Flourish Wellness Mince Pies Review

January is a time when a lot of people make resolutions to lose weight, or eat better, or just be more healthy in general.

It's not just about dieting though - it's about living a more healthy lifestyle. Dr. Caroline Puschendorf of Flourish Wellness (www.flourishwellness.co.uk) also practises mindfulness - appreciating being in the 'now' - and has found this to have a positive effect on wellbeing.

I came across Flourish Wellness as Dr Puschendorf lives in the same village as a good friend of mine, and she shared a box of mince pies with me that Dr P had made. They were gluten free, egg free, dairy free and soy free using a recipe she has developed herself; she sold them to friends and at farmers' markets and now intends to make other gluten free and dairy free bakes and chocolates; you can get in touch via her site if you are interested.

I asked my fiancé for his opinion on the mince pies as he is more of a connoisseur than me! He said they were quite nice - and was surprised to hear they were dairy free - but said they were too small so the ratio of pastry to filling wasn't quite right. So there you go Dr P - bigger is better!

She pointed out to me though that this is the traditional size and shape - deep fill mince pies are a more modern invention - and added: "I took a lot of orders from people who didn't have any dietary requirements at all, but just thought they were delicious."

Caroline is qualified in nutrition, psychology and behaviour and has been through some challenging times in the last few years, leaving her very well placed to give advice on well being and how to devise a strategy to achieve your goal, supporting clients via email, Facebook or Skype between sessions. Which sounds like just the sort of thing you need if you are no good at sticking to resolutions!

Less Sinful Mince Pies

I am sure I am in the minority when I say I have never eaten a mince pie - then again do Americans eat mince pies? I've never been keen on any of the ingredients of mincemeat (which for anyone who doesn't know, does not actually include meat) and so never wanted to try one. I've also been trying to lose weight for years and so it seemed pointless to try a mince pie in case I did like them and it gave me one more thing to overindulge in at Christmas!

When we had a pre-Christmas food tasting at Slimming World it seemed a good opportunity to make mince pies and try a less sinful recipe - they are not completely encased in pastry so would almost certainly be lower in calories than the shop-bought kind. In fact Slimming World says a basic standard mince pie from a supermarket is 12 syns going up to 21 syns to one from a coffee shop, whereas their own recipe for mince tarts - without full lids as shown above - are only three and a half syns each. The pastry is unsweetened which also cuts the calories but hopefully they will still taste good.

The Slimming World recipe just says to use mincemeat for the filling and I wanted to make my own. I decided that Mary Berry's recipe looked good - I trust her for something traditional like this, and I also liked the fact that this recipe didn't use suet as I knew if I bought a whole box I wouldn't use it for anything else.

I followed Mary's recipe but added some chopped French glace cherries and used cherry brandy as my liqueur as I thought that would go well together. It was really easy to make -basically just stir everything together in a pan.

To make the pastry, cut 110g butter or margarine into small cubes and work into 225g plain flour with your fingertips. Add a pinch of salt and gradually add cold water a little at a time until you have a pliable dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Lightly spray some cupcake trays with Cake Release. Roll out the pastry and cut half of it into rounds with a cutter. Press into the indents in the cupcake tray. Spoon in about 1 heaped tsp of mincemeat per tart.

Use a festive cookie cutter to make a shape for the lids - I used Christmas trees.
Place the lids on top and bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar if desired.

I took these to my Slimming World group but still didn't actually eat one, so I can still say I've never eaten a mince pie!

I'm hosting Alphabakes this month (it's Ros from the More Than Occasional Baker's turn again next month) and the letter is X. We are allowing Christmas recipes so I'm sending in these mince pies.

I'm also sending this to Family Foodies, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, and on alternate months Louisa at Eat Your Veg as the theme is festive food.

 This month's Vegetable Palette challenge, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen, has as its theme Christmas fruit and veg. My homemade mincemeat uses cranberries, dried fruits, sultanas and raisins, glace cherries - all quite festive!

I'm also sharing these mince tarts with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi, as they also have a Christmas theme this month.