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| Festive-looking Vegan Cookies |
A couple of months ago, Jake sent me a link to a cookie contest for the LA Times. The winner would be published in the newspaper and it seemed like a good way to begin trying to publish recipes. Last year, Jake and I experimented with making Vegan cookies and came up with several good ones. Applesauce Oatmeal, Tofu Mint Chocolate, Banana Peanut Butter and my favorite, Mexican Chocolate Pumpkin. I brought in the cookies to my coworkers, who are not Vegetarian, let alone Vegan, and to my surprise, they loved the cookies. They raved about them, and still ask me to make them whenever the topic of cookies comes up. It turns out, this was one of those contests where you could vote 10 times per day; every day until the contest ended. My friends and family spread the word and everyone voted quite a bit, but alas, I did not win the contest. There were people with thousands of votes, which doesn't really seem like the most honest or truthful way to hold a contest. (I recently went back to the link and saw that someone had commented on my recipe with kind words about Vegan cookies http://latimes.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=V&c=21592&s=5686339&i=1&m=X#SD.)
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Vegan baking, is actually very easy. The items to replace are the eggs and butter and milk chocolate. The butter is easily replaced by Earth Balance buttery sticks (which taste almost identical to butter)or margarine, and the eggs can be replaced by a number of things, pureed pumpkin, applesauce, tofu, banana, or a store-bought egg replacer. It's also very easy to find chocolate that is not made with milk or other animal products. The best part about Vegan baking, is that you can eat the dough or batter along the way without worrying about salmonella from the raw eggs. That way, you can adjust flavors along the way, ensuring that you will have a cookie to your liking in the end. Salmonella has never stopped me before with dough, but with Vegan baking, I can eat the dough without getting a stomach ache.
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I made 4 batches of these cookies and gave them to my coworkers wrapped in plastic and tied with ribbon for a holiday present. Most of them ate all the cookies within minutes of receiving them, and my Vegan coworker Crystal was very pleased as well. These cookies aren't overly sweet, and can be made on the chewy under-baked side because there is no fear of raw eggs.
Vegan Mexican Chocolate Cookies with Pumpkin
By Jake J. Thomas and Kaitlin Fasse
1 Earth Balance vegan buttery stick
1 cup evaporated palm sugar
¼ cup organic pumpkin puree
¼ tsp each of vanilla extract, baking soda, nutmeg and salt
2 cups of flour
1 ½ packages of Ibarra Mexican Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring the buttery stick to room temperature and cut into tablespoon sized pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer (on speed 2 or 4) with the paddle attachment for a few seconds. Add the palm sugar and continue whipping on speed four until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the pumpkin, vanilla and nutmeg and continue to mix until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients ½ cup at a time to the wet ingredients and continue to mix until combined. Once combined, check the consistency of the dough by pinching it to see if it holds its form (you can taste it at this point too!). Add more flour if needed.
5. Add the Ibarra chocolate and mix until the chocolate is dispersed throughout the dough.
6. Using an ice cream scoop (or two spoons), scoop out balls of dough and place on a baking sheet (no need to grease it). Flatten the balls a little with the back of a fork.
7. Bake the cookies for 12-16 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through to ensure even baking. Take the sheet out and let cool for about 3 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool entirely.
1 cup evaporated palm sugar
¼ cup organic pumpkin puree
¼ tsp each of vanilla extract, baking soda, nutmeg and salt
2 cups of flour
1 ½ packages of Ibarra Mexican Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring the buttery stick to room temperature and cut into tablespoon sized pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer (on speed 2 or 4) with the paddle attachment for a few seconds. Add the palm sugar and continue whipping on speed four until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. Add the pumpkin, vanilla and nutmeg and continue to mix until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients ½ cup at a time to the wet ingredients and continue to mix until combined. Once combined, check the consistency of the dough by pinching it to see if it holds its form (you can taste it at this point too!). Add more flour if needed.
5. Add the Ibarra chocolate and mix until the chocolate is dispersed throughout the dough.
6. Using an ice cream scoop (or two spoons), scoop out balls of dough and place on a baking sheet (no need to grease it). Flatten the balls a little with the back of a fork.
7. Bake the cookies for 12-16 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through to ensure even baking. Take the sheet out and let cool for about 3 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool entirely.
