Gluten-free Mince Pies Recipe - BEST EVER! (dairy-free option) (2024)

Gluten-free mince pies recipe, anyone? Perfect for the festive season and super easy to make using just 6 ingredients – best of all, you’d never know they were Coeliac-friendly and wheat-free too!

Gluten-free mince pies recipe – I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for 7 years and never posted a gluten-free mince pie recipe. But I’m pleased to tell you that these were definitely worth the wait!

One thing we’ve (thankfully) never been short of are gluten-free mince pies at Christmas. In the 11 years I’ve been gluten-free, there’s always been some easily available in supermarkets.

And I guess that’s why it’s taken me this long to post it – I always assumed people would rather just buy them!

But as I’m sure you know, not all gluten-free mince pies are as good as ‘muggle’ mince pies. The pastry can be pretty brittle and a lot are milk-free, which is great if you can’t tolerate dairy, but not so great if you want buttery pastry.

Here’s a few reasons you need to make my gluten-free mince pies recipe…

Why make my gluten-free mince pies?

• You only need 6 ingredients to make this. A jar of store-bought mincemeat means you only have to make pastry and that’s it!
• My gluten-free shortcrust pastry won’t massively shrink when baked in the oven. You can’t go wrong!
• My gluten-free mince pie pastry is really easy to work with and won’t fall apart when you try to line your muffin tray.
• ALSO, the pastry is super buttery and flaky – you’d never know it was gluten-free AT ALL. Yes – muggles will happily eat these!
• BUT this recipe is also incredibly easy to make dairy-free too using one simple swap.
• You can finish them however you like, with a star on top or a lid that covers all the filling. It’s totally up to you.

So what do my gluten-free mince pies taste like?

The pastry is super buttery and flaky, not like supermarket gluten-free mince pies which don’t usually have that flaky quality at all. It’s a taste sensation on its own!

But then you’ve got that lovely, sticky mince in the middle, which never fails to flood you with nostalgic Christmas cheer. I’ve been working on these every Christmas for the last few years… but this year, I’ve finally nailed it.

Here’s everything you’ll need for this recipe, keep scrolling until you see the recipe card for the measurements and method ??

Gluten-free mince pies recipe: Ingredients

• Gluten-free plain flour:It’s important to use plain flour here, NOT gluten-free self-raising flour. We don’t want the pastry to rise and self-raising powder has baking powder in it which will do exactly that.
• Xanthan gum:However, because we’re using gluten-free plain flour (which doesn’t have any xanthan gum added) adding a little xanthan gum is super important. Without gluten to bind the pastry together, it can be tougher to work with. Add this and keep your pastry well-chilled and you won’t even notice the difference.
• Caster sugar:In any shortcrust pastry with a sweet filling, it’s commonplace to add a little sugar to the pastry. You definitely don’t NEED to do this, but considering a mince pie is usually more pastry than filling, I would advise doing so.
• Butter:Butter is king in pastry, not just for flavour, but because cold butter gives the dough considerably more strength, making it easier to work with. That’s why we need to keep the dough as cold as possible.
• Large eggs:I generally always buy large eggs, so I’d advise you to do the same for this recipe. The eggs are extremely important as a binder which again, gives the dough much needed strength in the absence of gluten.
• Mincemeat:There is most definitely an underrated joy in eating a mince pie that you made entirely from scratch, but considering mincemeat is gluten-free (still check the labels just in case) I think we should all take advantage of it. So often, we have to make everything from scratch when muggles can just buy an easy option in the supermarket… so I’m taking this opportunity to do the same for once!

So I thought I’d kick things off with a little frequently asked questions section – if you just want the recipe, then keep scrolling.

But I’ve thrown in some tips here that will be really helpful if this is your first time making this, or you want to adapt it. So here they are!

Gluten-free mince pies recipe: Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make this recipe gluten-free?

It is gluten-free, though nobody would know just by tasting it – trust me!

