Review: Denise’s Delicious Sweet Pastry Mix

Denise’s Delicious Gluten Free Bakery asked me to review their new sweet pastry mix. It is gluten, wheat and dairy free. I was delighted to accept and received a package in the post with a sticker which said ‘FRAGILE CONTAINS CAKE’. I was very excited to receive a parcel containing cake.

The Sweet Pastry Mix box is nicely decorated and inside you will find a sealed zip lock bag of flour and sugar mix. You need to add margarine and egg to make up the pastry. There were clear instructions on the side for how much to use and how many eggs and how much margarine to add to make up a certain amount of pastry. While the bag had a zip lock, I found it hard to close it properly with that so I stored the remainder by closing it with a plastic clip.

The box promises that the pastry will be easy to work with and will not crumble easily like some gluten free pastries can. I did find it easy to work with, I used a mixer to mix it together and it was very similar texture to (gluten containing) pastry which I’ve worked with before.

I made an apple tart and as I tried this out just before Christmas, I made some seasonal mince pies. All were devoured by the gang, and there was very little difference in taste to the pastry, my husband didn’t notice until I told him they were gluten free.

The pastry mix can be found in SuperValu, Centra, Spar, Dunnes Stores and you can also buy direct from Denise’s Delicious website delicious.ie.

The mince pies recipe is below. There is a recipe for apple tart and for lemon curd tartlets also over on Denise’s Delicious Blog. Remember to keep these dairy free use dairy free margarine rather than butter.

Mince Pies

You will need:

• 190g Sweet Pastry Mix
• 1 egg
• 75g dairy free margarine (I used Pure)
• 1 jar of mincemeat ( I used Chivers which was dairy free)

Steps:

Chop margarine roughly into cubes, blend with pastry mix. I used an electric mixer but you can use this with a hand mixer or by hand. Margarine should be at room temperature before you start.

Beat the egg.

Add egg to pastry mix and mix together until it forms a ball.

Chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Spread a little gluten free flour on the worktop and roll out pastry.

Cut into rounds with a cutter. I improvised with a glass as I didn’t have the correct shape cutter. The boys loved helping with this part so it took a lot longer than it should have but they had fun! I used a smaller circle for the top, a star would be nice if you had it either.

Grease a bun tray and place each round into a hollow. Spoon in some mincemeat and cover with a smaller circle or a star shaped cut out of pastry if you have one.

Brush the tops with beaten egg and place in a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180C for 20 minutes or until golden on top.

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Disclaimer: I was provided with the Sweet Pastry Mix for review purposes. I did not receive payment for the review and as always all opinions are my own.