Melting Moments with Passionfruit Icing
Dairy-free // egg-free // vegan biscuits
These old-fashioned Australian biscuits are the stuff of happy childhood.
Melt-in-the-mouth shortbread sandwiched with a tangy passionfruit icing.
They are a rich treat - not for everyday,
but wonderful for special occasions,
like afternoon tea.
But we wanted to veganise the traditional recipe,
and have been experimenting to create a biscuit which
avoids the use of dairy butter and eggs,
but still creates an incredibly short texture.
So we were pretty stoked when we found this combination
works a treat.
These biscuits are very fragile - so move them carefully as they will crumble easily.
But the flip side of that is that they taste deliciously short,
which is exactly how a good Melting Moment should be:
a moment of meltingness!
Vegan Melting Moments with Passionfruit Icing
SHORTBREAD INGREDIENTS
1 cup self raising flour (we used stoneground wholemeal)
1 cup cornflour (we used wholegrain)
1/2 cup (125 gms) vegan butter (we used Butter Me Up)
1/2 cup (125 gms) coconut oil at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla bean
3 tablespoons icing sugar
PASSIONFRUIT ICING INGREDIENTS
1 cup raw icing sugar
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 fresh passionfruit
METHOD
Pre-heat oven to 160 C degrees.
Cream vegan butter and coconut oil with sugar in a stand mixer until pale and fluffy.
Add flour & vanilla and mix thoroughly.
The mixture will be quite soft - so use a couple of teaspoons to place blobs on a paper-lined baking tray.
Bake in oven for approx 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool on a wire cooling tray.
To make icing, combine coconut oil and raw icing sugar together. Add enough pulp & juice from a passionfruit to create a soft mixture.
Sandwich together with Passionfruit Butter Icing. Will keep for several days in an airtight tin - if no small children are about....
In this recipe, the flavour of the ingredients really shines through,
so it's much better to use a really good quality vegan butter.
We use a locally produced version, Butter Me Up, which is made without hydrogenated
vegetable oils & without palm oil (so its not like margarine) and is brilliant for baking. It's available from our beloved Apples & Sage organic grocery, and also Leo's Supermarkets across Melbourne.
Otherwise, use the very best cold-blend vegan butter you can find,
or a good vegan margarine like Nuttelex or Earth Balance.