More free time around here means more treats. Like cookies. Big fat cookies to celebrate a new camera in our household. Happiest of days. That means there will be more photos here on the blog. Hooray!
But let’s get back to the cookies… More
Category: cookies
2010 Year in review
Posted by – 3 Jan ’11
I’m so very happy that it’s 2011. There are so many wonderful things to come this year.
I thought it would be nice to take a look back at some of the highlights of the past year over here at Cute and Delicious.
In January I made lots of cupcakes for some bake sales, including the Homemade for Haiti fundraiser.
In February, I did lots of crafts, including reworking our book case, knitting a heart for Shawn and making coffee cozies.
In March, we celebrated St. Patrick’s day with holiday foods and I veganized my mom’s fudge recipe.
In April, I experimented with different recipes including vegan crumpets and raw sauerkraut. I also made some pies!
May was quiet, but we visited the amazing Rose Bowl Flea Market (and I made the best cherry pie, I’ve ever eaten).
In June, we went to Portland and got engaged. Biggest, best surprise of my life.
I highly suggest you read Shawn’s recap of the day as it is sweet and wonderful.
In July, I raved about Portland more and made a lot of waffles.
In August, I cooked with figs and made Star Wars cookies.
In September, I made Thank You cakes for friends and we took romantic photos in Griffith Park.
October was a busy month. We had the first screening of Brainwashed Love. We introduced our families at our engagement party. I also made lots of Halloween treats including a spiderweb cake.
November was also packed to brim with food and fun. I made savory things like tofu benedict, green bean casserole, carrot souffle and hot pockets. We celebrated with a birthday cake party and Harry Potter cupcakes. On the sweet side, I made a peanut butter coconut cream pie and Dia de los Muertos cookies. We also made our save the dates with vintage postcards and photos. That’s not even the half of it! Busy month to say the least.
In December, I made many many cookies from Martha Stewart’s recipes, except vegan of course. The most exciting was seeing what my wedding dress is going to look like and sharing a few details with you.
It was a crazy wonderful year. I think I did pretty good on my last minute year end to do list. Can’t wait to share everything with you all in the new year.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Posted by – 21 Dec ’10
Hello my dears. It’s nearly Christmas and I’m bringing you another cookie recipe for the holiday. This is the most festive of the bunch for sure. While there were a few more in my agenda, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed and unable to make all I set out to. These cookies should totally make up for that though.
One of the most fun parts of making these is decorating with crushed candy canes. Not only do you get to take your holiday frustration out on some candy canes in pulverizing them (I used a hammer), but they make the cookies look like pink shiny snowy Christmas cookies. I love it.
The cookies are crunchy and rich. The peppermint is refreshing especially paired with the sweet chocolate. The original recipe used white chocolate but I much prefer dark chocolate, so I went with that.
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart, found here
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 3/8 cup cocoa powder
- 2 tsp instant espresso powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 Tbsp Earth Balance
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp warm water + 1 tsp egg replacer whipped together until frothy
- 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
- 4 crushed candy canes or 15 or so peppermint candies
- 1 lb chopped dark chocolate
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, espresso, baking soda & powder and salt, then set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat together the Earth Balance and sugar. Gradually add the water and egg replace mixture and continue to beat until well combined. Add in peppermint extract and continue to beat. Add in the flour mixture a little at a time and beat until the dough just comes together. Shape into two disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least and hour.
Preheat oven to 325° and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough into until it is 1/8 inch thick. Use a 2″ cookie cutter to cut cookies and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Cool in the freezer for 15 minutes and then bake until crispy, about 12 minutes. Move parchment with cookies on it to a cooling rack and let cool.
Using a double boiler or a bowl set on top of a pot of water, melt your chocolate. Once it is smooth, let sit on stove so that it cools enough to not burn you, but remains soft. Sift your crushed candy canes into a fine powder and separate chunks. Set aside both to decorate. If it is particularly humid, you may have to sift the powdered peppermints again.
Dip the tops of each cookie in your melted chocolate making sure the entire top is covered, but tapping off any excess. I found this was easiest to do with my fingers, but be careful if your chocolate is still hot. It cold easily be done with a fork or tongs (chopsticks?). Sprinkle the crushed peppermint chunks on half and the peppermint powder on the other. Let set in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Best eaten within the next day.
For more holiday cookie ideas, check out the recipes for these Molasses Sandwich Cookies.
Or try your hand at these Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies.
There are these delicious Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies.
Adorable, sweet Lemon Icebox Cookies.
Or the awesome Espresso Bean Shortbreads.
Happy Baking!
