These homemade Vegan Mince Pies hold the very essence of Christmas in their delicious pastry crusts. Nothing can beat one warm from the oven!
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Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Vegan Mince Pies so get that Vegan Mincemeat ready and let's get baking! Be sure to make my Festive Mincemeat Tart and Christmas Shortbread if you have any mincemeat leftovers, and if you're a lover of British Christmas desserts check out my Vegan Christmas Pudding recipe and my Vegan Christmas Cake too!
Ingredients & equipment
To make this recipe you will need to make some vegan pastry dough. You can use my vegan pie crust recipe for this or for an oil-free or gluten-free option use my healthy pie crust recipe. You will also need to make or buy some vegan mincemeat.
To bake them you will need a shallow mince pie pan or muffin pans. If you use muffin pans your mince pies will be deeper and you won't get so many out of this recipe so feel free to double it if need be.
How To Make Vegan Mince Pies
Making my Vegan Mince Pies is a breeze. The pastry crust uses my staple vegan pie crust recipe which comes together in a food processor in minutes.
Here's how it's done:
- Make the pastry dough.
- Cut rounds with a cookie cutter and line the wells of a shallow mince pie pan/bun tin or muffin pan.
- Fill with festive, rich, and fruity mincemeat
- Top with a lid (star shapes cut with a cookie cutter add some cute factor ♡), then bake until golden and bubbling.
While they bake, your house will fill with the warmly spiced, festive scent of Christmas!
Serving Suggestions
Vegan Mince Pies are great served warm straight from the oven. Eat them as they are or top them with a generous dollop of melting vegan brandy butter, vanilla ice cream, vegan custard, or vegan whipped cream.
How to Store, Freeze & Reheat
Baked Vegan Mince Pies will keep in an air-tight container for up to a week. They can easily be reheated in the oven to bring them back to their fresh-from-the-oven status. Just place them on a baking tray and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 °F.
Mince Pies can also be frozen before or after baking. Make them up to the point of baking, then stop and freeze them in their trays. When you decide it's mince pie time, pull them out of the freezer and bake straight from frozen. They will take about 5 minutes longer than the time stated. If they were already baked when you froze them place them in the oven at 350 °F for about 15 minutes to reheat.
Recipe
Vegan Mince Pies
Author:Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 grams) all purpose flour , (plain flour in the UK)
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (120 grams) vegan butter or refined coconut oil , it must be cold and hard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup (80 grams) sugar
- 7-10 tablespoons ice cold water
- 1¼ cups (280 grams) vegan mincemeat
- a few drops plant-based milk , or aquafaba for brushing the pastry
- a handful of granulated sugar or natural powdered sugar , for dusting
Oil-free or gluten-free option
- healthy pie crust , use this recipe for the pastry dough instead
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put a shallow mince pie/bun pan or muffin pan in the fridge to chill. The number of pies you will get will vary depending on the size of the wells in the pan you use. Aim for 12 then you can bake a few after with the leftovers if needed. If you use a muffin pan the mince pies will be deeper and you will only get 6 to 8 pies from this recipe.
- Make the pastry for the pie crusts. Add the flour, salt, coconut oil/butter and sugar to a food processor and pulse until it looks like breadcrumbs.
- Add the water one tablespoon at a time until it just start to ball up as the blade goes round. As soon as it starts, stop the food processor. Over working it will make the pastry tough.
- Test that you can squeeze it together into a pliable dough. Add a tiny bit more water and process again if it's too dry, or if it's ok then remove the blade, bring the dough together and turn out onto a floured surface.
- Cut off about ⅓ of the pastry and set aside to make the tops, then roll out the remainder to 2-3mm thick and even all over.
- Use a cookie cutter, mason jar lid or the top of a mug or glass to cut rounds big enough to go in each hole and come up the sides.
- Place them in gently then crimp the edges if you want to or just leave them. Ball up the remaining pastry and roll it out again to cut more as needed.
- Add a generous amount of mincemeat to each once. It should come right up almost level with the top.
- Roll out the ⅓ of pastry you set aside to 2 - 3 mm thick then cut out the tops. You can make them full round ones or cut them into star shapes.
