Salty Oaty Cookies

Last night I had been intending to make a batch of Christmas cookies, but then got distracted by pinterest and these cookies. The cookies have no eggs or dairy in them, and a simple sub of Earth Balance for the butter made them vegan, which is lovely. Sometimes I just want to think about what to sub. The filling calls for 2 tbsp milk, for which I subbed almond milk, as always, and again Earth Balance for the butter.

You could eat them without filling, too.

The ganache was a bit too soft for my liking and I think next time I would probably go with a different recipe, though I have to admit that I did really like the flavour having used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate like most ganaches call for.

The saltiness is delicious. I used Murray River flakes; I would definitely recommend going the flake route vs the chunky sea salt route. Chunky sea salt might over do it even if you only sprinkle on a couple of grains.

You probably could actually make these as Christmas cookies; I imagine the filling would freeze and thaw just fine. I might actually toss one in a freezer bag and see what happens.

Or I might just eat them all with coffee or tea over the course of this week.

PB Cookies

This is supposed to be a post about something I veganized or something new I made from one of my cookbooks. Instead, it's a post about cookies.

I'm willing to bet most people are familiar with the Kraft Peanut Butter Cookies recipe on the back of the extra creamy jar: peanut butter, an egg, some sugar, stir and bake. I haven't made those in forever and certainly not since I stopped baking with eggs.

I was craving peanut butter cookies and searched; one of the first recipes to appear was this one.

First time around, I added vanilla but totally forgot the baking powder. I used a flax egg in place of the real egg. They came out pretty good, very dense though (much like the original Kraft recipe which doesn't call for any baking powder). I decided to try again *with* powder this time.

Sorry for the lighting. It was night time by the time I could get a shot.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 tbsp ground flax
3 tbsp water
1 c peanut butter
2/3 c sugar (plus more for rolling)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the water and flax.

Preheat the oven to 350. I like to bake things on parchment paper, so I lined my cookie sheet with parchment. You can probably not do that if you prefer not to.

Ready for baking!

Mix together the flax/water mixture with everything else. A spatula should do the trick. Divide into 12, roll into balls and roll in some sugar before putting them on the cookie sheet. Make your fun little marks with a fork, then pop into the oven for 8 -10 minutes. Let them cool on the sheet on top of a rack; they are pretty soft at first and won't transfer to the rack well, and by the time they can be moved they're pretty much 100% cooled.

Fresh out of the oven! These are the ones *with* baking powder.

Without the baking powder. A little flat. Not as awesome.

Nom!

Cookies!

Just to change it up from the every day goodness of cupcakes, today I bring you the most bestest chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tried (vegan or otherwise). No crazy ingredients, just a beautiful harmony of basics which create the most mouth wateringly yummy cookies EVER. No, don't argue. When I say ever, I mean it.

From Sweet Tooth

2 c flour
1 c sugar (she uses turbinado; I have used turbinado, regular granulated, and a mix of both. Personally, I prefer the mix of 50/50 because you get the crunch of the turbinado, but they hold together much better!)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c chocolate chips / chunks
2/3 c canola oil
1/4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp molasses

Preheat to 350. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment.

Sift / whisk together the dry ingredients, then stir in the chocolate and make a well. Whisk together the wet ingredients, then pour into dry ingredients and stir until combined. Use your hands to make 16 - 20 cookie dough balls, and flatten them a bit on the sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Cool on the sheet for 5 or 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool the rest of the way.

Holiday Baking, Recipe The First

I bought a new cookie cookbook the other day. The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. Full of a billion (okay, 140) recipes that I must try. I think the most important ones to try first are the ones that are a possibility on the holiday baking list, since that's coming up soon and I can't just give away cookies that I haven't tried before. You know, quality control and all that business. Thusly, the first recipe I decided to try was the Snickerdoodle one. Is it weird that I haven't had Snickerdoodles before? Fortunately, it was a friend's birthday, and she is a lover of cinnamon, so I didn't have to eat the whole batch myself (or else I would have) because apparently I like Snickerdoodles. I also really like the word Snickerdoodle.

Snickerdoodle.

Snickerdoodles.

 

 

A couple of notes about this: 1. They didn't flatten themselves out at all, I flattened them out after I rolled them in the cinnamon sugar. 2. I think they needed to be more heavily doused in the cinnamon sugar. Even doing them like to you do the chocolate crinkle cookies - first roll in regular sugar and then in powdered (cinnamon) sugar might do the trick. 3. I think it was too cold in here for the Earth Balance to get the proper consistency when I was creaming it with the sugar. That might help the flattening and should help with the consistency, which was a little doughier than I expected. I'll try them again and see what happens, though they were certainly passable as was.