Finding Vegan Mince Pies
FACT: even for a vegan, mince pies are a staple food at Christmas.
They’re perfect if you want something sweet and indulgent but are too full for a full-on piece of fruit cake.
I’ve always enjoyed them, but since becoming vegan I’ve discovered going cruelty-free with your ‘minnies’ can be a bit of a minefield. Especially if you’re visiting non-vegan friends and family.
Most of the mince pies sold today contain suet – an animal based fat. And whilst there are vegan mince pies on the market, (made from wheat flour and plant based suet), it can be a bit hit and miss finding one that tastes as good as it should!
But the bonus of having to research where to find the best ones, meant I soon discovered much more about them than I’d bargained for. And it turns out that these little lovelies have a fascinating, if not rather chequered, history…
Monkish Minnies
Originally thought to have been created by 13th-Century monks, they were initially made of minced animal-based ingredients that don’t require a detailed mention here!
Once known as Tarts of Flesh, they were designed to be a physical representation of Jesus in his manger, the minced meat(s) within symbolising the body of Christ, and the pie crust, his crib. (Read into that what you will!).
The crust, being several inches thick, was not intended to be eaten, just to house the ‘anointed one’ as he cooked slowly. And unlike the milliseconds the modern-day versions last in our house, a well-baked Medieval mince pie was filled with liquid fats (through holes in the top) which were expected to solidify, making it last several months.
The earliest known recipe for mince pies dates back to 1390, in a book entitled A Forme of Cury, where the unknown author included cheese, and dried fruit along with the minced quarry.
The pies became increasingly extravagant shows of wealth, and religious dedication, with often elaborate decorations to the lids, and some unspeakable ingredients packed inside them. The rarer the contents, and the more showy the pastry, the most power and influence went on display. As Christmas traditions were more social affairs, it was customary for the rich and powerful to use the festivals to show them off to their invited guests (and remind the serving staff of their low status). These pies were meant to be seen rather than enjoyed.
Over time, as they became more widespread, and oversees trade improved, the (more unsavoury) savoury ingredients began to disappear, and the little pies became sweeter, fruitier, and more indulgent. Packed with spices and dried fruits from abroad, it wasn’t long before they became a dessert dish for everyone to enjoy.
Popish Pies
Samuel Pepys regarded the mince pie as a celebratory cake for any occasion. The famous diarist claimed to have once seen eighteen of them – one for every year of marriage – laid out on the table at a wedding anniversary banquet.
This would of course have caused absolute scandal at the time, since Protestant Parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell and his fun-police supporters had passed several laws excluding lavish celebrations of any kind.
Even Christian celebrations and festivals were limited to piety and prayer as anything else was considered Popish and vulgar. So the frous-frous mince pies of the Tudor period simply had to go. In short, mince pies were banned. In 1661 poet Marchamont Needham wrote of the new laws:
“All Plums the Prophet’s sons defy
And Spice-broths are too hot
Treason’s in a December-pye
And death within the pot.”
But of course, an inability to police this ridiculous law meant they soon reappeared with a vengeance – and booze! This continued until by the time of Prohibition, their alcohol content had rocketed – and with it a hitherto unseen popularity for the bite-sized delicacies!
The earliest meat-free recipe we know of appeared in the wonderful Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861). The famous Victorian domestic goddess prepared traditional pies containing a meat filling – but also a meat free version beside it.
And the rest, as they say, is history!
Lemony Mince Pies Recipe (VG)
These vegan mince pies are an amalgamation of two recipes I found online. The first was for regular vegan mince pies and the second was a non-vegan recipe for lemon and almond mince pies. Being the greedy glutton I am, I combined the two. It was a complete experiment but a successful one, so I thought it was only fair to share. Consider it my holiday gift to you!
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 400g flour
- 200g coconut oil, refrigerated (as hard as possible)
- 20g icing sugar, (+ extra for dusting)
- 50ml ice-cold vodka
- 50ml non-dairy milk, for brushing
For the filling
- 1 large cooking apple peeled and grated
- 200g mixed dried fruit
- Finely grated zest of two lemons
- 2 tblsps almond liqueur (I used Disaronno Amaretto)
- 100g hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
- zest and juice of one orange
- 1 tsp each of cinnamon, ground ginger and allspice
- 150g muscovado or dark brown sugar
Method
1) Preheat oven (180C/160C fan/GM 4). Mix together all mincemeat ingredients in a large ovenproof dish, including the almond liqueur. Cover with a pan lid or baking sheet and bake for 35-40 mins. Once all the sugar has melted, and the liquid has reduced a little (be careful not to over-reduce), set aside to cool.
2) For the pastry, mix the flour and coconut oil into a breadcrumb consistency. Add the sugar, vodka and 2 tbsp of ice-cold water, mixing gently until the dough comes together. Add more water if dry, then tip the dough onto a clean surface and pat into a disc with your hands. Cover with a clean cloth, and refrigerate for 30 mins+.
3) Remove the pastry from the fridge and cut off one-third of it. Keep this third covered under a tea towel. Roll the rest out on a floured surface to a thickness of around 0.5cm. Cut out circles using a cookie cutter, and line the dimples in your pastry tins with them. Reroll the pastry to get more shapes out of it.
