Vegan Easter Biscuits
Vegan Easter biscuits - a vegan version of the traditional West Country Easter Biscuit. These crisp cookies are lightly spiced, studded with currants and a touch of lemon and are very quick and easy to make.
Servings 20 biscuits
Calories 100kcal
Ingredients
Dough:
- 110 g (scant ½ cup) vegan butter/margarine (the solid stick kind, NOT spreadable) softened
- 80 g (⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp) caster (superfine) sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 10 g (1 Tbsp) cornflour (cornstarch)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice (pumpkin spice)
- 200 g (1 + ⅔ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 70 g (2.5 oz) currants
- 1-2 tablespoon non-dairy milk
Glaze:
- 2 teaspoon maple syrup
- 3 teaspoon milk
- caster or granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
- whisk together the vegan butter/margarine, caster sugar and lemon zest until it is smooth and creamy.
- Whisk in the cornflour (cornstarch), baking powder and mixed spice (or pumpkin spice).
- Add the plain flour and currants and mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Gradually add just enough milk to bring the mixture together into a ball of dough.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm/1/4 inch thick. Use a fluted 6cm round cutter to cut out as many rounds as you can. Bring the scraps together, knead very briefly then re-roll and cut out more biscuits.
- Place them spaced apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake for ten minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the maple syrup and milk in a small bowl.
- Lightly brush the tops of the biscuits with the maple syrup mixture and sprinkle with caster or granulated sugar then return them to the oven for five minutes until pale golden and cooked through.
- Transfer the baked biscuits to a wire rack to cool then store in an airtight container.
Notes
It is very important that you use the right kind of butter substitute for these vegan Easter biscuits. The spreadable varieties in a tub have too low a fat content and may result in overly tough, chewy biscuits.
Any variety that comes in a solid block should be fine. I love Naturli vegan block which is available from Sainsbury's; but Stork block (labelled as best for pastry) will also work well. In the US I believe that Earth Balance buttery sticks would be the correct product to use.