This week, I dove into my holiday baking and these vegan Christmas cookies with molasses and spice are absolutely mouth-watering. Santa is sure to love these!
When I made the decision to go vegan early in 2016, I knew there were some things I might have to give up. Well – today, I’m proud to say my favorite cookies are not one of them! That’s right. I got into the kitchen, put on my thinking cap and adapted my very own vegan recipe for these Molasses and Spice cookies that are just OH so good! If you follow me on SnapChat, you know that I have experimented quite a bit in the kitchen this year. But! This was my first time playing around with a baking recipe if you can believe it. As in, going off script and not having a direct recipe in front of me to follow line by line.
With Christmas on the way, I of course have been thinking a lot about holiday baking. I’ve been scouring Pinterest and Google for all sorts of recipes, mainly just to observe the way others are making vegan cookies. Since we are in the holiday season, it seemed like the perfect time to concoct my very first vegan Christmas cookies and trust me, these are delicious! Obviously they’re tasty at any ole time of the year — but when consumed by the light of a Christmas tree with the latest Hallmark movie on they will virtually taste like Christmas heaven.
The vegan cookie recipe is pretty simple and will take you about 10 minutes of prep work and 10 minutes of baking time. For your “fancy vegan” ingredients, you will need 3/4 a cup of vegan shortening (I used Earth Balance sticks) and 1 flax seed egg. Whole Foods does commonly carry an egg substitute – but I didn’t have any on hand and I forget the name. So, there you go. A flax seed egg is super simple though! All you need to do is combine one tablespoon of flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water, mix together and allow to sit for about 5 minutes. Don’t ask me how it works, but miraculously it replicates an egg. (Minus the nasty cholesterol and cruelty.)
Vegan Christmas Cookies with Molasses and Spice
Wet Ingredients
3/4 Cup of Shortening
1/4 Cup of Molasses
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Flax Seed Egg (1 Tbsp of Flax Seed + 3 Tbsp of water)
Dry Ingredients
2 Cups of Flour
1/8 tsp. of Cloves
1/8 tsp. of Ginger
1 tsp. of Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. of Salt
Approximately 2 cups of Powder Sugar for rolling the cookies.
Directions:
1. Start by preparing your flax seed egg. Combine one tablespoon of flax seed with three tablespoons of water. Mix together and set aside, for approximately 5 minutes.
2. Move on to pre-heating your oven to 375 degrees and preparing your other ingredients.
3. In a large bowl, cream together your wet ingredients. My method is simple: throw it all in – then mix.
4. In a separate bowl, combine your flour and dry seasonings. Stir together than load into a sifter.
5. Sift the flour/seasoning mixture into your creamy mixture.
6. Mix everything together thoroughly. (If it seems a little dry to you, you may add about 1 tablespoon of non-dairy milk.)
7. Now that your cookie dough is complete, roll into individual balls (approximately 1 inch in diameter). Place your cookie dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Once all of the dough has been rolled into balls, add to the oven and bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.
9. After 10 minutes, check your cookies. Remove the cookies when they have risen and appear soft in the center. Cool for 10 minutes.
10. On a plate, add confectionery sugar for rolling your cookies in.
11. After the cookies have cooled, roll them one by one through the powder sugar. Then, enjoy!
Note, as tempting as it is to jump ahead and not let the cookies cool, it’s actually a pretty necessary step. If you don’t, the sugar will melt onto the cookie and you’ll end up having to re-roll the cookies anyway. Spare yourself the trouble of doing that twice and just wait a little bit. (Believe me, patience is not my strong suit and I have tried to short-cut this step several times, ha!)
These vegan Christmas cookies are literally so good, even those who are not vegan will be devouring them. In addition to being supremely delicious, the spice is the perfect Christmas scent to make your home smell like a holiday wonderland!
If you make these, please let me know how you like the recipe. Even better, take a picture and send it to me on Twitter or Instagram. I’m a bit nervous (because I’m a weirdo) about sharing my first vegan baking recipe and it would mean so much if you liked them! Now that I have one vegan Christmas cookie success in the bag, I’m ready to keep on plucking away to come up with even more recipes.
Next on my radar is a vegan sugar cookie recipe. (I know that Foodaciously did some great gluten-free applesauce cookies [get the recipe here] so maybe I could put a twist on that!) If you’re interested in that – let me know!
As always, thank you for reading and I wish you a very merry holiday season. Happy baking!
As always, stay stylish and keep chasing your dreams!
XOXO
Kelly
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