Vegan Frangipane Mince Pies
Vegan frangipane mince pies - these delicious vegan mince pies are a wonderful twist on the classic; with crisp, crumbly pastry, fruity, boozy mincemeat and a soft almond frangipane topping instead of the usual pastry lid.
Servings 15 mince pies
Ingredients
Pastry:
- 300 g (2 ½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 30 g (¼ cup) icing (powdered) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 170 g (¾ cup) vegan block butter cold and diced
- 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon cold vodka (optional)
- about 1 Tablespoon cold water
Frangipane:
- 100 g (1 cup) ground almonds/almond flour
- 30 g (¼ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 20 g (2 Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 60 g (5 Tablespoons) caster or granulated sugar
- 75 g (⅓ cup) vegan block butter melted
- 60 ml (¼ cup) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
To Assemble:
- 411 g jar of mincemeat
- a couple handfuls flaked almonds
Instructions
- Start by making the pastry. Place the plain flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl and whisk to mix. Add the vegan butter and rub it in using your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and no lumps of fat remain.
- Add the cold vodka (or water) and vinegar and mix; drizzle in a little cold water as needed to bring the pastry together into a ball. Wrap the pastry and pop it in the fridge for 30-60 minutes until it has firmed up a bit.
- Once the pastry has chilled, roll it out thinly (about 3mm) on a floured surface. Use an approx 10-11cm cutter to cut out rounds (I use a small fluted tart tin as I don't have a cutter big enough).
- Line a 12 cup muffin tray, plus 3 cavities of a second one, with strips of baking parchment - this makes it easy to get the baked tarts out of the tin. Gently press the pastry rounds into the prepared tin.
- Re-roll the pastry scraps and cut out more rounds as needed until you have 15 pastry cases.
- Place the muffin trays in the fridge for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas mark 5 and prepare the filling.
- To make the frangipane, whisk together the ground almonds, plain flour, cornflour, baking powder and sugar. Add the milk, melted butter, vanilla and almond extracts and whisk until smooth.
- Place a Tablespoon of mincemeat into each of the pastry cases then spoon a Tablespoon of the frangipane on top, spread it out a bit to cover the mincemeat.
- Scatter some flaked almonds over the top of each mince pie then bake for 25 minutes until golden. Leave to cool in the trays for 10 minutes then lift the tarts out of the tin using the strips of baking parchment and place them on a wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- USE SCALES. As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scales rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!