Vegan Christmas biscuits - the best way to make them

Author: Lea Green

Vegan Christmas biscuits - the best way to make them

If you love colourful biscuit plates in the run-up to Christmas, now is the
best time to start baking biscuits. After all, the scent of cinnamon, vanilla
and cloves is a wonderful way to get in the mood for the festive season and everyone loves to be spoilt with
delicious biscuits. To make sure that everyone really enjoys eating them,
vegan baking has become increasingly popular in recent years. That's why today
we're showing you our best tips, organic ingredients and kitchen accessories to help you make
vegan Christmas biscuits with ease.

What needs to be considered

Vegan baking means not using any animal products such as
dairy products, eggs, butter, honey or gelatine.
Nevertheless, it is no problem to bake purely vegan biscuits with a moist
and crumbly consistency, to achieve a good binding
and to adapt traditional recipes with the right tricks. Because
the ingredients for many classic biscuits, such as vanilla crescents,
jam biscuits or cinnamon stars, can be adapted relatively easily
or you can try out completely new biscuit ideas that you
may never have tried before.

Baking with a healthy twist

It's also a great idea to add a healthy twist to your biscuits this year
by using high-quality organic products, nutrient-rich sweetening alternatives and
healthy fats. For example, enrich your biscuits with
valuable nuts or nutrient-rich seeds, sweeten them with
agave syrup instead of household sugar, use protein-rich
nut butter as a sensible fat alternative or replace sugar sprinkles
with mineral-rich cocoa nibs.

Our 5 vegan baking tips for you

With the tips below, we'll show you how to make delicious vegan
Christmas biscuits that allow for 'healthier snacking' and are guaranteed to delight your loved ones
.

Tip 1: Milk substitute

Basically, you can use a variety of plant-based milk alternatives for vegan baking
. The quantities given for plant-based alternatives can usually be used 1:1
. Oat drink, almond drink, rice drink and
soya drink are best suited for this, although milk substitutes in general, such as vegan quark or
yoghurt alternatives based on soya, provide a particularly good baking result.

Perhaps you have already thought about making
plant-based milk yourself? With the
fully automated nut and soya milk maker "Soyabella",
you can prepare lactose- and cholesterol-free
milk alternatives at home at any time. Homemade milk alternatives based on
nuts or soya are many times cheaper than
ready-made products and you can also use the Soyabella to make
wonderful soups.

Tip 2: Egg substitute

Eggs are often used in Christmas baking. But here too
you can fall back on a variety of natural and healthy alternatives. The only thing to consider first is
what function the egg has in your recipe.

If the egg is used as a binding agent,
crushed linseed or chia seeds are suitable instead. For each egg, briefly soak approx. 1.5 tablespoons of
linseed or chia seeds with 2-3 tablespoons of water. For lighter bindings
and doughs that need to be particularly moist, apple or
banana puree are also suitable egg substitutes.

If you need a high binding power in your baked goods, you can use Indian
psyllium husks. The healthy husks of this
plantain plant swell up many times their volume, create
a strong binding effect and are also good for digestion. Depending
on how moist you want your pastry to be, mix this egg substitute with
three or four times the amount of water.

Aquafaba should be used for light, airy doughs and egg white substitutes. You make this
by beating the starchy cooking water of chickpeas or beans with
a powerful mixer until frothy.

If you want your pastries to brown nicely and want them to shine after baking,
brush them with a mixture of 3 tbsp plant milk and 1 tbsp
agave syrup instead of egg yolk. You can also use this mixture if, for example sugar or
other food decorations on your biscuits when baking.
Agave syrup is also a pleasant caramel-flavoured alternative to
honey.

Tip 3: Butter substitute

Instead of using butter of animal origin, you can use one of the many purely plant-based
alternatives on offer. Whether it's vegan margarine or vegan
butter, soya or oat-based - the choice is yours.

However, it is important to balance out the fat content in your vegan baked goods a little
if necessary. This is because many vegan butters or oils contain slightly less fat than
animal butter. You may therefore need to use a little more to achieve the
desired texture.

If the butter content in the original recipe is not so high, you can also replace this
with virgin coconut oil. The high content of valuable
lauric acid gives your biscuits an additional boost of vital nutrients.

For a particularly pleasant consistency and good binding, you can often replace
butter with high-quality, fine nut butter. If you use a
high-performance blender, such as the Blendtec Classic 575, you can easily make
nut butter of any kind yourself and, of course, save
a lot of money. Simply puree the nuts in a blender to a fine
paste. If you prefer an intense nut flavour, you can also
roast them a little beforehand in a pan or in the oven without any additional oil
.

Tip 4: Sprouting power

Sometimes vegan biscuits become a little firmer and more compact than their classic, non-vegan
counterparts. To prevent this, you should never "overmix" your dough
. If they are stirred vigorously for a long time, this can make the
dough tough and the baked goods less fluffy afterwards. Only stir your doughs
until the ingredients are well combined and use a whisk or
wooden spoon instead of a food processor. The only exceptions are yeast doughs, which require
long, intensive kneading.

Another trick for fluffy, fine biscuits is to add half a
teaspoon of baking soda and a little apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to the dough in addition to the baking powder. This
helps biscuits and pastries rise particularly well and become nice and fluffy.

Tip 5: Nutrient boost with beautiful decoration

Many biscuits are also prepared with cocoa or decorated with
chocolate after baking. Here, too, there are big differences in quality and ingredients.
Always choose high-quality cocoa powder, which is rich in
minerals, for chocolate biscuits and decorate them with cocoa nibs or grated raw dark chocolate,
instead of industrial milk chocolate full of sugar.

Have fun with vegan baking

As you can see, vegan Christmas baking doesn't have to be complicated. With the
right substitute products, clever kitchen gadgets and a little practice, you can conjure up delicious
biscuits and treats that will delight both your vegan and non-vegan guests
.

If you want to enrich your biscuit plate at the end and make it even
more colourful and varied, you can also
complete it with delicious dried fruit and
wonderful confectionery. And for those with a chocolate
sweet tooth, our vegan chocolate bites with
marzipan, coconut, mango and pineapple are a great
surprise.

Try it out and be surprised by the variety of vegan Christmas treats.
Now we have another wonderful classic biscuit for you that you can easily bake
vegan: Vanilla crescents!

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Happy baking and a peaceful festive season!