Molasses sandwich cookies
Posted by – 17 Dec ’10
Let me just start off by saying these cookies are like crack. You have one, and even though they’re so sugary sweet you instantly want another. They’re just insanely delicious. If you want to impress your friends and family with some really easy to make, but seemingly fancy cookies, make these.
They’re chewy and crispy all at once, with a lovely holiday flavor. They would be perfect as dessert but also with a cup of coffee. They’re just so darn good though, you could really eat them anytime, and trust me, you’ll want to.
I had a bit of trouble with my first batch because I misread the recipe entirely. On my second go around, they came out as beautiful as they tasted, no crumbly edges.
Molasses Sandwich Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart, found here
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance, room temperature
- 1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
- 1/8 cup water
Preheat your oven to 350° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl; flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, cream together the Earth Balance and sugar with an electric mixer. Mix in the molasses until combined. Add the flour and mix until it forms a dough and then add in the water.
Using a tablespoon, scoop balls of dough onto your prepared baking sheet, giving each about an inch and a half between cookies. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, until the center is firm.
Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to let cool completely. Prepare the filling.
Molasses filling
- 12 Tbsp Earth Balance, room temperature
- 3 Tbsp molasses
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Beat together the Earth Balance and molasses till smooth. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and beat until slightly fluffy. If you desire a firmer filling, add more powdered sugar.
Using a knife, a spoon, or a pastry bag, spread a bit of the filling on the bottoms of half of your cookies. Press another cookie onto the filling to make each sandwich.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
Posted by – 10 Dec ’10
So far in my cookie journey, this batch was the easiest and most fun to make. They were also my least favorite, which isn’t that much of a criticism since I think this week’s other cookies have been amazing. They came out a little doughy and didn’t have the crackly tops I was looking for. They were good, but not perfect. I imagine I’ll be noodling with this recipe to perfect them. It may have just be an issue with my oven temperature, as they were a bit brownie like, which isn’t bad at all, just not what I was looking for in these particular cookies.
On the other hand, after I made these I realized there is a perfectly good recipe in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
Basically these are like chocolate snickerdoodles with a hint of spice. Which is awesome. The original recipe said to roll them into balls and let cook like that, but I found they came out much better when pressed into disks before hand. You can see my first batch had a lot more height than the second (below).
Please do try these though, perhaps you’ll have better luck than I.
Or you can try some of this weeks other cookie recipes
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart, found here
- 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup Earth Balance
- 1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 – 1/2 tsp chili powder
Preheat oven to 400° and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together flour, cooca powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and arrowroot powder. Make sure there are no clumps of cocoa remaining. In another bowl, using and electric mixer, mix the Earth Balance and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until fluffy. Gently mix in the water and then flour mixer until a dough forms.
Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and chili powder in a separate bowl. Roll the dough into golf ball sized balls between your hands. Press each ball until flattened and then coat in the sugar mixture. Place approximately 2 inches apart on you baking sheets. Cook for approximately 10 – 12 minutes, and remove when they begin to crack. Let cool for 5 minutes on the pans and the remove to let cool on a wire rack.
Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Posted by – 9 Dec ’10
I think oatmeal cookies get a bad wrap. Especially the vegan variety. Granted there are some pretty bad oatmeal cookies out there, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact one of my favorite cookies of all time was the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies my aunt used to make. I have yet to perfect a vegan version of those though. They were unbelievably good. It just goes to show you, it’s not just the recipe, but the technique.
I was particularly drawn to this recipe because it replaced those pesky raisins with cranberries, which is obviously WAY better, not to mention much more holiday appropriate. They’re soft in the center and just ever so slightly cakey. Not to mention insanely yummy. I think you should just make them and let the cookies speak for themselves.
Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart, found here
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 1/2 tsp vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup Earth Balance
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda. Beat together the Earth Balance and sugars in an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment. Beat until fluffy. Lower the speed on your mixer and slowly add the liquid ingredients, continuing to beat until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until a dough forms. Take the bowl out of the mixer and then stir in the cranberries and oatmeal by hand. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350° and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using your hands, shape 2 tablespoons of the dough into disks and place an inch apart on your baking sheets.
Bake for 16 – 18 minutes, rotating half way through. They should be browned on the edges but still soft. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then let cool completely on a wire rack.
Lemon Icebox Cookies
Posted by – 7 Dec ’10
Next on our cookie agenda are these lovely lemon ice box cookies. These tiny little cookies are the perfect bite-sized snack or after dinner treat. They would be great gathered in a pretty bag and given as a gift. They’re sweet and crunchy with just the right amount of lemon.
You start with the lemon zest. There is something that always excites me about putting lemon zest in a recipe. Perhaps it’s because I know it’s going to be delicious. I can’t wait till we have a home where I can have a lemon tree. I hate buying lemons, as I never seem to use them quickly enough, so I often don’t buy them and then I don’t have them when I need them…but I digress.
