The tree is up, (most) of the presents are wrapped, and the cookies are baked. It's finally time to slow down and enjoy the holiday season with a cup of tea and some Christmas movies.
Today's Friday 6 is all about cookies. Believe me, I thought of making 10 types of cookies for the sake of having an even Friday 10, but common sense got the better of me.
Going dairy-free meant that I had to overhaul my Christmas cookie lineup this year. I thought it would be hard to find recipes that were as delicious as my favorites, but I'm learning that there are a lot of wonderful vegan recipes out there. The only downside to vegan baking is that the "raw" dough is edible since they don't use eggs, either. No I have no way of shaming myself into not eating it. Let's just say that a lot of extremely tasty cookie dough was consumed over the past week. No regrets!
Without further ado, my 2014 Christmas Cookies.
Click the headings for links to the recipes!
Vegan Nanaimo Bars
These Nanaimos were the only troublemaker of the bunch--they were finicky to cut and the filling is a little goopier than I normally like it. I wasn't able to find Bird's Custard Powder, which is the gold standard here so I had to sub in a no-name version. I also can't blame the recipe since I went off track and played around with proportions and ingredients.
They ended up being delicious anyway. Frankly, I would eat Nanaimos with a spoon if I had to. I love them that much.
Here's what I changed:
For the base
- I used 2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (think crushed Oreo cookies) and 1/2 cup of Earth Balance and 1/2 cup coconut oil.
- I omitted the cocoa powder and nuts.
- I used one 200 g bag of unsweetened shredded coconut. It was nowhere near the conversion of 3 1/2 cups in the recipe, which I think would be far, far too much.
- My base turned out great, so I would do this again.
For the filling
- I used 2/3 cup coconut oil and 1/3 cup Earth Balance.
- I omitted the shortening.
- I used 3 cups of icing sugar, 5 tbsp of vanilla custard powder, and 4 tips of unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
- My filling is slightly softer than I usually like it to be, but it tastes great. I will be playing around it with this recipe, but a bit more icing sugar would probably help.
For the topping
- I used 1 tbsp of coconut oil and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
I think I will try this recipe again in a few months to see if I can get it the way I like it. It's so close and I think it would be nice to have my very own recipe to pass down.
Ovenly's Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
I made my cookies smaller and more bite-sized, but otherwise didn't change a thing on this recipe. As far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Molasses Ginger Cookies
These ginger cookies are not for the faint of heart. They strong and spicy and warm, which is exactly how I like them. I didn't change the recipe at all, but I did use 1/2 cup of molasses, which was the max recommended.
Peanut Butter Mousse Cups
These peanut butter cups are a nice break from the heavier cookies since the mousse lightens things up a bit. I've become a huge fan of Minimalist Baker over the past couple of months. Their recipes are easy, don't require a lot of ingredients, and have been consistently delicious (like this no-bake pumpkin pie and these 5 ingredient no-bake granola bars).
Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies
A pretty little cookie made with my favourite flavour combination--cooling mint and decadent chocolate. Since no one else in my family likes mint and chocolate, so these are mine all mine!
Walnut and Fig Biscotti
I make biscotti every year. Luckily, traditional Italian biscotti are made without dairy. I had leftover walnuts and figs in the fridge and thought that sounded like a good combination, so I did some googling, took some inspiration from a couple of recipes, and made something of my own. My version is adapted from Susan Russo's Traditional Almond Biscotti and Smitten Kitchen's Fig and Walnut Biscotti.
Ingredients
- 1 c walnut pieces
- 1 c chopped dried Turkish figs (softened in some hot water for a few minutes, if necessary)
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 1 c light brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs (plus 1 to beat and brush on top of dough)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large orange, zested (mine yielded a little over 2 tbsp)
Instructions
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, move your oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
- In a large bowl, stir together walnuts, figs, sugars, spices, baking powder, and flour until everything is well-mixed.
- In a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla, and orange zest together with a wisk until everything is well-blended.
- Fold the egg mixture into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to get sticky. Switch to your hands and work the dough gently until a ball starts to form. Divide the dough into 4 pieces.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the balls of dough into loaves that are about 9 inches long and 1 inch high. I usually squeeze the ball of dough into a tube shape with floured hands. Then I put it on a lightly floured counter and press it down so it forms something like a flat loaf.
- Transfer loaves to baking sheets (2 per sheet). Beat 1 large egg with a bit of water and brush the tops of the loaves.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Check the pans, rotate them from upper to lower (and vice versa). Let them bake for another 10-20 minutes. The loaves should start to turn a nice golden brown color, but be sure to watch that the bottoms don't start to burn. Our oven runs hot, so mine only took about 30 minutes total.
- When your logs are golden brown, but still a little soft, pull them out of the oven. Let them cool for 15-20 minutes. You want to loaves to cool enough that they won't crumble when you start to cut them, but you don't want them to get too hard or cold.
- Once the loaves have cooled enough to be cut, use a serrated knife to saw them into that famous biscotti shape. You can do this on an angle (which is how I do it) or vertically.
- Arrange the biscotti back on the baking sheet, cut side down, and put the sheets back into the oven. Turn the heat off, keep the door closed, and let the the biscotti "bake" for another 30 - 60 minutes. They will get crunchier the longer they stay in in there, so pull them out based on your preference.
- Remove pans from the oven, let the biscotti cool, and enjoy! These cookies are pretty long-lasting when stored in a good airtight container. I've seen suggestions of two weeks to a month, but they don't seem to last that long around these parts!
The true test of these cookies has been whether or not anyone guesses they are dairy-free. So far, so great. Not only do I love them, but everyone who has tried them raves about them. Even S, who is not a sweets person, has been eating the salted chocolate chip cookies at an impressive rate. I'll probably have to make another batch for our give-away tins. They are just that good!
That's it for this week and, maybe for the end of the year. I'm going to take some time to unwind, do a bit of behind the scenes work, and spend a lot of time with family. I will see you in the new year!
I hope you have a very happy holiday season and a happy, healthy, peaceful start to 2015.
PS: I'd love to hear about your favourite Christmas cookies and traditions!
