With a buttery, flaky almond flour shortcrust pastry and a low carb mincemeat filling, these Keto mince pies are the essence of a proper low carb Christmas!
Table of contents
My whole family LOVES mince pies. Especially my daughter goes crazy for them. As soon as they appear in the shops, she'll use her pocket money to buy a pack here and there, trying to figure out which one is the best.
I get it. Mince pies do taste great. The combination of the sticky dried fruit and the Christmas spices in the mincemeat and the buttery, flaky shortcrust pastry is quite irresistible.
Carbs in mince pie
However, the amount of sugar and carbs a supermarket mince pie contains is eye-watering, however little they are. One Waitrose Christmas Mince pie comes in at 36 grams of net carbs and 16 grams of sugar (that's equivalent to 4 teaspoons of table sugar)!
My kids buy what they want with their pocket money, but I did point out the different sugars in the last lot of mince pies she schlepped home. On top of the apple puree and the sultanas, raisins and currants which contain plenty of fructose all on their own, there was added sugar, glucose syrup and glucose-fructose syrup.
Companies like to use different types of sugar in the ingredients so they don't have to list it as the main ingredient. If you buy packaged ingredients it's always worth reading the label! (Or, even better, don't buy packaged ingredients.)
Healthy mince pie recipe
SO. How can you follow a keto diet or low carb diet AND enjoy mince pies? After all, they are one of the essential Christmas recipes in the UK, alongside Christmas pudding. I have had this sugar free Christmas pudding recipe on my website for years, and it has a loyal following.
It was time for a healthy mince pie recipe!
When you keto-fy a recipe, you often need to come up with creative substitutions and keep an open mind. Meaning, these gluten free keto mince pies do not EXACTLY taste like regular mince pies. I'd say they are a touch fruitier.
But they contain all the same spices and textures we love about mince pies.
Let's get into the nitty- gritty. What's the secret ingredient of these diabetic mince pies? Dried fruit such as raisins or sultanas contain WAY too much sugar to make it into a keto dessert, whether it's December, Christmas or not.
Easy - I replaced them with homemade sugar free dried cranberries.
My dried cranberries are sweetened with allulose (you can use powdered erythritol instead). They are super juicy and at 1.4g net carbs per tablespoon a fraction of sugary mincemeat!
Check out the ingredients for this healthy mince pie recipe in the image below:
How to make keto mince pies
Fruit mince filling
Place everything except the brandy and almonds in a saucepan and simmer on a low heat for about 5 minutes until quite thick but with just a little moisture left.
Option to press with a fork if you want less chunky apple. Stir through almonds and optional brandy and allow to cool.
Note - I used golden erythritol for the filling because I like the caramel flavour. Any sweetener will work though.
Shortcrust pastry
In food processor, pulse all the dry ingredients until combined. Add the butter chunks and cream cheese and pulse until combined. Add 1 large egg and pulse to combine again.
Shape the shortcrust dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until 3 - 4 mm thick. Use a 7.5 cm cutter to cut out bases....
... and then stars.
NOTE: If the dough becomes too warm to cut out at any point, simply place it back in the freezer for 5 - 10 minutes to firm up.
Now you assemble the mince pies! Grease a shallow muffin baking tray with butter and add a base. Add mincemeat (approx 1 tbsp per mince pie)...
... and then your pastry lid!. Press to seal slightly and brush with egg wash. And off into the oven they go, for about 18 minutes.
Important: Don't attempt to remove your lovely little sugar free Christmas mince pies from baking tray until they are fully cooled! They are fragile while hot and firm up as they cool.
Keto mince pie toppings
These mince pies are perfect all on their own dusted with powdered sweetener.
But to take it up a notch, why not serve them with sugar free custard or low carb vanilla ice cream?
Lovers of a classic mince pie experience may enjoy eating them with keto brandy butter (that's hard sauce in the US).
Or serve them like me with a dollop of whipped double cream!
How to lower the net carbs further
I wanted to stay close(-ish) to the original recipe - that's why I used apple in the filling. However, to reduce this recipe from 6g to 4.4g net carbs per mince pie, swap the apple out with zucchini.
Use 1 ¼ cups / 150g chopped zucchini (peel and core them before chopping.) Also, increase the sweetener to taste as you're now missing the natural sweetness of the apple.
Can you make low carb mince pies with coconut flour?
Every time I make a recipe with almond flour or grounds almonds, some readers want to know how to make the dough nut free.
