Raw gluten-free mince pies (you’ll feel less guilty, we promise!)

The majority of us embrace a kind of a "we'll worry about it in January" attitudes to our diets in December. Which is all well and good until January rolls around and you haul your sofa-shaped ass to the gym to try and work off the holiday indulgences – only to realize that those bloody mince pies take a lot longer to run off than they did scoffing in. Whoopsies. If you want to get a head start on the eating healthy, however, without missing any of the festive flavour, these super-healthy, raw, gluten-free mince pies are the (tasty) way to go: Ingredients For the mincemeat

• 1 red apple (about 100g once peeled and chopped)
• 50g sultanas
• 50g smooth cashew butter
• Juice and zest of  ½ orange
• 30g date syrup (about 2 tbsp)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cloves

For the pastry

• 230g almonds
• 80g dried figs
• 85g medjool dates, pitted weight
• 2½ tsp ground cinnamon
• zest of 1 orange

To serve

• maple syrup, for brushing
• 10g finely desiccated coconut, for dusting

Instructions Peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces. Add to a large bowl with the rest of the mincemeat ingredients and a pinch of salt, and mix. To make the pastry, place all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until it comes together and is fairly sticky, with no big chunks of nut remaining. Line an eight-hole cupcake tin with paper liners. Use your fingers to line each hole with some of the mixture, pressing it evenly to create a pie case about ½cm thick. Spoon the mincemeat into each case until they are almost full. Flatten the rest of the pastry mix on a clean surface and use cookie cutters to cut out eight stars. Brush with a thin layer of maple syrup, then sprinkle the desiccated coconut on top to decorate. Place a star on top of each pie. Store the mince pies in the fridge. (Recipe via Telegraph.co.uk)