Christmas crumbles (mince pies)

I don't usually bother trying to make gluten-free pastry ... it's always either rock-hard or falling apart crumbly. However, when I spotted this recipe in a Sunday supplement, I thought I might be able to adapt it because (a) the topping is crumble, and (b) it has ground almonds which are nutritious and I thought they might help the pastry stick together after cooking. It's really worked! I've managed to roll out and re-roll out this pastry twice. It's made 24 crumbles in my muffin tray. (I ran out of mincemeat so I used jam in the last three!)

You will need:

• 200g butter - chilled and diced (if you use marg you may need to add more dry ingredients) + for greasing
• 300g Doves Farm gluten-free plain white flour + for dusting
• 150g caster sugar (I always use unrefined sugar - better colour and flavour + slightly lower on the glycemic index)
• 125g ground almonds
• a jar of mincemeat (check it's gluten-free - mine's from the Coop)
• finely grated rind of 1 lemon (unwaxed/untreated)
• 2 tablespoons of brandy

1. Thoroughly grease a shallow muffin tray. Preheat the oven to 170-180C
2. Put the flour, butter, almonds and caster sugar in a food processor or mixer and blitz until it just begins to form crumbs.
3. Spoon out about a third of the crumbly mixture and keep it in the fridge.
4. Briefly re-blitz the rest of the mixture until it starts to stick together.
5. Put it into a mixing bowl and add a spoonful of beaten egg. Start to form a ball (I use a knife as I have hot hands).
6. Flour a worktop really well and gently roll-out the pastry.
7. Use a pastry cutter to cut rounds the right size for your muffin tray. I used a floured fish slice to lift the rounds off the worktop.
8. Mix the mincemeat, lemon rind and brandy in a bowl. Place a spoonful into the pastry cases - leaving enough room for the crumble topping. Spoon on the crumble topping.
9. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool completely before trying to take them out of the tray.

We're having them re-heated with ice cream as a pud tomorrow night. If they last that long ...!