You can either use a mix of sunflower seed flour and sesame seed flour - this is a 1:1 substitution with the almond flour.
Or you make a pastry using only coconut flour. I recommend the coconut flour pie base for this Strawberry Mascarpone Tart. It works well and is sturdy!
How to store sugar free mince pies
I stored my mince pies in a closed container in the fridge for 3 days and reheated them in the microwave before eating.
They are probably fine for 1-2 days at room temperature as well.
I did not try to freeze them, but it should work (up to 3 months). You may want to reheat them in the oven to ensure the shortcrust stays nice and crisp.
And just in case you're wondering - my daughter gave these healthy mince pies the thumbs up!
More low carb recipes for Christmas
Sugar Free Chocolate Christmas Cake
Keto Sugar Cookies (Low Carb, Sugar Free)
Keto Cinnamon Stars (German Christmas Cookies)
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Sugar Free Keto Mince Pies
from Sugar Free LondonerNote: The servings slider only changes the first amount in each line and not any subsequent amounts. Please make your own calculations where necessary. ***As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 1 cup / 100g almond flour 100g
- ¼ cup / 30g coconut flour 30g
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
- Pinch of salt
- ⅔ stick / 70g butter cold
- 2 tbsp / 30g cream cheese
- 1 large egg + egg wash
Filling
- 1 small apple 140g, peeled and cut into small cubes
- ¼ cup / 20g flaked almonds toasted and chopped
- zest ¼ lemon
- zest of ½ orange
- ¼ cup / 20g sugar free dried cranberries
- ½ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- 3 tbsp golden erythritol
- 2 tbsp / 30g butter melted
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp lemon juice optional
- 1 tbsp of brandy optional
Instructions
Filling
- Place everything except the brandy and almonds in a saucepan and simmer on a low heat for about 5 minutes until quite thick but with just a little moisture left. Option to press with a fork if you want less chunky apple. Stir through almonds and optional brandy and allow to cool.
Pastry
- In food processor, pulse all the dry ingredients until combined. Add the butter chunks and cream cheese and pulse until combined. Add 1 large egg and pulse to combine again. Shape into a ball and wrap in greaseproof paper. Chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
- Roll the dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper until 3 - 4 mm thick. Use a 7.5cm cutter to but out bases x 6. Scrape the left over dough together and re-roll to make two more bases. Place bases in freezer whilst making the tops. Re-roll the left over dough to make 8 stars (7 cm cutter) or whatever shape you like for the top.
- NOTE: If the dough becomes too warm to cut out at any point simply place back in the freezer for 5 - 10 minutes to firm up.
- Grease a shallow muffin / Yorkshire pudding tin with butter and add a base. Add mince-meat (approx 1 tbsp per mince pie) and then your pastry lid.
- Press to seal slightly and brush with egg wash. Bake for approximately 18 minutes or until golden on top. Allow to cool and remove from pan. Dust with powdered sweetener to serve and optional whipped cream, keto custard or keto vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Nutrition
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shelly says
I am curious what the purpose of the cream cheese is in the pastry,
Katrin Nürnberger says
I think it makes it taste better - lighter and fluffier!
Attila says
Thank you for another great recipe! I made the mince pies this morning and they are absolutely delicious.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Leslie Gee says
Hi Katrin, Thank you for this recipe and all the recipes you share. I have two questions please. 1. I dried my own cranberries and it took forever. I have fresh ones in the freezer. I was wondering if I could use the fresh instead of the dried or would the filling be too juicy? I wouldn't think so but you know mince pies better than I. My second question is the amount of filling to put into the base. Not sure how big your muffin tins are but I think 1 tbsp in mine would be not very much. Is it really a table spoon of filling? Just making sure. I didn't see anyone else ask these questions and I thought I would. Thank you so much for answering. I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year. 🙂
Katrin Nürnberger says
HI Leslie, regular cranberries should also work. You'll have more liquid, so may need to cook down the mix a little longer and also add more sweetener (unless you like it a little more sour). The filling was a heaped tablespoon for mine. As you can see in the images, my pies were quite small. If yours are larger, you'd have to use more. Enjoy the mince pies!!
LeslieGee says
Hi Katrin, thank you for your quick reply, I am going to try with the fresh/ frozen cranberries. 🙂
Beverley Klein says
I made these last night, and have eaten two already! They actually do taste very similar to a mince pie. Especially with cream...!
