Yule Recipes

Here are some Yule Recipes for you taken from the Vegan family website, enjoy. I'm going to be trying them myself the biscuits sound wonderful, I've found another one to add tomorrow for a festive soup so check back if you're interested.

Jewel Biscuits

This recipe makes about 25 medium (3 inch/9cm) biscuits

Ingredients:

150g/5oz/three quarter cup caster sugar

150g/5 oz/three quarter cup vegan margarine

5 tablespoons of soya milk

300g/10 oz/1and a half cups of plain flour

teaspoon vanilla extract (or according to pack instructions)

boiled sweets - different colours is good



Preheat oven to 200C/400F and grease baking sheets. Cream together the sugar and marg. Mix in the soya milk and vanilla and then the flour. The mixing of the flour is best done with your hands. You should have a workable dough (add more flour if it's too wet or more soya milk if too dry and doesn't hold together well). Roll out on a floured board (to just under 1 cm thick) and cut into shapes - cutters in festive shaped such as stars, trees and angels are lovely but plain round ones are effective too - you can use a drinking glass if you don't have cutters. Lay on baking sheets. Make a hole in the middle of each biscuit - plain round, diamonds, stars - whatever you like, as long as it is big enough for your sweet! Place a sweet in each hole. Bake for about 10 minutes for soft bake cookies or a little longer for dryer, crunchy ones. The sweets will melt down and fill the hole in the oven and then reset once cool.

If you want these for tree decoration ONLY you can prelong their life by replacing the sugar in the recipe with salt and adding a couple of tablespoons of PVA glue to the mix (do not eat after doing this option!!) Prior to baking make a small hole in the top with a drinking straw - once cooked and cooled you can thread ribbons through for hanging.

Festive Sweets

Making your own sweets is actually quite fun - children have a great time with this too. They are also nice gifts if placed in a pretty box or packet.

Vegan chocolate - I recommend Maya Gold for these - it's orange spiciness is perfect for this time of year.

Nuts of your choice (hazel, walnut, pecan, almond, brazil)

Vegan marzipan (many supermarkets stock this)

Dates

Dessicated coconut

Cocoa

Icing sugar

Crystalised angelica

Glace cherries

Flaked almonds

It's very simple! Melt the chocolate and then dip things in it - nuts, marzipan balls, dates - and then place them on a sheet of grease-proof paper to set. Decorate with angelica, glace cherries (can be made to look like holly) and flaked almonds before the chocolate sets and then you can sprinkle with cocoa, coconut or icing sugar.

Dates can be destoned and stuffed with marzipan for a non-chocolate treat.

Place in petit four cases and enjoy!