It’s still a while till Xmas and I cannot zip my jeans up anymore – true story (well, not quite…I have taken to wearing my yoga leggings all day long now to spare myself the heartache of that inevitably happening!) In all seriousness, my kitchen has been on full steam for a while now, I am testing so many Christmas appropriate recipes lately that in my head it’s Christmas time already. The nice side effect of that is that the house smells insanely good right now, of spices and citrus.
If I were to guess what is the most universal symbol of Christmas here, in the UK, I would say it’s mince pies! People go crazy for these pretty pastries hiding a delectably oozy and boozy filling of quintessentially Christmas flavours. Beloved by Santa’s reindeers apparently, mince pies start making an appearance on supermarket shelves as early as late November and it’s a rite of passage to overindulge on them throughout December. Traditionally mince pies used to be meat and suet (yummy!!) and some recipes still call for the latter but shop-bought ones tend to contain butter and eggs. Since veganism has become more popular, most supermarkets now offer vegan versions of these iconic pies too but if you have the time and the inclination, I would really encourage you to make these yourself. Like most foods, they are ten times nicer home made. The same goes for the mincemeat filling. Again, you can simply use a shop-bought one if it’s available to you, but mince pie filling requires no cooking skills other than stirring and it fills your house with the most beautiful, Xmassy smell and of course it’s so much better than what you can buy. I urge you to try it and, especially if you don’t live in the UK, don’t worry too much about sticking to the recipe exactly. You could use any dry fruit that you love – as long as it screams Christmas, that’s the only rule here!! I went for a medley of raisins and cranberries but sultanas, currants, sour cherries, apricots, figs…they are all above board. As I am a lover of small, dainty things, I loved making (and eating) these little festive looking pies and I hope you will too!
approx. 400 g / 1½ cups vegan mince pie filling, shop-bought or see below vegan egg wash: 1 tbsp plant milk, 1 tsp maple syrup (or sugar) and 1 tsp neutral oil icing sugar, to dust (optional)
VEGAN MINCE PIE FILLING (makes approx. 400 g / 1½ cups)
50 g / ½ cup slivered (flaked or simply chopped) almonds 35 g / 3 tbsp refined coconut oil or vegan butter 35 g / 3 tbsp sugar* (I used a mixture of light and dark muscovado), maple syrup or coconut sugar will work too 75 g / ¾ loosely packed cup raisins (sultanas or currants) 75g / ¾ loosely packed cup cranberries (sour cherries would also work well) 50 g / ¼ cup diced stem ginger (3 balls) or crystallised ginger 35 g / ¼ cup chopped mixed peel ½ apple (sour ideally), finely diced ¾ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp ground ginger ¼ tsp ground cardamom 1/8 tsp ground coriander 1/8 tsp all spice 1/16 tsp ground cloves ¼ whole nutmeg, finely grated or ¼ tsp ground zest and juice ½ lemon zest of ½ orange and juice 1 orange 1 tsp vanilla extract 30 ml / 2 tbsp Amaretto**
ASSEMBLY
I used these mini tart cases, but you can also use a standard 12-hole muffin tin instead. The one I tested these in is 7 cm / 2.75″ wide and 3 cm / 1.2″ deep.