I found the dough quite hard to work with, but it definitely benefitted from being in the freezer. I used zucchini instead of apple - I haven't eaten an apple since last spring, and used orange essence rather than zest. I added some erythritol to the dough, which was a mistake - it didn't need to be any sweeter - as you suggested I added a little more brown erythritol to the filling as I'd used courgettes - and it made the top of the pie a bit too easily browned - I should have checked after 15 minutes! Still, they don't taste over-browned, and I'm really pleased. I've put 5 of them in the freezer as I don't want to snaffle two a day until Xmas. One every now and again will be fine! Now I have your dried cranberries to use in other recipes. Perhaps I'll make the panettone, since I just had to cancel my trip to Venice. (Too many Covid tests!)
Katrin Nürnberger says
So glad you are enjoying the mince pies and thanks for detailing how you've made this recipe your own. Have a great Christmas!
Ruth says
Can I make these dairy free? I am happy enough replacing the butter in the pastry but I'm not sure what to do about the cream cheese. I don't want to use a vegan cream cheese if possible because they're rubbish.
Katrin Nürnberger says
I would try replacing the cream cheese with coconut cream. That should work well!
Karen Conway says
Hi there - I am loving this recipe thank you! Just wondering if it is possible to make the dough in advance and freeze it?
thank you! Karen 🙂
Katrin Nürnberger says
Yes, you can freeze the dough! All almond flour dough freezes well.
Marie Steffen says
Can anyone tell me why the pastry was dry and crumbly?
Katrin Nürnberger says
There is actually a lot of fat in this pastry, so I'm surprised yours was dry. It's possible that you were a little heavy-handed with your nut flours. Coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid, and if you use too much, dough can become dry.
Jani says
As an expat, I miss mince pies at Christmas, plus if I find any, they're not like those at home. These were fantastic, thank you! The recipe is a keeper.
Katrin Nürnberger says
so glad you like the mince pies!
Jonathan says
These were my first-ever attempt at making mince pies of any description. One small consolation of spending Christmas alone is that I have these delicious pies all to myself -they've come out excellently. Thank you Katrin, and Merry Christmas!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Merry Christmas Jonathan! So glad you enjoyed the mince pies.
Simon Hearn says
Wow, made these last night and they are great, served it with brandy cream and I'm not sure I'd have guessed they were low carb.
The mincemeat was delicious, and even the pastry, I've tried low carb pastry before and it was rotten but this recipe is great
Many thanks and happy Christmas
Ora says
Thank you
I can’t wait to make these Christmas pies.
Elaine says
Just made these and, yet again, amazing! My husband, who, even after 4 years of low carb, will never give up his home made mince pies at Christmas, just tried them and said that, if a traditional mince pie and your mince pie were side by side he wouldn't care which one he was given because they were so good. Trust me, this is the ultimate approval . Thanks for yet another great recipe.
Katrin Nürnberger says
I'm so happy these mince pies made it into your Christmas faves!!
Lou says
I can’t wait to try this recipe, I’ve made the dried cranberries - they are gorgeous on their own! Hopefully there will be some left by the time I get to making the pies!
Is there anything I could use in place of the flaked almonds? I.e. chopped nuts etc?
Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
I think walnuts or pecans would be a good substitute.
Lou says
Thanks - I made them yesterday, the smell of the filling while it was in the pan was amazing!
My husband wants me to add a bit of sweetener to the pastry next time I make them.
Thanks again, for another brilliant recipe - I tell all my friends about your website!
Katrin Nürnberger says
That's so good to hear! Thank you for your support 🙂
Alexandra Abraham says
Thank you! Am looking forward to giving these a try, but will use my Grandfather's filling mincemeat recipe! He was a Master Baker, and knew a thing or two about mince pies et all! But your pastry sounds delicious!
Alexandra Abraham says
Can I use all almond flour? I can't stand coconut!
Katrin Nürnberger says
yes, it should work if you use 3/4 cup / 75g of additional almond flour instead of the coconut flour. Check your dough and if necessary, add another 1-2 tbsp.
Colleen Schoneveld says
I am going to try this! Sounds great. It is a way I can use my newly made sugar free cranberries
Deb says
These are a wonderful remake for mince pies....look really lovely. The star pastry on top with the powdered sugar really seals the deal. What a great Xmas treat. Thank you !
Katrin Nürnberger says
Glad you like them!
SE says
Looks yummy.
180C=356F
Katrin Nürnberger says
Thanks - fixed the typo 🙂