Vegan Gingerbread and Cranberry Tart
Sweet white chocolate, tart cranberries and warming ginger and cinnamon come together perfectly for this Vegan Gingerbread and Cranberry Tart. Get the recipe below.
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Festive baking
The run up to Christmas and New Year is the perfect time to get baking. There are so many traditional cakes and bakes at this time of year like stollen, mince pies and fruit cake, but it’s nice every once in a while to bake something a little bit different.
This year I’m baking a Vegan Gingerbread and Cranberry Tart. It’s made up of gingerbread spiced pastry, white chocolate ganache and cranberry jelly. To top it off I made tiny gingerbread men out of the pastry off-cuts! Aren’t they cute?
How to make the gingerbread pastry
The warming spices of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg are the base of any good festive bake. For this recipe, they’re added to a classic shortcrust pastry dough to make a gingerbread tart case.
Making vegan shortcrust pastry from scratch is easy. You simply:
- Rub together the vegan butter and flour
- Bring it together with a little water
- Chill the dough
- Roll it out
- Blind bake.
That’s it! The only difference with this recipe is that we add spices to the flour.
Whilst all the steps are included in the recipe card below, I have a couple of tips that will make the whole process even more simple:
- When rubbing the vegan butter and flour together, my top tip is to be gentle and to just use your finger tips to rub the vegan butter into the flour. Your hands should stay quite clean.
- You should also avoid adding lots of water to the mix to bring it together as a dough. It should just come together into a ball. If you are too rough with the pastry then it will become tough rather than tender and crumbly.
- Do not skip chilling the dough. This is required to stop the vegan butter melting out and it will also make it more easy to roll out to the right thickness.
- To get the pastry into all of the corners and grooves, use an off-cut of the pastry and press gently.
- To get the perfect, crisp edge to your pastry all you need to do is roll your rolling pin over the top of the tart tin and it will cut off all of the excess pastry.
How to make the white chocolate ganache
A sweet, creamy layer of white chocolate ganache is perfect for bringing together the warming ground spices and the tart cranberry jelly.
Whilst ganache is usually made by melting chocolate and cream together, this plant based alternative is made from vegan white chocolate and coconut cream. The ratio of coconut cream to chocolate depends on how firm the ganache sets.
It is worth pointing out that white chocolate is not usually vegan so you will need to buy a specific vegan variety. For the coconut cream you want the thick stuff, not coconut milk. Coconut milk will be far too runny and it just won’t set.
To make the ganache you simply warm the coconut cream, combine it with melted white chocolate and then stir.
How to make the cranberry jelly
This wouldn’t be a festive tart if it didn’t have a cranberry jelly layer. But making a vegan jelly can be difficult because the one ingredient used to make jelly set, gelatine, is not suitable for anyone following a plant based diet.
Instead, I use an ingredient called agar powder (or agar agar) to set the jelly.
To make the jelly you first cook down the cranberries with a little water and sugar. You then strain it to remove the seeds and skins. Once all of the seeds and skins have been removed, you dissolve the agar powder in water which you add back to the cranberries. It is important to cook this for 2 – 3 minutes. It will start to thicken. Let it cool slightly and then pour over the ganache layer. It should only take 30 minutes to set completely and you can then decorate!
Decoration ideas
It’s not essential to decorate the tart. In fact I quite like the minimalist look.
To decorate the tart as I have, use mini gingerbread men and heart cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the pastry cut offs. Bake these in the oven for 15 minutes or until the pastry is crisp. I then piped melted white chocolate on them once they were cool.
To finish off the decoration I piped white chocolate buttercream and added sprigs of rosemary!
I’d love to see how you decorate yours.
The recipe
Vegan Gingerbread and Cranberry Tart
Equipment
- 1 7 inch tart case
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 200 g plain flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 100 g vegan butter
- 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 4-6 tbsp plant milk
For the cranberry jelly layer
- 250 g cranberries fresh or frozen
- 150 ml water
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp agar powder
For the white chocolate ganache layer
- 200 g vegan white chocolate chopped
- 100 g coconut cream
Instructions
To make the tart case
- Cut up the vegan butter into cubes and add to a mixing bowl along with the flour and spices.
- Rub the vegan butter and flour between your fingertips until you have a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.
- Stir through the sugar and then add the plant milk a few tbsp at a time until the pastry comes together into a ball of dough.
- Wrap the pastry in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- While the pastry is resting, pre-heat your oven to 150C.
- Dust the work surface with flour, put the dough in the middle and sprinkle it with flour.
- Flour your rolling pin then roll out the pastry into a circle 5cm/2” larger than the quiche tin.
- Carefully lift it into the tin and push it into the corners and grooves.
- To cut off the excess pastry, roll the rolling pin over the top of the tin.
- Prick the bottom of the pasty with a fork.
- Scrunch up baking paper then place inside the pastry case. Top the baking paper with baking beans.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until beginning to go golden colour.
- Remove the baking paper and baking beans and bake for another 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
- Allow to cool before moving on to the white chocolate ganache layer.
For the white chocolate ganache layer
- Melt the chopped vegan white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over boiling water.
- At the same time, warm the coconut cream.
- Add the warmed coconut cream to the melted white chocolate and stir until smooth.
- Pour into the tart case then place in the fridge to set for 3 hours or until firm.
To make the cranberry jelly layer
- Add the cranberries to a saucepan along with half of the water and the sugar.
- Bring to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes until they become soft and have broken down.
- In the meantime, dissolve the agar powder in the remaining water.
- Sieve out the seeds and skins from the cranberries and discard before adding the agar mixture back to the cranberry juice.
- Then, bring the cranberry juice to a boil again while stirring constantly. Simmer for 2-3 minutes or until it begins to thicken.
- Set aside to cool slightly before pouring it on top of the white chocolate ganache.
- Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes or until the cranberry layer has set.
- Once set completely decorate with and serve.
Nutrition
More vegan festive bakes
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