Nothing says Christmas like mincemeat tarts with hard sauce. Low carb mincemeat is nestled in gluten-free almond flour pastry for a holiday treat that tastes every bit as good as the original.
Some things just deserve to jump to the head to the head of the line. They deserve special treatment, they deserve to push every thing else out of their way while they take up their rightful place in the limelight. It is even true of recipes. I often have a backlog of recipes waiting in the wings, and usually I publish them in the order in which they were made. But sometimes one is so good or so exciting or just simply fits the circumstances so perfectly, I find myself pushing the rest off so I can get that one out there into the world. This is the tale of one such recipe. (And if that doesn’t sound like the start of a Dickens novel, you can call me Ebeneezer Scrooge).
Mincemeat tarts are something I grew up eating around the holidays, and I’ve always loved them, especially with a nice dollop of boozy hard sauce melting on top. Our version of homemade mincemeat tarts consisted of ready-made pie dough and sugary mincemeat from a jar, baked until golden brown and bubbling. Despite their lack of authenticity, I loved the sweet, citrusy, spice-laden tarts and always went back for a second helping. I’ve been mulling over how to get that same flavour in a healthier low carb package for 2 years now, and this year I decided to give it a go.
These days, mincemeat doesn’t actually contain any real meat, and consists mainly of dried fruit and apples cooked with sugar, spices and some brandy. Traditionally, however, it is made with beef suet (raw beef fat) and that seemed like my biggest obstacle. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of finding beef suet in my area. I even tried a local British Foods store, a tiny little hole in the wall in an awful strip mall on a very busy thoroughfare. No luck there, although the proprietor indicated that they’d be getting some vegetable suet in before the holidays. Not in time for me to attempt low carb mincemeat, it would seem.
But it struck me that as I was already straying far off the traditional path for mince, I might as well go whole hog and use a completely different source of fat. I decided that a good quality extra virgin coconut oil, like Kelapo, would have just the right consistency. For the rest of the filling, I swapped out the majority of the raisins with sugar-free dried cranberries and chopped walnuts. I did keep one small apple in there, although a reader suggested that chayote squash might make an even lower carb substitute. I skipped the candied peel and just added more lemon and orange zest to get that same sharp citrus flavour. And then I cooked it all with some Swerve Sweetener and added a little brandy at the end. The end result was right on the money – I knew it the moment my husband declared that the house smelled like A Christmas Carol.
I’ve also been working on making my almond flour pastry a little sturdier and easier to work with, without losing tenderness or adding more carbs. This has definitely taken some experimentation, but I’ve found that the addition of a little arrowroot starch and some coconut flour seemed to work. It’s still fragile and can tear and crack a little when being shaped. But it patches back together so nicely that the final product looks great.
Put these two things together and you’ve got yourself some delicious low carb, gluten-free mincemeat tarts. I am extremely proud of these, I will admit. In terms of ingredients, they are wildly un-traditional. And yet I defy anyone to tell the difference. I know my mincemeat tarts and these are the real, albeit unconventional, thing.
Mincemeat Tarts with Hard Sauce – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
Mincemeat:
- 1 cup Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries
- ½ cup walnuts chopped
- ½ cup Swerve Sweetener
- 1 small apple finely chopped (or chopped chayote squash)
- ¼ cup golden raisins chopped
- ¼ cup Kelapo coconut oil
- Zest of one lemon
- Zest of one orange
- 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoon molasses (optional, for colour and flavour)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 3 tablespoon brandy
Crust:
- 1 ¼ cup Honeyville almond flour
- 2 tablespoon Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tablespoon Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour
- 2 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- 2 tablespoon Coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon butter
- 2-4 tablespoon ice water
Hard sauce:
- ¼ cup butter softened
- ¾ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tablespoon dark rum
Instructions
Mincemeat:
- Combine cranberries, walnuts, sweetener, apple, raisins, coconut oil, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, water, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Bring to a simmer and cook 5 to 10 minutes or until sweetener is completely dissolved, stirring frequently. Remove and stir in brandy. Let cool completely.
- Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator. It may harden up a bit in the fridge but can be warmed gently in the microwave to soften.
Pastry Crust:
- Combine almond flour, gluten-free flour, sweetener, arrowroot starch, coconut flour, xanthan gum and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Sprinkle butter over and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- With processor running on low, add ice water 1 tablespoon at a time until dough begins to clump together.
- Cover work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with almond flour. Turn out dough and form into a disk. Sprinkle with additional almond flour and top with another piece of parchment, then carefully roll out in all directions to form a rough circle about 13 inches in diameter.
- Using a 2 ½ inch round cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as possible. Gently loosen circles of dough with an offset spatula and place into the cavities of a mini muffin pan, shaping to fit the cavities.
- Gather up scraps of dough and re-roll to cut out more circles, using almond flour as necessary. You should get about 24 small tartlets and still have a little dough leftover to cut out decorative shapes for the tops of your tarts.