For this recipe we’re going to use a food processor. Make sure you have a big enough bowl (a mini food processor won’t do) or you’re better off just working by hand with a dough mixer. It is rather pleasing to watch your flour and Earth Balance mixture turn to dough, just like that, but don’t get carried away and over mix. Remember to pulse!
This makes a fairly large batch, probably double what I was expecting, but the tiny cookies will most likely “magically” disappear once made. Plus you can keep the dough frozen for a few weeks and bake a few whenever you like.
Now I have a little confession with this recipe. As I mentioned before, one of the most difficult parts of taking a standard cookie recipe and making it vegan is replacing the eggs. Eggs play many different rolls in baked goods and different substitutes serve different purposes. Since this recipe used only egg yolks, I wanted to add a little bit of moisture back into the cookies. The obvious answer here is water. So I plopped in 3 tablespoons of water, before I had mixed the dough, and right before I remembered that there were only egg yolks, not full eggs (think less volume). Immediately the dough was overly wet and impossible to handle. I had to add back about a 1/4 cup of flour to bring it to a better consistency.
That being said, you might be fine just leaving out the water all together and only using 2 cups of flour, but I’ll give you the recipe as I made it since I’m sure it still comes out tasting fantastic.
Lemon Icebox Cookies
from Martha Stewart, originally found here
- 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp lemon zest (about 4 small lemons)
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup Earth Balance
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling
Put the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest in your food processor and pulse until combined. The lemon zest will basically disappear.
Add the Earth Balance into the bowl and pulse until it combined into a granulated mixture. Add water and lemon juice until a dough is formed.
Separate the dough into 3 sections and shape into 1 – 2 inch rolls. Wrap in plastic and freeze for at least two hours.
Preheat the oven to 300º and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On another piece of parchment, sprinkle the remaining sugar and roll your logs to coat the outside. Slice into 1/4 inch rounds and lay about an inch apart on your baking sheets. Cook for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets half way through. Let cookies cool on a wire rack and enjoy.
Espresso-Bean Shortbread
Posted by – 6 Dec ’10
Dear readers, in the next few weeks, Cute and Delicious will be filled with cookies. You don’t mind, right? I was searching for inspiration for some holiday cookies and kept coming back to a bunch of Martha Stewart recipes. I felt it was most necessary that these be veganized, so I’ll be doing just that, and sharing my experience and recipes with all of you.
I started with a very simple and appealing recipe for Espresso-Bean Shortbreads. This appeared to be not only one of the most enticing flavors, but also the easiest to make a vegan version. The only non-vegan ingredient is butter, which I personally don’t even think about for a second, as Earth Balance is such a superb replacement. It’s really a no-brainer. With cookies, it starts getting tricky with replacing eggs.
Now there are a few things you need to know about Martha Stewart cookies.
- They use a lot of butter. This recipe uses 1 1/2 cups. Mostly they average about one cup. Consider yourself warned. Like I said, Earth Balance works great as a substitute.
- They involve a bit of advanced preparation. There is nearly always a fair amount of chilling time, so make sure you read through each recipe in advance. Don’t think you’ll just be popping these out of the oven in 1/2 an hour.
The little espresso guys are easy to make and easier to eat. They’re dense, slightly crunchy and not too sweet. Moreover, they definitely pack a caffeine kick. Not cookies you want to eat right before bed time, trust me. I didn’t have a single complaint with the recipe, except that it took quite awhile with multiple chilling and freezing periods. I would recommend making them sort of flat, and not to make sure they are cooked all the way through.
So here are the humble but delicious beginnings of my cookie marathon. I personally think cookies make a great gift, and the ones here are sure to impress, but also travel well. Even though I’ve just begun, I can already see how easy it will be to get lost in a black hole of holiday cookies…but off we go anyway.
Espresso-Bean Shortbread
from Martha Stewart, originally found here
- 1 1/2 cup Earth Balance
- 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp instant espresso powder
- 2 Tbsp warm water
- 2 Tbsp finely ground espresso beans
- 3 cups plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
Cream together Earth Balance and sugar in a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat until slightly fluffy.
Combine the espresso powder and warm water in a small bowl and stir until combined. Beat the espresso mixture and beans into the EB and sugar.
Whisk together flour and salt and gradually add to butter mixture, beating until combined. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, and your hands, create small ovals bean shaped cookies. Place each cookie on the baking sheet 1 – 2 inches apart. To create the split in the coffee bean press a chopstick over the top of each cookie. Place each tray in the freezer to firm for 10 – 20 minutes
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes rotating sheets half way through. The bottoms should be browned, with the tops, just barely browning when you remove them. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.
