Vegan Iced VoVos

Difficulty: Medium

Makes about 40 cookies

I hear you non-Aussie folk asking “what the eff is an Iced VoVo and why do I want a vegan one?” and I’ma give you an answer! The Iced VoVo is a classic Australian biscuit; a vanilla cookie topped with marshmallowy fondant, jam and coconut. Obviously there are a couple of components of the Iced VoVo that means they’re were no longer on the shopping list once I went vegan, so for my niece’s 5th birthday tea party I whipped up a batch of vegan ones! I know it looks a little complicated and making your own marshmallow seems daunting but trust me, you got this, I believe in you.

Ingredients

Biscuit

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine (I used Nuttelex)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Topping

• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons agar agar powder
• 3/4 cup glucose syrup
• 1 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons strawberry essence (make sure it’s vegan)
• 1-2 drops pink food colouring (make sure that’s vegan too!)
• 1 300mL jar of strawberry jam
• 1/3 cup desiccated coconut

Method

1. Start by making the biscuits and in a mixer (or by hand) cream together the vegan margarine and caster sugar before adding the soy milk and vanilla.
2. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until a dough is formed. You want it to be a little wet but not sticky, so add more flour or soy milk as needed.
3. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a smooth ball is formed. Wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line 3-4 baking trays with baking paper.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut in half, returning one half back to the fridge to keep it cool.
6. Roll out to about 5mm thick on a lightly floured surface and use a cookie cutter to cut out the biscuit shapes (I used a rectangular cutter with scalloped edges but use whatever you want!) Re-roll any remaining cut off dough and do the same before removing the rest of the dough from the fridge and doing the same.
7. Carefully transfer the cookies to the baking trays with a spatula before baking for 15 minutes or until the edges just start to go golden, any longer and your biscuits may become too hard!
8. Allow to cool for half an hour on the trays before transferring to cooling racks to cool completely.
9. While the cookies cool, make your marshmallow by first mixing together the water and agar agar powder in a saucepan over medium heat until the agar agar dissolves.
10. Turn up the heat to high and add the glucose syrup and caster sugar, continue to stir until the mixture boils rapidly.
11. Carefully pour the mixture into the bowl of your electric mixture and mix on high (make sure you’re using a cover as it’ll spit and it’s hot!)
12. Add the strawberry flavour and colouring and continue to mix until a light and fluffy marshmallow is formed. Allow to sit for a minute or two so the mixture is a little firmer but no longer as you don’t want it to set.
13. Quickly transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a small round tip and gently pipe the marshmallow down the sides of each cookie, leaving a strip in the middle. I did mine in a bit of a zig zag to make it a little more pretty.
14. Sprinkle with the desiccated coconut and allow the marshmallow to set before tipping out the excess coconut.
15. Warm your jam in the microwave to soften it a little before adding to the same piping bag (clean it first) and filling in the middle strip on each biscuit.
16. Allow to set before serving.