Gluten Free Mincemeat Shortbreads

After all the of the Christmas baking I have found myself with a couple of half finished jars of mincemeat in the fridge to use up. I did contemplate just making another massive batch of my rather popular mince pie cookies but thought I should probably experiment and try something a little different instead. And so I pimped up my gluten free shortbread recipe and made these mincemeat shortbread sandwich biscuits instead. These rather buttery biscuits aren't going to help with those January detox diets but will free up a bit of fridge space by using up an leftover Christmas mincemeat.

INGREDIENTS

340g butter
175g caster sugar
50g icing sugar
200g rice flour
100g polenta
300g gluten free flour
200g mincemeat
zest from 1 lemon

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C and line a 24 x 18 cm baking tray with grease-proof paper.

Beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.

Mix the flours, polenta icing sugar and lemon zest into the butter mixture until fully combined.

Take half of the mixture and push into the prepared tin until and even layer is covering the base. Spoon on the mincemeat and spread out before topping with the remaining biscuit mix (I took small lumps of the dough at a time and scattered on top of the mixture and then gently pressed the dough down so as not to squash the filling too much).

Transfer to the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly golden in colour. Remove from the oven and allow the mixture to cool completely before turning out...the biscuit mixture is really 'short' meaning it crumbles really easily so needs to cool fully before attempting to turn out and slice otherwise it may just turn into a big pile of crumbs. Then enjoy with a big cup of tea...and store the rest in an airtight container.