Vegan Sweet Tooth London Guest Recipe

In the second of our series of guest blogs from our wonderful vegan community we bring you scrummy Vegan Mince Pies by the amazing Vegan Sweet Tooth London! I am so pleased to introduce this recipe! Whenever I am doing a festival and the boys are there with their amazing spread of food I know exactly where I am going to be getting my lunch from! My personal favourites are Giancarlo’s Cannelloni, Arancini balls and lasagne, they are so tasty. But everything that I have tried by Vegan Sweet Tooth has been incredible, for example I don’t normally like Tiramisu but the one made by Vegan Sweet tooth is just the right balance of flavours and is made to perfection. Mince pies for me are such a delicious Christmas treat, I hope you will enjoy making and eating these goodies as much as I will!

Next month we have a fab recipe from Vegan Pie extraordinaire The Vegan Owl!

Vic x

Vegan Sweet Tooth London

Ingredients

Mincemeat:

175 g (1 1/4 cups) currants

175 g (1 1/4 cups) raisins

175 g (1 1/4 cups) sultanas

175 g (1 1/4 cups) dried cranberries

100 g (1/2 + 1/8 cup) candied mixed peel

120 g (1/2 cup) dairy-free block margarine or coconut oil

220 g (2 1/4 cups) light brown soft sugar

50 g (1/3 cup) almonds chopped

If you don’t want to make your own mincemeat (though it is very easy to do!), a lot of shop-bought ones are vegan-friendly as they use vegetable suet. Do make sure that you check the label though, as mincemeat is traditionally made with beef suet 🙁 and some varieties use butter.

If you do decide to buy the mincemeat then you will need two 411g jars

Pastry:

350 g (2 ¾ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

125g brown sugar

2 Tbsp golden syrup

3 tsp flaxseeds

125 g (½ cup ) dairy-free block margarine or coconut oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

To make the mincemeat, place the currants, raisins, sultanas, dried cranberries, candied mixed peel, margarine, brown sugar, almonds, grated bramley apple, spices and orange zest and juice into a large pan. Heat gently, stirring, until the margarine has melted then simmer very gently, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool until just warm then stir in the alcohol of your choice. Cover and refrigerate until needed. You can also decant it into sterilised jars, seal and store for up to six months.

For the pastry, put all the ingredients together and with your hands form a ball, then flatten into a disc. Wrap in clingfilm and chill it for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry into a thickness of about 0.5cm.

Grease and flour two x twelve cup bun trays.

Place the cup bun tray with the mince pie and cook for 20 minutes

*For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them.

About Vegan Sweet Tooth London

Vegan Sweet Tooth London is the first and only Itinerant Italian Vegan Patisserie and Bakery in London and in the U.K.

Owner and chef Giancarlo Roncato of Italian origins, has been a professional chef with over 25 years of working experience in the catering and hospitality industry. Living in London for the past 20 years, he has built a solid experience in a wide and varied range of restaurants and businesses.

Giancarlo started Vegan Sweet Tooth London with his partner 6 years ago and and as a natural chef brings a unique elements balancing taste and flavour with a nutritional outlook. Giancarlo places organic, seasonal and local foods at the core of his recipes, and is equipped with the knowledge and experience to create free-from, plant-based recipes to brief.

London Sweet Tooth can often be found at festivals around the country. To find out more you can find them on Facebook here.