Happy 2011 (and a waffle sandwich)
My dearest readers, it is almost 2011. Can you believe it? I certainly can’t.
This year has been crazy. It’s been rough at times and some of the best things ever have happened as well.
I really can’t wait for 2011. I can’t wait for our wedding and all the new experiences we will have.
On the last day of the year we celebrated by rearranging our whole apartment. I’m rather happy about it.
And we made waffle sandwiches.
We received a fancy little waffle maker for Christmas. It had to get broken in immediately.
So we had waffles for breakfast. We made the Chelsea Waffles from Vegan Brunch
After we were hungry from moving all our furniture, I grilled up some apple field roast sausage and some slabs of tofu. Shawn made an amazing cheezy sauce. We piled it all together and devoured it. Definitely amazing. Delicious and amazing.
Tonight I’m looking forward to celebrating with some dear friends. My resolution this year is to be more magical. I think that’s what my life needs.
Happy New Year!
xoxo
Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
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
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
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
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.