- If you make full lids brush around the top of each pie with a little plant-based milk or aquafaba before adding the lid then press down all around to seal. If you are using stars then place them on the top of each pie and press down gently to make them as flat and even as you can .
- Brush the top of each pie with plant-based milk and if you want to, sprinkle the top of each one with some granulated sugar. It makes them look pretty once baked.
- Refrigerate the pies and preheat the oven to 425 °F (218 °C). Leave them in the fridge while it preheats.
- Once the oven is to temperature remove the pies from the fridge and place in the hot oven.
- Cook for around 20 - 23 minutes. The pastry should be turning golden brown and the mincemeat filling bubbling. If you baked them in a muffin pan they might take 1 or 2 minutes longer.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before prising out gently. I found using a little silicone spatula the easiest way to loosen up around the edge if necessary and pop them out.
- Place on a cooling rack. Once cool you can dust them with a little optional powdered sugar.
- If you have any leftover pastry and mincemeat, wash up your pan and make a few more to use it up, or wrap the pastry well and store it in the fridge or freezer for another day.
NOTES
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Eleonora Giusta says
Hi I have made these over and over again as the recipe is absolutely fantastic, thank you.
I have been using a tray with more holes, so they are “mini mince pies” but I need to buy a new one and I am looking for the 16 hole you mentioned in the recipe and I don’t seem able to find one with 16 holes. Do you just use a 24 hole and only fill 16? I’d like to get the same size as the one you have because although my mince pies taste delicious they do not look as good as yours. Are you able to share a link for the 16 holes tray please?
Many thanks!
Melanie McDonald says
Hi Eleanora, I'm so pleased you're enjoying the recipe!
I have 12 hole/well pans. I either use 2 pans and partially fill one of them, or I use one and bake a few leftover pies once the first batch is done, or I save the leftover pastry and mincemeat in the fridge/freezer and make a few more on another day. I don't have a link for my pans because they are probably about 30 years old now but if you Google shallow mince pie pans you will find similar ones. I've added a link to a similar mince pie pan in the equipment section of the recipe card and in the post too, and edited the recipe to make it a bit clearer. The link is for US Amazon but they usually do a good job of showing you something similar if you are in another country.
I hope that helps!
Lauren says
This recipe looks wonderful, just what I've been looking for, but I don't have a food processor.. is it possible to make the pastry without? Thanks!
Melanie McDonald says
Definitely. I'd like to add the instructions to do it by hand but this recipe ranks Number 1 in Google so unfortunately I can't touch it or I risk it dropping in search results.
To make by hand just add the flour, salt, sugar to a bowl and mix. Then add the vegan butter or oil cut into small chunks. Cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter or rub it in gently with your finger tips until it looks like very coarse breadcrumbs and you can still visibly see little tiny bits of butter/oil. Just be sure to be quick. They key to good pastry is keeping it nice and cool. Hope that helps!
Eleonora Giusta says
Thank you for the clarification Melanie, much appreciated and thank you for this amazing recipe!
Rachel Benn says
Mostly good recipe apart from the fact that it says to use cold, hard vegan butter or coconut oil. If you do this, it makes it impossible to work this into the flour, sugar and baking soda. Instead, I'd use room temperature stuff. I unfortunately ended up having to melt the coconut oil in the microwave and this made a very runny mixture until I added 100g more flour into it. Overall good however this needs to be edited. Also, it doesn't specify what type of sugar to use, so, I just guessed caster sugar.
Melanie McDonald says
The recipe is correct as written. When making pastry the fat needs to be cold and hard. That's what makes it light, crisp and flaky. That's why you cut it in (or pulse in a food processor) and not mix it in. If you melted the coconut oil and added more flour then you aren't going to be having the best results with your mince pie shells.
Also there is no baking soda in the recipe and the type of sugar in the recipe doesn't really matter which is why a particular variety isn't specified.
My recipes are all tested very thoroughly and if followed precisely will give excellent results.
margaret robinson says
Made these yesterday and they are delicious. The best mince pies I've ever made. Thanks
Margaret says
Best mince pies ever. Thanks