We've lived north of Manchester for over 22 years now but, originally, my husband and I hale from South Africa. One of our favourite takeaway pastries was a mutton curry pie. Mutton used to make it's appearance regularly on UK plates but after WWII started to fall out of fashion, not so for South Africa. Since moving here, we've sought maturer lamb meat out and it continues to make it's appearance on our table. If you want to try it, it is readily available as hogget (lambs that are slaughtered in their 2nd year) from butchers just before spring lamb makes it's appearance. Just check with them. Hogget has the flavour of mutton with the tenderness of lamb and is a great compromise. You can buy mutton but this is not so readily available except by special order and is classed as sheep meat older than hogget or slaughtered in their 3rd year or more. But back to hogget, which with it's full flavour, makes the most awesome curry......and the best pies ever! Being diabetic, pies have been off the menu for me but since discovering FiberFlour, the world has opened up again. Of course, you can fill your pies with whatever you want, the process is exactly the same. The carb count will be different so you'll need to work that out. I used the shortcrust pastry recipe as provided on this website, https://www.lonjevity-foods.com/copy-of-apple-pie with a couple of small changes. I opted to use half butter/half lard as the fat. So here's what I did to make 4 individual pies: Ultra-Fine FiberFlour                          200g Butter, cold, grated                               50g Lard, cold, grated 50g Salt                                                        3g Baking Powder                                      6g  Lemon Juice 4g Egg, YOLK ONLY 1 egg Water                                              30-60g Pie filling, thickened, cold 400-500g Add Ultra-fine flour, butter, lard, salt, baking powder,lemon juice and egg yolk into a food processor (as per the original recipe). Slowly adding tablespoons of ice water as you pulse the mixture until is comes together as a ball. Roll out on a surface floured with a little more Ultra-fine flour or to make it a bit easier, onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Roll out to about thickness of a £1 coin. Line some individual pie dishes with a disk of greaseproof paper (to make removal a little easier or use a foil pie dish) and line the tin with a layer of pastry. I did get a few cracks but pressed some spare bits into the cracks and these held (I thickened my gravy with a little Ultra-fine flour so it wasn't too runny). Fill the pie generously with cold filling, moisten the edges of the pastry overhang with a little water, add a pie top, press into place and use a fork to seal then cut some vents. I did re-roll this pastry quite successfully from left over bits of pastry. At this stage I froze the pies for later use. To prepare for eating: preheat oven to 180degC and glaze the top of each pie with beaten egg. Place pie tins onto a baking sheet and bake for 35-35mins till golden brown and the filling is thoroughly cooked in the centre. Remove from oven when ready and leave to cool slightly in the tins before turning out as this allows the pastry, which is quite short and crumbly, to set a little and hold it's shape. Each pie crust has approximately 8g carbs Just out the oven Just out the freezer and glazed with beaten egg

I love a warmly spiced hot cross bun, especially around Easter. Actually, if I'm honest, I will eat them at any time given the choice! The problem is the high carb count in regular buns. I've just discovered the joys of FiberFlour and one of my first experiments were these buns. The recipe is based on the Bread Machine recipe found in the recipes here on this page. It is a 2 step process if you want mixed peel in the buns but I guess you could skip this if you want to reduce the time and just make plain spiced buns. As a diabetic I need to keep my carbs down so I've skipped adding in fruit (raisins), made sugar-free mixed peel (because I think this is an integral flavour) and skipped adding the cross. Each bun as it stands is approximately 8 carbs per serving. INGREDIENTS & INSTRUCTIONS STEP 1 Mixed Peel 1 x Orange, peel only 1 x Lemon, peel only 1/2 cup sweetener of your choice 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar 1 cup water 1. Peel the orange and lemon thinly with as little pith as possible and cut into thin strips 2. Bring a pot of water up to a boil and drop in the citrus slices. Simmer the peel for 1 minute, then strain and drop into ice water, Repeat. 3. Discard the water after each boil. 3. Refill the pot with fresh measured water and add the sugar. Bring this up to a simmer then add the orange and lemon peel and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 10 mins translucent (but not completely). 4. Store the peel, refrigerated and in the syrup for up to a month or to make Candied Peel, remove the pot from the heat and drain peel on rack over parchment or on dehydrator rack with non-stick under grid. When cool, dip in granulated sweetener and leave to dry overnight. STEP 2 Hot Cross Buns - makes 12 150gr warm water 150gr warm milk 2 tbl butter, soft 1 egg 300gr FiberFlour 200gr Ultrafine FiberFlour 1 tsp salt (6gr) 2 tsp baking powder 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon 3 tsp ground Mixed Spice 3 tbl sweetener (30gr) 2 tsp Instant Active Yeast 50gr prepared mixed peel Mix warm milk and water (take care this isn't too hot otherwise it might kill the yeast). Add the butter and egg and mix again. Measure out both FiberFlours, salt, baking powder, spices and yeast, remember to add the yeast and salt into opposite sides of the bowl (salt can also kill yeast). I used a Kenwood mixer and mixed this for 5 minutes with the dough hook on low speed. Meanwhile remove mixed peel from syrup and snip into small squares. In the final minute or so of mixing, add in the snipped mixed peel and continue to mix so that it is evenly distributed in the dough. Divide dough into 12 and roll into buns. Place onto baking parchment in a suitable tray. Cover (I put the tray into a plastic box with a lid) and set aside in a warm place for 1-2 hours to allow the buns to rise to double their size. If your kitchen is a little cooler, you made need a little longer. Be patient and allow them to rise properly. Preheat the oven to 180degC conventional and bake for 35 mins. When they are cooked, remove them from the tray and allow them cool on a rack. Once cool, the buns can be frozen. Remove to defrost, toast and spread butter on them. Hope you enjoy them. If you prefer a lighter spice flavour adjust the spices down to 1 tsp ground Cinnamon and 2 tsp ground Mixed Spice.