Bear in mind that minimising cross-contamination is hugely important if you’re Coeliac or making this for someone who is. Here’s some tips from Coeliac UK on minimising the risk of cross contamination.

Also, make sure that all ingredients used don’t have any gluten-containing ingredients. Then make that that they also don’t have a ‘may contain’ warning for gluten, wheat, rye, barley, oats (which aren’t gf), spelt and khorasan wheat (aka Kamut).

Here’s some more info from Coeliac UK on identifying safe gluten-free products.

Can I make your gluten-free mince pies recipe dairy free?

You can make this dairy-free, simply by using Stork hard margarine instead of butter. Definitely don’t use the type of margarine you’d spread on toast however, it will NOT work.

However, hard margarine is still softer than butter, even when fully chilled. That means, the dough can be a little harder to work with, but you can combat that by keeping your dough as cold as possible at all times.

So be careful about handling the dough to much and constantly re-rolling it as the more you handle it, the warmer it will get.

You can of course, simply chill it in the fridge again if you’ve handled it a lot and it’s starting to get a little sticky or hard to work with.

Can I make your gluten-free mince pies recipe vegan?

Unfortunately, I find making gluten-free AND vegan pastry a little difficult, personally. That’s purely because of the eggs involved.

Egg is such an important binding agent which massively helps to compensate for the lack of gluten – it’s not just for flavour, it helps make the pastry easier to work with.

My next step is to test replacing the eggs with 6 tbsp of aquafaba (pre-whisked until frothy) but I haven’t had a chance to test this yet. You’re welcome to give it a try before I do!

Just please let me know in the comments how you got on if you do decide to do that – just ensure you use dairy-free hard margarine (I use Stork) instead of butter too.

Is your gluten-free mince pies recipe nut free?

Yes, this is a nut-free recipe, but please be careful as SOME mincemeat you buy in supermarkets have a ‘may contain’ warning for nuts.

Even if your mincemeat is nut-free, please make sure you check the ingredients label on ALL the products you use just to be safe.

Even if the other products don’t contain nuts, they may also have a ‘may contain nuts’ warning due to being produced in a factory that handles nuts.

You can never be too careful so always read the labels on everything first.

Is your gluten-free mince pies recipe low FODMAP?

Unfortunately, mincemeat is one of the hardest things on Earth to make low FODMAP, without massively compromising on what mincemeat is supposed to taste like.

Firstly, it contains apple (in vague quantities) which is a tricky subject when you’re on the low FODMAP elimination phase. But most of all, it’s the dried fruit which makes this high FODMAP.

And without dried fruit, it’s not really a mince pie, is it?! I will try and work on something in the future, but at the moment, this recipe is not low FODMAP-friendly.

Is mincemeat that you buy in the supermarket gluten-free?

Yes! All of the jarred mincemeat that I’ve come across has always been gluten-free – however, it doesn’t hurt to check the ingredients labels just in case.

If there’s no gluten-containing ingredients and no ‘may contain’ warning for wheat, gluten or similar, then it’s considered safe for a gluten-free diet according to Coeliac UK.

Here’s a link to the mincemeat from Tesco that I used so you can double-check for yourself.

Do I need any special equipment to make your gluten-free mince pies recipe?

Certainly not! You will need a good quality muffin tray, so here’s a link to the one I use.

Do I need weighing scales to make your gluten-free mince pies?

In short… yes, yes and yes! And I wouldn’t advise attempting any my recipes without them.

A lot of work went into fine tuning ratios and quantities and for me, baking is all about consistency and precision. I want you to make this recipe and for it to turn out EXACTLY like mine did.

I’d recommending using digital cooking scales like these so you know you’re getting an accurate measurement and replicating my recipe as accurately as poss.

Can I make this recipe without xanthan gum?

