The snow fell onto the ice rink, shadowed by pine trees. Grinning at each other, the boy and girl scraped their skates on the ice.
“Go!” shouted a neutral arbiter, and the two racers shot off towards the far side of the rink. They didn’t stop there, but looped around the rink, cutting grooves around their younger brothers and sisters and cousins who watched in awe as the race continued, three laps, four, six, ten, until finally, a whistle blew, and the boy and girl struggled past each other to collapse at the scarf finish line, thrown down by one of the boys in the center of the rink. They were joined by the others, who slid around the wet ice and stared up at the falling snowflakes landing on their chins and cheeks and in their open mouths.
Ruby, the youngest, held out her mitten, and observed each unique crystal land on the red wool.
“Magic,” she breathed, gently bringing a latticed flake up to her face.
“Tag! You’re it!” shouted one of the boys, and the kids were off again, racing and zigzagging around the rink, everyone, including Ruby, caught up in the sudden chase.
When the sun began to fade, the children trooped off the ice to unstrap their skates and lay them against the rink wall.
“To the market!” shouted the leader, and the horde marched to the central square, aglow underneath blue lights in the shadow of the old town hall. There they scattered, each to their favourite booths, the boys to the wooden toy stands, the girls to the ornaments and miniature trains.
Ruby followed the scent of vanilla and orange zest to a small hut on the outskirts of the market, where an elderly gentleman huddled around a woodstove. Reaching up, she lay fifty cents along the counter and edged the money over to the man. He looked at her and smiled.
“One mince pie, coming right up.” Extracting a steaming pie from the oven, he dusted it with a metal shaker before handing it to her in a crumple of parchment paper.
“Thanks,” she whispered. She cradled the hot mince pie between her mittens, and watched the sun set beyond the snowy hills.
- Mince Filling (feel free to modify with what you have on hand)
- 3 apples
- 3 persimmons
- 1.5 cups cranberries
- juice of half lemon
- 1 orange or 2 clementines
- zest of orange/clementines
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped dates or figs
- 2 tsps vanilla
- 2 tsps almond extract(omit for AIP)
- 1 tb blackstrap molasses (optional)
- 1 tb maple syrup (optional)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp each of ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, allspice (non-AIP), nutmeg (non-AIP), or whatever combo you have on hand
- 4 tb of coconut oil or ghee (non-AIP/V) (or combo of both)
- 2-4 tb of rum (optional; suggested amount discretionary 😉
Pastry Crust (modified from FFK's Scottish shortbread crust )- 1.5 cups cassava flour
- ½ cup tapioca flour or arrowroot starch
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup coconut oil, leaf lard (non-V), or ghee (non-AIP/V)
- 2-4 tb honey or maple syrup (V)
- 6-8 tb cold water
- Saute the apples, persimmons, & cranberries in the coconut oil/ghee until cooked down; add other mince filling ingredients, reserving the liquor/extracts until the end
- Cook for about 20-30 minutes, until filling has darkened and cooked down (add water if needed to prevent from sticking); add extracts, and rum if desired; taste and adjust as needed
- Mix crust ingredients together, add water until ball of dough forms (should stick together but shouldn't be sticky)
- Roll out dough on a (tapioca) floured or parchment-lined surface; cut out circles shapes for pie bottoms and any other shapes as desired for top.
- Form mini crusts in a muffin tin, add about 1 tb of mince filling, and cover with crust topping
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenreit for 20-30 minutes, or until crust has browned slightly and mince filling bubbles.
- Eat with [dairy-free] vanilla ice cream if you like 😉
Like so
I rarely do process pictures, but here, a process picture!
And pie, pre-dusting
“Good luck from Northern Land” says our FFK plate to you
This story brings back a lot of childhood memories for me, going skating with my uncle who always tied my skates much tighter than necessary. It took years for me to realize that I was still supposed to have circulation in my feet while on the ice. Haha. Anyway, great recipe and story!! 🙂
haha, aw, thanks Nicole! Ice skating in winter is the best, right? (even with too-tight skates 😉 Thanks for reading!
Wow! This is a great recipe. It took me back to my childhood…the ice skating too. Thanks for the freedom to adjust ingredients with what’s on hand. I doubled the molasses and exchanged honey for maple syrup. I made other adjustments as I remember from days gone by and its PERFECT! Oh, I added beef tallow for some of the coconut oil. YUM! It was my first time ever to purchase persimmons and they were great. Thanks again for sharing.
No problem Nanette, I’m glad you enjoyed it! And ooh, beef tallow, that’s even more authentic! (I admit I held off on that one this time, saving it for my ‘not-for-the-faint-hearted’ recipes 😉 – thanks for sharing and happy eating/baking!
Just made the Christmas Mince Pies and gas a major problem with the pastry. I checked the ingredients list to make sure I had it right but needed to add heaps more water, a tablespoon at a time. Got to 22 tablespoons and then it only just held together. All the extra working of the dough has made it very hard when baked. I also enďed up with enough pastry for five dozen tarts. Is it possible to weigh your two and half cups of Cassava flour? Mine seemed to be very dense, I was wonderibg if that was the problem.
I had a similar experience with the dough. I lost count of how many additional tablespoons of water I needed to add (upwards of 1/2-2/3 of a cup more than called for) and then the dough finally stuck together. When baked it was overly crunchy on the exposed edge (break a tooth crunchy) and so gummy and chewy on the bottom. I think in the process of having to add so much more water I over mixed it? I have had such a great time making your other recipes that I was shocked this one didn’t turn out well. I used Otto’s Cassava flour and Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour. I now realize that I forgot the baking powder. I also subbed palm shortening if that would make a difference?
Hmm yes you guys are right, it was an early recipe and there was a mistake in the measurements (too much flour). I’ve readjusted the recipe and it should work now, but will test it out and confirm. Thanks for the heads up!
Would this crust work for hand pies? Also – are the cranberries dried or “plump” ? lol Thanks!! I have the worst time trying to find an AIP crust that tastes good and is light and flaky.
Hi Brenda, for hand pies I might go with something more robust and less short, like this pie crust – i.e., something with tigernut in the dough. I used fresh cranberries in this but dried should work as well. For the flakiest dough I recommend grating frozen leaf lard into your dough mixture. Good luck!