Vegan Macaroons...Kind Of

So I've been struggling to come up with pretty "high tea" type vegan food I can serve at my wedding and I was desperate to have vegan French macaroons. After many failed attempts this is the best I could come up with. They don't really taste like macaroons but they are nice and for all intensive purposes they look the part :)

Vegan Macaroons...Kind Of

Ingredients

90g Egg replacer (I used Orgran's No Egg)
250ml cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g icing sugar (sieved)
1/2 tsp agar agar powder (or pectin)
1 Tbls brown sugar
2 drops of colouring (optional)

For filling;


225g vegan butter (I used Nuttalex)
350g icing sugar
1 Tbls non-dairy milk (optional)
2 drops food colouring (optional)


Method

Preheat oven to 130C and get two baking trays prepared with baking paper (and a whisper of olive oil or coconut oil spray).
In a large bowl place egg replacer, agar agar powder and water and beat on high for 5 minutes.
Add vanilla extract, colouring, brown sugar and icing sugar (1/3 at a time) and beat for a further 5 minutes.
Pipe mixture on the baking trays in small rounds and bake for 2 hours.
If you prefer them a bit softer only bake for 1.5 hours.
(I've had feedback that this is a bit long so try for an hour and see how they look, mine were too soft at that point but it will depend on your oven).
Let cool on tray before adding filling.
Use a butter knife to gently smooth filling onto flip side of macaroon and place second macaroon on top.


For filling;

In a large mixing bowl add the vegan butter (at room temperature) and sifted icing sugar and beat until mixed.