Christmas is here and we cannot get away from raisin-filled desserts. They’re everywhere. In Christmas pudding, mince pies, Christmas cake, panettone etc. As you know already, we’re not fans of the shrivelled little grape. We know some of you don’t like them either. But no longer must we all suffer in silence – or in our case suffer loudly and at great length.  There’s a new substitute in town (and when we say “new”, we mean from the 1800s) and it’s called chestnut puree (aka creme de marrons). And when we say “in town”, we mean we had a leftover jar from our adventures in hot chocolate. This stuff is great. It tastes like dates, cinnamon, vanilla and Christmas. You could put it in anything and it would make it taste luxurious. So in our quest to have another raisin-free Christmas, we remembered the creme de marrons we had and whipped up a batch of “no mince” mince pies. Super easy. If you have time or the inclination, you could even top them with an orange zest icing. Merry Christmas everyone! Makes 12 little pies 200g shortcrust pastry dough 200g chestnut puree (i.e. 2/3 of the can) 1 beaten egg sugar, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 180C (fan-assisted).
2. Roll out the pastry dough on a floured surface to 1/2 inch thickness.
3. Using a 3 inch pastry cutter, cut the dough into 12 rounds.
4. Grease a cupcake/mini tart pan and place the rounds into each hole.
5. Place about 1.5 tsp of chestnut puree into each pastry case.
6. Cut the rest of the dough (re-rolling if necessary) into 12 rounds (3 inches each in diameter as well). Place each one on a filled pastry case.
7. Brush each one with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.
8. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.