Making pastry

bluebag

My OH adores mince pies, but since his heart attack he isn't allowed them as the pastry is just too high fat. He really hates Filo which would have been the obvious choice.

I've tried just lowering the fat content, but it's a bit like cardboard.

Has anyone has success with a low fat pastry recipe?

Fen1

Could you try oil pastry instead of pastry made with butter?

here are a few recipes, just googled:

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/ild/2008/1108/apple-raspberry-pie.html#axzz15CHXwhse

http://www.nibblous.com/recipe/742

It would still be calorific and 'fatty' though.

How are you going to make the mincemeat? That can also be very fatty.

Vegan cookery sites can be good for cutting out solid fats like butter and lard.

emiff6

Is it the pastry he likes, or the mincemeat? You could fill the middle of a baked apple with mincemeat, then you get all the mincemeaty flavours without any pastry at all. Or make individual mincemeat pavlovas, with meringue, and a low fat alternative to cream.

As Fen1 says, unless you make your own, mincemeat has a lot of fat in it, mostly as a preservative I think, although it could just be leftover from when mincemeat really had meat in it. I'm sure someone will know the true reason.

Vaila

low fat pastry recipe
http://www.growyourown.info/page141a.html

also might be helpful
http://www.waitrose.com/food/celebritiesandarticles/cookingandrecipeideas/0112032.aspx

bluebag

Fen1 wrote: »

Could you try oil pastry instead of pastry made with butter?

here are a few recipes, just googled:

http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/ild/2008/1108/apple-raspberry-pie.html#axzz15CHXwhse

http://www.nibblous.com/recipe/742

It would still be calorific and 'fatty' though.

How are you going to make the mincemeat? That can also be very fatty.

Vegan cookery sites can be good for cutting out solid fats like butter and lard.

Never even thought about oil pastry, using a polyunsaturate oil I could make it topless and roll the base very thin.

Still a bit calorific, so he will have to have less than he would like (we are talking the mince pie monster here ) but better that than no mince pies at all eh?

Thank you very much.

bluebag

arran_m wrote: »

low fat pastry recipe
http://www.growyourown.info/page141a.html

also might be helpful
http://www.waitrose.com/food/celebritiesandarticles/cookingandrecipeideas/0112032.aspx

WoW! they look very good, pictures are reallly helpful when you haven't made it before so you know what it should look like, or not...as sometimes happens in my kitchen:o

babyshoes

Hmm, pastry is by definition high in fat. As you suggested, the best option if you want to continue using it is to roll it very thinly and use as little as possible. You could also make it with one of those 'healthy heart' type margarines. It will probably not be as nice, and may be a bit 'tough', but as a vehicle for mincemeat filling it should be ok.

Another idea I had was perhaps you could try using a bread dough rolled out thinly? Put it in your pie tins and stab it all over with a fork to stop it rising, then blind bake it before filling. The lid will rise, but you can roll it thinly and put holes in it to cut down on that a bit!

Or maybe do a chelsea bun type of thing with mincemeat in in?

How about working out the calories in a standard mince pie, and then work out the exercise required to burn that off, so you can say to him that yes, he can have it, but he will need to walk for X number of minutes afterwards...

Ches

During the war didn't they replace some of the fat in pastry with mashed potato.

zippychick

I.ve merged this with our main pastry making thread to see if you can get some other ideas

Fruball

Hello wise ones

I made pastry today for mini quiches and used MrT Plain Flour 6oz, Trex 3oz and a very small amount of water to bring together.

I didn't knead it as i've always been told to handle pastry as little as possible but just brought it together, rolled, cut rounds and popped them in bun tin, popped them in fridge whilst I prepared filling (egg, milk, brocolli, ham, cheese, tomato. Baked at 200c (preheated) and they rose up almost like vol a vents :rotfl:

The fillings left the pastry in some quiches and kind of sat on the top of them with a big airspace between filling and pastry! They looked fairly spectacular in some ways, but not really the look I was going for!

Also they stuck to the tins... I have never found that to happen with mince pies and never grease my tins... should I?

So, what do you think I have done wrong? And how can I prevent this happening again?

ps - I also have half the dough left over and WAS going to make jam tarts with it but not so sure now!!!

Thank you in advance :A