4) Add a teaspoon of mincemeat to the centre of each circle, then refrigerate. Take the remaining pastry from under the tea towel and roll out to 0.5cm thickness. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Chill it in the fridge for 15 mins to firm up.
5) Preheat oven (180C/160C fan/GM 4). Remove the pastry sheet from the fridge and use a slightly smaller cookie cutter than before to cut out your pie lids. Bring the mince pie bases out of the fridge and add the lids, using clean fingertips to seal tops to bases. Brush each pie with plant based milk and bake for 30 mins until crisp and golden. Cool, dust with icing sugar, and serve.
Mincemeat Filo Twists
All you need for this recipe is a jar of vegan mincemeat (we used Meridian organic mince pie filling), some ready roll filo pastry (we used JusRol Filo Pastry Ready Rolled), and a splash of plant based milk.
1. Preheat the oven to (180C/160C fan/GM 4).
2. On a clean worktop, remove the greaseproof paper sheets from your filo sheets and lay three or four layers of pastry down on top of each other, brushing each one with plant based milk.
3. Cut the pastry into six equally sized squares and place a teaspoon of mixture in the centre of each one.
4. Roll into a cylinder and twist the two open ends to create tiny cracker shapes.
5. Repeat until all the pastry is used.
6. Place on a baking sheet and brush with milk. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Cool slightly before serving.
Mincemeat Toasties
Got a sandwich toastie maker?
Spread both sides of your sliced bread with dairy free butter, add a generous helping of mincemeat into the middle, top with more buttered bread, and toast until slightly caramelised on the edges for a super indulgent holiday brunch!
Ready Made Mince Pies
Not everyone has the luxury of time for baking – especially at this time of year.
So if you’d rather just grab and go, or cut down your baking time, then ready-to-eat vegan mince pies and festive fillings are just what you need!
You’ll find vegan mince pies in most of the major supermarkets – but I prefer to shop smaller and locally – especially over the holiday season. So below are my absolute favourites from the cooperatives and independent stores I found right on our doorstep!
Lottie Shaw’s Deep Filled Mince Pies (GF/VG)
Lottie Shaw’s pies were the biggest in size we reviewed. But that’s not much of a surprise, since Lottie also holds the world record for baking the largest mince pie ever made. There are longer ones on record (at 18ft), but Lottie’s was the most like a mince pie, and therefore snapped up the accolades. It even had a giant pastry star on top to look like one of her bakery’s regular mince pies.
Its mincemeat alone weighed 12.5kg, and the pastry casing another 1.5kg. It measured 27inch diameter – about the same size as a 4×4 tyre – and took six people to carry it around the bakery.
It contained 22 times the suggested daily calorie count for an adult male.
We’d have had a go though…
Coop Mince Pies (GF/VG)
Coop’s delicious little mince pies are gluten free and vegan friendly – and hit the shelves way ahead of the Christmas rush in September 2021. Coop claims this was because so many shoppers wrote in to their head office, anxious to have a normal Christmas after the lockdowns and restrictions of 2020 and begging them to stock them nice and early.
They’re the most affordable pies in our review but definitely didn’t lack any flavour. The pastry is very crumbly though, so use a plate if you don’t want to get caught going in for seconds!
Foods of Athenry Starry Mince Pies (GF/VG)
Foods of Athenry in Galway, hail from Ireland, where their bakery has a whole range of vegan friendly products, including cereals, flapjacks and cookies.
They’re not cheap – and of all the mince pies we reviewed, were by far the smallest. So we’d suggest saving them for special occasions. But since the holiday season is probably one of those, and they are super cute, we reckoned they deserved a place in our top three.
Mince Pies All Year Round?
Mince pies are delicious – there’s little doubt about that.
But could you eat them all year round?
British institution, Marks and Spencer announced in 2008 that, such was their popularity, they would be selling mince pies all year round. The press had a field day and chatrooms were alive with the buzz of debate.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. Don’t get me wrong – I adore a mince pie. But there is something inherently Wintry about troughing down lots of rich dried fruit and warm pastry that just doesn’t have me thinking, Hmmm – I’d love this with a sorbet and Pimms while I watch Wimbledon.
For me, the very attraction of a good mince pie is in its heaviness; the slight whiff of brandy about the mincemeat, and the fact that as it’s Winter I should probably bulk up to survive, right?
It’s worth noting too that, for a vegan it’s probably not even up for debate at the moment, because vegan mince pies were not added to the all year round selection pack at Marks & Spencer. Does this mean we don’t buy as many as the carnivores – or does it mean we are not as fond as they are of rich fayre?
(I’d love to know your thoughts on that! ).
In any case, you can guarantee that as soon as I’ve burnt off my mushroom Wellington and roast spuds on December 25th, I’ll be sticking my hand in the cake tin and digging out enough ‘minnies’ to make Cromwell’s toes curl and Pepys’s wedding anniversary look like a visit to the dentist.
And I doubt I’ll be alone in that!