No, I wouldn’t recommend making shortcrust pastry without xanthan gum. As we’re using gluten-free plain flour (which has no added xanthan gum like gluten-free self-raising flour does), it’s integral to add a little xanthan gum.

A little goes a long way as a gluten replacer and it’s more to make sure that your dough is easy to work with, instead of merely just ensuring the end result isn’t crumbly.

Gluten-free shortcrust pastry can be notoriously hard to work with, but if you follow my recipe, it’ll seem like a walk in the park!

Can I make this recipe using other gluten-free flours like buckwheat flour or coconut flour?

There’s a big difference between ‘gluten-free plain/self-raising flour’ and a *singular* type gluten-free flour. When I say ‘gluten-free plain or self-raising flour’ in a recipe, I mean a BLEND of gluten-free flours, not just one, singular flour.

Most gluten-free flour you buy in the supermarket typically contains a blend of rice flour, potato flour, maize flour, tapioca flour AND buckwheat flour. They all have different properties that help to simulate ‘real’ wheat flour as much as possible.

So to replace it with just one specific type of flour… that’s not going to cut it at all. Definitely go for a gluten-free flour blend. I used Doves Farm gluten-free plain flour in this recipe.

5 tips for the perfect gluten-free mince pies

• Make sure the pastry is cold at all times. Butter is at its strongest and most workable when it’s cold, which helps massively when making gluten-free pastry.
• When mixing the dough with a fork, don’t use your hands to bring the pastry together into a ball too early. Inadequate mixing means the pastry will be too dry to form a ball of dough as the dry ingredients aren’t fully-hydrated enough. So keep mixing with your fork until it starts to come together.
• Don’t roll the pastry too thick. This is an easy mistake to make and your mince pies will be 80% pastry, 20% filling, which isn’t most enjoyable. The pastry also might not cook through properly, if rolled out too thick.
• Don’t fill the mince pies too high. The filling loves to bubble up in the oven so don’t be too generous with your filling or it’ll start escaping! This mainly applies to making star-topped mince pies as a round lid will help seal it all in.
• When placing a pastry lid on top, make sure you use water, milk or egg to stick the pastry lid down. Otherwise, the lid will totally separate from the pastry case in the oven.

How to finish your gluten-free mince pies

Once your gluten-free pastry cases are in the muffin tray and filled with mincemeat, you have two options on how to finish them.

You can either cut out a pastry star and plonk them on top of the filling like I did in the photos. Or you can completely cover the filling with a pastry lid.

• If finishing with a star, I’d recommend making the star smaller than the pastry case so the star doesn’t touch any of the edges of the pastry case at all. If you do them like how I did in the photos where the star touches the pastry case, the star will sink in the middle as the filling isn’t as high as the edges of the pastry case. If I made these again, that’s the only change I’d make, but I didn’t have a smaller star cookie cutter!
• If finishing with a pastry lid, use an 3in (7.5cm) round biscuit cutter to cut out the lids – this will create perfect circles that fit over a muffin hole perfectly. Don’t forget to make a hole in the middle so steam can escape too. Brush with egg-wash or milk and then top with more caster sugar.

How to store your gluten-free mince pies

Once cooled, store in an air-tight container for up to a week. If you wish to freeze them, you can also store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

To thaw your frozen gluten-free mince pies, allow to thaw at room temperature for around an hour. Then, you can bake them in the oven at 120C (fan) for 3-5 minutes before serving warm.

Gluten-free mince pies recipe: Method

Oh and here’s a printable version of my gluten-free mince pies recipe. Please remember to give it 5 stars if you tried it and enjoyed it as it helps people know it’s worth trying too! ⭐️

Thanks for reading all about my gluten-free mince pies recipe! If you make it, I’d love to see how it turned out so don’t forget to take a snap of your creations and tag me on Instagram!

Any questions about the recipe? Please do let me know by following me onInstagram and leaving me a comment on a recent photo!

Thanks for reading,

Becky xxx

Oh and don’t forget to pin this for later!