Mince pies are a Christmas essential to me. The rich fruit filling is like no other and there are so many yummy ones in the shops these days. That said, I don’t think you can beat a homemade mince pie! I lovely dairy mince pies but I wanted to try and create an equally amazing vegan version. With the cheat of using shop bought pastry, I think this mince pie recipe is so tasty! The flavours of the cinnamon, mixed spice and zesty lemon make this a perfect winter warmer. Will you be cooking up a batch of mince pies this Christmas?
RECIPE
- First make the mincemeat.
- Core, peel and finely dice the cooking apple.
- Heat the apple and all the other ingredients (except for the pastry, flour and sherry) in a saucepan over a low heat.
- When the coconut oil is melted, simmer gently for 10 minutes. Take off the hob and leave to cool. Add the Sherry and store in a sterilised jar until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 1800C when you are ready to roll out the pastry. Grease a 12 hole muffin tin with coconut oil.
- For the pastry cases, roll out the pastry on a floured surface until the pastry is about 3mm thick. Cut 12 circles using 8-9cm pastry cutters (or a small bowl if you don’t have cutters). I found a ramekin the perfect size!
- Cut 12 star shapes using a star cutter. You can use any shapes you like for the decoration part!
- Line each muffin tin hole with a pastry circle, topped ¾ of the way with your mincemeat. Add a pastry star on top of each one.
- Bake the pies for 20-25 mins.
- Leave to cool for a few minutes and then take the pies out of their tin. Finish cooling the pies on a wired cooling rack.
- When ready to eat, eat them as they are or warm them and serve with vegan cream! Mmmmm…..
I hope you liked this recipe!
A Note from me…
This year for Blogmas, my motivation is to raise awareness of the incredible charity MIND.
This marvellous charity does so much to support people suffering from mental health. With ongoing pressures from social media and a million other stresses these days, it is more important than ever to look after our health. As an anxiety sufferer myself, charities like these make such a difference to supporting people that need a voice to listen to and supply tools to help them through difficult circumstances. You can take a look at their website to see the amazing things they do and to take a look at the resources available online to help those needing extra help this Christmas. The winter season can be very difficult with people suffering from anxiety and depression. I would absolutely love it if you could donate something (however small) to this charity as a thank you to me for posting Christmas blogs this Blogmas. I really hope we can raise money and awareness for this stunning cause.