Dia de los Muertos cookies
Posted by – 2 Nov ’10
I wanted to make a few special cookies to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. I searched for a skull cookie cutter but to no avail. The closest I could come up with was a skull and cross bones. Not quite the same.
I went ahead and just drew the skulls on larger cookies with some royal icing. I’m still working on my technique, although I think these came out nicer than my Star Wars cookies. I would have liked to draw on some roses and other decorations but I don’t think I couldn’t have managed the detail. Thinking maybe next time I can paint food coloring on for more delicate lines.
Most importantly, they tasted awesome and were still pretty cute.
Cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
Icing recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking
Halloween Treat roundup
Posted by – 26 Oct ’10
Halloween is just around the corner and I thought we all could use a little dessert inspiration.
I’m thinking of making a fancy Halloween cake this year, just have to find the time. I really like the idea of painting on a cake or using some stencils.
Here are a few of my favorites I’ve made over the years.
Cutest, easiest ghost sugar cookies. If you can frost a cookie you can make these.
Chocolate zombie cake. Gotta show the zombie love.
And zombies need some brains to eat.
Dandies Marshmallow ghost cake. I love anything that’s creepy and cute at the same time.
Or you can get really crazy with pumpkins, spiderwebs, bats and more.
Personally I always want to make chic-o-stick cupcakes around Halloween, but can’t ever find them.
What are your favorite Halloween treats?
star wars cookies
Posted by – 3 Aug ’10
Last night I made Star Wars cookies. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m a huge Star Wars fan, although I really like the Jawas and R2D2. Shawn on the other hand, he likes Star wars. We have a bunch of little Star Wars characters around our apartment.
Anyway, back to the cookies. I used the sugar cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
. I wanted to put this recipe to the test after using the sugar cookie recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking
on many occasions. It has worked well for me, but it’s definitely a bit more involved.
The recipe from VCIYCJ was much simpler to put together and easy to work with. The cookies were fairly soft and very sweet. Perhaps next time I’ll cook them so they’re a bit more crispy. Also, I highly recommend chilling them a little bit longer after rolling them before they bake so they don’t spread.
Part of the reason I wanted to make these guys was to practice my cookie decorating technique. Yeah. I definitely made my frosting too thick. While usually I have the opposite problem, things running where you don’t want them to go, it took a lot of effort to get these guys frosted. I got in a little bit of trouble for not decorating any of the Boba Fetts, Next time!
I would love to say that they came out perfectly. They didn’t. They were cute. They were yummy. That’s accomplishment enough for the first attempt. I’ll report back when they come out as I envision.
I do have to mention one other thing, well, because I’m really excited about it. Cute and Delicious was mentioned as one of the Top 7 Vegan Blogs by Native Foods. Oh how could I not be flattered when I am complimented by one of the most delicious vegan restaurants in southern California? Not to mention, they love my cats. Have you been to Native Foods? It’s been a favorite of mine for quite some time. Check out this awesome Ensalada Azteca I had when we visited the Native Foods in Palm Springs a few weeks ago. Yum!
See, I balanced the cookies with some salad. 
Halloween Cookies
Posted by – 25 Oct ’09
Due to popular demand, and because perhaps we are insane, we decided to have another Halloween movie marathon this weekend. To go with our new set of movies, we of course needed a new set of treats. This time I went with cookies, since I really am a cookie girl. I made the sugar cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. This is my go-to recipe for sugar cookies because it’s pretty straight forward and makes a good amount. They’re not blow you away good, but they’re good and the royal icing is amazing so they make for good party snacks and gifts. Not to mention they’re so much fun to decorate.
For a little variety I also tried out the recipe for the chocolate crinkles, since I imagined they’d have a festive look to them. They’re soft and fudgey on the inside, sort of like little brownie bites. I cooked them on the shorter side so they would be softer, but perhaps they would have been nice crunchy. While they were well liked, I wish they were more chocolaty.
We were lucky enough to have the lovely FoodEater make us the mac and cheese I’ve been dreaming about. It was so good. I have to admit that I am not a daiya fan but it worked really well in this dish. It was cheesy but did not have the sticky weirdness that daiya can have on pizza. My favorite part was the seasoned bread crumbs on top that gave it more texture and flavor than just standard mac. The whole dish was completely eaten in less than an hour.
We learned some very important lessons during this movie marathon: If you go looking for the cat, you will probably die. If you get cats thrown at you, you will definitely die. If you try to kill cats, you may get brutally beaten by the man at the hot dog stand and eaten by rats. Most importantly, Christmas is a very scary holiday.
