1. Mix flour (and xanthan gum if making GF pastry), salt and sugar in a large bowl. If using maple syrup add it in later.
2. Add chopped coconut oil and cut it into the flour with two knifes. Here is a handy guide to making shortcrust pastry that I follow.
3. Once the mixture is uniform and there are no large lumps left (to check, shake the bowl lightly, they will come to the surface), rub the small bits of oil into the flour with your fingers until there are no lumps left. Yes, I know, it does take some time!
4. Finally add in ice cold water and mix it into the flour mixture with a cutlery knife to distribute the water evenly. The exact amount of water needed depends on the absorbency of your flour but start off with 15-30 ml / 1-2 tbsp and add a tiny bit more at a time, if needed – too much water makes more a tough pastry.
5. To check if more water is needed, grab a handful of mixed dough with your hands, if it is very dry, add a little more water, mix it in and check again.
6. Once the dough is the right consistency, form it into a flattened ball quickly – handle the dough as little as possible, wrap it in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
7. Just before you are ready to work on the dough, preheat the oven to 200° C / 390° F.
8. Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into 4 equal sized pieces. Work on one piece at a time keeping the rest in the fridge. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. Use very light pressure at first and progressively roll the dough 2 mm thick.
9. I used these mini tart cases so I used 8 cm / 3.15″ round cookie cutters to make the circles of dough to line the moulds with. Once I lined them with pastry, I trimmed them to size using a sharp knife. You could also make them in a standard 12-hole muffin tin. If that’s what you have, use a large cookie cutter (I used my biggest 10 cm / 4″ circle) to cut a neat circle out of the pastry and line the muffin hole with it.
10. Tuck the pastry in well, ensuring that it fits snugly into all the edges and making sure there is no air bubble underneath the pastry. The pastry won’t quite reach the top of the muffin hole but that’s okay. If making gluten-free pastry (which tends to be more crumbly), you may be better off placing the crumbled pastry in the tart case and simply moulding the pastry with your hands to the shape of the tart tin – you do not need to worry about overworking the pastry as it contains no gluten.
11. Cut out stars (or other) shapes from the leftover pastry to use as pie lids.

VEGAN MINCE PIE FILLING (make at least a day ahead)

1. Place all of the filling ingredients except for the alcohol in a medium size pot. I chopped my raisins small as they were jumbo flame raisins but you don’t have to do that.
2. Stir the mixture really well and place the pot on a low heat.
3. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and allow it to bubble gently for 5-10 minutes, stirring the whole time.
4. Allow the mixture to cool down, stir the alcohol in well. Cover the pot with a lid and place in a cooler part of the house overnight (unless you live somewhere hot like Australia when you may want to put it in the fridge) for the filling to mature and intensify in flavour.

ASSEMBLY

1. Fill the pastry cases with mincemeat mixture, don’t fill them quite to the top (¾ volume is ideal) as the juices will bubble up and rise during baking. Cover the tops with pastry stars and brush the pastry with vegan egg wash.
2. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.
3. They taste best still slightly warm. Cool the pies completely before storing and keep in an air-tight container, they will keep for about 2-3 days. If you want to make these in advance, they freeze well. You could freeze them raw and bake on the day, but I’ve also tried freezing them baked and they were great once defrosted (I left them in the fridge overnight).