whipped cream!!!
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