Gingersnaps… Vegan!

Vegan Country… it’s a brave new world for me. But, inspired by the likes of Yuval, Noa, Daniel, Dorit and Uri, all vegan or transitioning-to-vegan Israeli cousins, I’m motivated to look into this hitherto (nice word, hitherto, I don’t believe I’ve used it yet on this blog. But watch out, once I’ve dipped my toe, I may return for another… hitherto) uncharted world. Making my way through uncharted  territory isn’t anything new for me.

My friend Sue tells me I do that a lot. Well, someone’s got to, Sue. It might as well be me. Then Frank tells me about his good friend who’s now a vegan. Frank is a physician who is very near and dear to me. Years ago, when I asked him if he cooks, he replied, “No, I eat.” All that’s changed now that he’s retired. He’s a new man. He cooks. He bakes. He gets excited about tagines.

So Frank calls me up and asks for some vegan dessert ideas. He’s already done fresh fruit and is wondering what to do next to entertain his vegan friends. Step right this way, Frank…

You may need to do a little sleuthing. If you’ve got a Whole Foods close by (or something equivalent), it won’t be hard. We’re not using margarine that’s completely synthetic and contains ingredients created in laboratories. Earth Balance makes “baking sticks” that’s made with healthy oils. How they create these sticks from liquid oil may be a little too much information for us. Let’s move along.

Now there’s the small matter of the egg.

These cookies do not rely on the animal kingdom whatsoever to be created.

Take 1 part flax seed meal to 3 parts water

Make paste, I mean, make a binding agent.

Now you’ve got a workable substitute for an egg.

Other options I’m learning about: the use of arrowroot or cornstarch as a binding agent. There are other egg substitutes out there, which we’ll look into in future posts.

It’s all recognizable from here.

Dry ingredients

Lovely warm spices

Good-looking dough.

But no egg.

Nothing happened to the egg.

We just didn’t use one.

Demerara sugar, a raw sugar for a quick coat. Turbinado sugar works well too.

A quick roll in the sugar.

Cookies, behaving.

Cookie #1: Hey Man, I need my space.

Cookie#2: Be Cool, Dude.

Make Room for Cookies

I found this terrific recipe on Sarah Louise’s blog , The Cozy Vegan.  Check it out to see what a very enthusiastic young woman in Calgary is up to.

I think I’ll have a nice cup of tea…

… with a gingersnap or three

GINGERSNAPS courtesy of The Cozy Vegan

Ingredients:

 

2 c. unbleached flour

3/4 c. superfine sugar

1 T. ground ginger

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg or 1 t. ground nutmeg

1 1/2 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

¾ c. vegan margarine

¼ c. molasses (or pure maple syrup)

1 T. flax seed meal (AKA ground flax)

3  T. water

 

Optional: Additional tablespoon or two of Turbinado or Demerara sugar for tops of cookies

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a food processor (I used my mini-processor, we’re only talking a few spoons, heck, you can do it with a little elbow grease- but no lumps, please), combine flax seed meal and water and pulse until blended well. Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes to really come together.

Sift dry ingredients together in medium mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, or in a stand mixer, cream together vegan margarine, molasses, sugar, and flax seed mixture.

Make a well and slowly combine dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly.

Taking a tablespoon or so of dough at a time, roll dough into small balls. If you’d like, roll these balls into the extra sugar for shining gingersnaps.

Space balls (Ha! Remember Spaceballs?) of dough out on cookie sheets, a dozen on each. Bake for 10-12 minutes. By this time, they should have rounded and spread out, and the tops will have cracked nicely.

Allow to cool, share and enjoy!! Makes 24 cookies.

P.S. I brought these lovely cookies to the Food Bloggers LA Cookie Party where they were warmly greeted…

… by many other cookies

My oh my oh my…

And if you want some of these lovelies to grace your table, I’ve got the lovely links for you right here.  Step right up…

FBLA 2013 Cookie Exchange Recipes

• Chai Tea Cookies — Cathy Arkle of She Paused 4 Thought (She also got tired of rolling the dough and refashioned the rest into Baby Hedgehog cookies.)
• Butter Pecan Fudge — Dorothy Reinhold (me!) from Shockingly Delicious.
• Antioxidant Chocolate Bark — Erika Kerekes (our hostess) of In Erika’s Kitchen.
• Sweet Potato Marshmallow Bars with White Chocolate Chips — Jennifer Richmond of Kitchy Cooking.
• Chocolate Chip and Apricot Walnut Rugelach and Vegan Chocolate Mini Cupcakes (“Naughty & Nice Cookies”) — Dana of Foodie Goes Healthy
• Vintage Sponge Drops with Double Fudge Filling — Leslie Macchiarella of Bake This Cake.
• Sicilian Christmas cookies — Judy Lyness of Two Broads Abroad.
• Cranberry Orange Walnut Sugar Cookies — Patricia Rose of Fresh Food in a Flash.
• Brown Butter Praline Chocolate Chip Cookies — Valentina Wein of Cooking On The Weekends.
• Mini Chocolate Nut Sandwich Cookies — Kelly Page of Tasting Page.
• Rosemary Raisin Cocktail Shortbread — Sharon Graves of Cheesy Pennies.
• Saketini Christmas Balls, Chocolate Macarons with Japanese Wine Cream Centers, and Matcha Green Tea Cookies with Chocolate Centers & Espresso Cookies with Caramel Fillings — Kim Watkinson of Ninja Baking.
• Blueberry Coconut Mini Cupcakes, Rainbow Chocolate Bark, and Vegan Gingersnaps — Judy Weintraub of Bumbleberry Breeze.
• Chocolate-Dipped Apricots with Pistachios — Adair Seldon of Lentil Breakdown.
• Spumoni Shortbread — Nancy Rose Eisman of Adventures with Nancy Rose.
• Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cardamom Gingersnap Cookies — Alison Ashton of Nourish Network .
• Gluten-Free Pumpkin Oat Bars — Alanna Waldron of Eats Real Food.
• Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies — Tanaya Ghosh of Tanaya’s Table. (Tanaya’s Table, the blog, will launch in 2014.)
• Black and White Cookies — Tina Kil. (Her blog isn’t up yet, but watch for her contributions in the future!)

Non-Cookie Items

• Chiang Mai Chicken in Endive Spears — Cathy Arkle of She Paused 4 Thought.
• Seasonal salad — Nancy Rose Eisman of Adventures with Nancy Rose.
• Barrel-Aged Sazerac — Jennifer Richmond of Kitchy Cooking.

And Happy December, everyone!