- Prick the bottoms of the tarts several times with a fork or sharp and then freeze at least one hour.
- To make the tarts, preheat oven to 325F. Fill each tart shell with about 2 teaspoon of mincemeat (this will only use up about half of the mincemeat).
- Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and tart edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool in pan at least 20 minutes (they are very fragile when still warm - if you want to serve them hot, rewarm them out of the muffin pans gently in the oven).
Hard Sauce:
- Beat butter with powdered sweetener and rum until well combined and smooth. Refrigerate until firm. Dollop a little hard sauce on warm tarts to serve.
Notes
Makes about 2 cups (you only need one cup for 24 mini tarts). Per tablespoon (32 tablespoons in 2 cups): 39 Calories; 3g Fat (62.1% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 3g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1mg Sodium. Total NET CARBS per tablespoon = 2 g. Mincemeat tarts:
Makes 24 tarts (uses only about half of the mincemeat). Per tart: 111 Calories; 9g Fat (74.1% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 12mg Cholesterol; 70mg Sodium. Total NET CARBS per tart = 3 g.
JACKIE MARTIN says
Excellent recipe I’ve made a few times. I’m just drying my cranberries and wondered if anyone ever tried making their mince tarts with fathead dough?
Donna Elizabeth says
These are THE BEST mince tarts I have ever eaten. Absolutely delicious. I ate four as soon as they were out of the oven. The pastry is perfection, the mincemeat delicious. I am UK based and never much enjoyed traditional full sugar mince pies – far too sweet and gloopy. These are a breath of fresh air. I shall be making another batch tomorrow. Thank you Carolyn for everything you do, I love your recipes.
Kate Hapgood says
Amazing!
It seems to be very hard to get hold of unsweetened cranberries here in the UK, so I used barberries instead. Delicious! For some reason, my dough only made 7 small tarts, but will make more using my leftover mincemeat tomorrow!
YUM!
Carol Rapp says
Im not sure what area you were in when you published this recipe but… living in the Portland area, this year,I was able to find Beef Suet at the local butcher (shop. Just a heads up.
Making my first Mincemeat from scratch this year! (Note: not keto.)
Trang says
I have never had or made mincemeat until now. I’ve heard of it but it seemed daunting to make BUT it so isn’t thanks to your easy recipe!
Erin says
I haven’t had mincemeat tarts in forever! My mom made them every year growing up – these look so good, can’t wait to try them.
Matt Taylor says
Looks like an amazing Holiday treat! Yummy! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Vicki says
I made this delicious mincemeat yesterday only to realise the unsweetened cranberries I had were, as you say, sweetened with pineapple juice. I have manged to source some completely unsweetened cranberries here in the UK but could you recommend how much extra sweetener might be needed to balnce their tartness. Many thanks.
Carolyn says
Probably only about 1/4 cup.
Carol says
May I ask what the coconut oil is used for? I have all the ingredients to make the mincemeat except coconut oil. Thanks again for all the hard work you do.
Sharon Caudle says
OMG! I also grew up with mincemeat pies and have been missing it so much! Seeing you made it almost made me cry! It’s almost Christmas and now I can go back to our family tradition!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!! I can’t wait to make these!!! I have loved every recipe of yours that I’ve made. So I’ve no doubt these will be amazing!
Helen says
I made these today and after tasting one I jumped for joy! Being British, mince pies are a Christmas staple that I’ve missed so much since going low carb years ago. I was sceptical that a low carb version would come close to the real thing, but I should have known -Carolyn’s recipes are always fantastic! Thanks, Carolyn, for making my Christmas extra special this year! I’ll be making my low carb version of Bird’s custard to pour on these and I can’t wait!
Carolyn says
I am so glad, Helen. I am not British but as a Canadian, I grew up eating mincemeat tarts and I would never try to pass off anything that didn’t taste like the real thing!
Adrienne Walker says
I made these last night and they are FABULOUS! I haven’t made the hard sauce yet – that’s next. I have never been a fan of mince tarts but these I LOVE. Thank you, Carolyn. You always come up with the best recipes!!
Carolyn says
well that’s lovely to hear, thank you!
Edna says
Carolyn………….question………do you really need the 2 tbsp. of gluten free flour…….asking as I will have to purchase a pkg of bob’s gluten free flour just for 2 tbsp……..could it be replaced by something else……anxiously awaiting your answer……..busy doing my Christmas baking and oh my want mincemeat back into my holidays…………..thanking you in advance…………..edna from tiny Ontario canada
Carolyn says
Just use coconut flour.
Kate Matthews says
Hi Carolyn
Just a quick question. Can your delicious mincemeat be frozen? I want to make these pies before Christmas but not sure how well they keep if frozen. Many thanks. Kate
Carolyn says
Yes, they can. I froze a bunch when I made them. Bake them first and then just let them come to room temperature. And then warm them in the oven.
Rina says
Any idea what I could sub for Arrowroot? I follow THM & it isn’t allowed.
Carolyn says
Try oat fiber.