Homemade Vegan and Non-Vegan Ginger Biscuits Recipes

Assalamu Alaikum!

Hanifah here! Today I thought I'd do something a little different by altering my ginger biscuits recipe to make it vegan. I thought it would be a fun challenge to substitute the non-vegan ingredients and compare both biscuits.

Here is my regular non-vegan recipe:

350g self-raising flour

200g caster sugar

1 tbsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

125g butter

5 tbsp. golden syrup

1 egg (beaten)

Crystallised ginger pieces (optional)


And here are my vegan substitutes:

125g coconut oil (instead of butter)

¼ cup applesauce (instead of egg)

1. Sift flour, sugar, ground ginger, bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl and mix together.

2. Next heat the butter (or coconut oil) and golden syrup in a saucepan over a low heat until melted.

3. Remove pan from heat and cool for a while before pouring contents onto the dry ingredients.

4. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until combined.

5. Add the beaten egg (or applesauce) and mix thoroughly until it forms a dough.

6. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius,  325 degrees Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 3.

7. Shape the dough into 30 even-sized balls adding pieces of crystallised ginger to them. Try to handle the dough as little as possible.

8. Place onto lined baking trays and flatten slightly.

9. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

10. Allow to cool on a wire rack and then enjoy!

Final results!

Comparison

I found that the vegan ginger biscuits were softer than the regular (non-vegan) ones. They were also ever so slightly oily probably due to the coconut oil. When forming the dough it felt softer than the regular dough so I put it in the fridge for a bit to help it firm up.

On the whole however both biscuits were very similar. They tasted the same and looked the same too. Honestly, you could hardly tell the difference which was interesting to learn. I had fun baking and comparing the two, and also enjoyed making my own applesauce to use in the vegan biscuits! Who knew that you could substitute eggs with applesauce or mashed bananas!

Homemade ginger biscuits are so much better than shop bought ones so you should definitely give either or both of these recipes a try!

Until next Friday!

Love and Wassalam,

Hanifah