Gingerbread PIGS

Aren't they CUTE?!?!

Happy Holidays Internet!!

'Tis the season to make vegan Christmas cookies. In the spirit of the holidays I whipped up a batch of vegan gingerbread pigs! They came out adorable and tasted great! (a little spicy though, so if you aren't a fan of GINGER in your gingerbread, watch out!) I didn't frost them because I have issues with vegan frosting coming out runny, aka not good for decorating. These cookies are chewy and crunchy in all the right places.

Gingerbread Cookies (Recipe Courtesy of www.vegnews.com)
Makes 24 Cookies

What You Need:

• 2-3/4 cups pastry flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup molasses
• 1-1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tablespoons soymilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a cookie sheet. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together margarine, molasses, and brown sugar together until smooth. Add soy milk and vanilla and whisk thoroughly.

2. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix with spatula to form a dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

3. Roll out dough onto a floured board, 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick, depending on desired texture (thinner cookies will be crispier, thicker cookies will be chewier). Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on thickness.

The Black and White Cookie

Thank God I gave some of these away or I may have not been able to button my pants on Monday.

Almost every other weekend I make homemade cookies to snack on during the week. This weekend, I was missing my sister in New York so I decided to make Isa Chandra Moskowicz's vegan black and white cookie. This was completely her recipe, so I can't claim it as my own- you will just have to drool over the picture or buy her cookbook: "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar."

For as fancy as they look though, I will tell you- they are easy to make!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

Peanut Butter Chocolate Drops

About once a month I get an extreme sweet tooth that forces me to bake something over-indulgent that I always regret eating. These "cookies" hit that sweet spot, especially since I am always looking for a vegan peanut-butter chocolate something to replace my past life love affair with Reeses.

The best part was too, that on a hot summer day, these are no bake!

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE DROPS (Serving: 25 pieces)
I am not going to list the recipe because I copied Chef Priyanka's recipe almost exactly. So go here, make these, and thank me/her later. (Hers came out prettier than mine (it is hard to get the nuts ground up really fine) but regarless of what they look like they still taste AMAZING).

NOTE: When rolling the 'dough' I was really tempted to make giant balls because they look so delicious- who wants such a small serving, right? BUT... these are VERY rich so the small balls are definitely the size you want.

Substitutions/changes I made:

• I could not find Hazelnuts in my grocery store, so I substituted Filberts.
• I used regular (not all natural) peanut butter because I am cheap.
• In the "Nutella" mixture, I added more soy milk and powdered sugar and oil. I made enough of the chocolate to make about 3 more batches of these suckers.