Gifts from the Kitchen: Vegan Ginger Cookies

This is the season of cookies, isn't it? Everyone seems to have a holiday favorite, and there is no end in sight to the cookie baking at this point in December. I didn't grow up making specific holiday cookies, nor do I enter December with a cookie bucket list as an adult, but even I have a TON of cookie making to do in the next few weeks.

One of my favorite reasons to make cookies though is something called Operation Cookie Drop. I'm not sure if it's an Air Force wide tradition, but it has happened at every base we've been stationed at. One day in December, people come together to donate and deliver cookies to all the single Airmen living in the dorms on base. These are mostly really young/brand new to the Air Force people, and it can be so tough to be away from home during the holidays those first few years. Nothing will make it easier, but having a ton of cookies delivered to your door makes it just a tad bit nicer.

These cookies are a new discovery. I really can't get enough ginger (seriously-even my new favorite tea is ginger flavored!), and the fact that these cookies are vegan is just a nice bonus. When I passed these around at various events this weekend not a single person uttered the dreaded "these are good-for being vegan". I don't have too many vegan treats in my arsenal and while I'm always on the hunt for more, I need them to stand on their own. It should be a good cookie-not just a good vegan cookie.

These fit the bill. They have double dose of ginger. Ground and fresh ginger in the dough itself, and then more fresh grated into the sugar coating. It's just enough bite without being "spicy". The inside is soft and the outside just a touch crunchy. They will brown only slightly, so don't panic that they aren't cooked enough and leave them in the oven for an extra minute or two. The ones I took out at 15 minutes had a much better texture than the ones I left in for 18. Just keep an eye on them once you hit 14 minutes!

What is your favorite cookie to make at the holidays?


Vegan Ginger Cookies
Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 a small lemon)
1 tbsp lemon zest

For sugar to roll the cookies in:
1 cup sugar
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Whisk together flours, baking powder and soda, salt and gingers in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl whisk together sugar, applesauce, canola oil, lemon juice and zest. Pour the mixed wet ingredients into the dry and stir together with a wooden spoon or a stiff spatula. Don't panic if all the flour doesn't mix in right away. Keep mixing and in a few minutes it will be all incorporated. Once it is, pat the dough into a disc shape, wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

In the meantime, pour 1 cup of sugar into a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger to it. Mix together so that the sugar is fragrant.

Prepare 2 baking sheets by covering in parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350.

Take the dough out of the fridge and begin to roll it into balls about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. Roll the ball in the ginger sugar and place on prepared baking sheet. Gently press down with your hand to slightly flatten the dough. The cookies don't spread while baking, so they can be fairly close together on the pan.

Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

Ever had one of those days where your to do list is so long that you want to throw it out and just make cookies?

Yeah. That was yesterday for me. Between soccer practice, kids homework, trying to start running again, welcoming new spouses to the squadron, attempting to keep Mt. Laundry in check, and prepping for a visit from family (yay!) I might have over-scheduled myself just a wee bit this week. It's all stuff I want to do...I just need to be better at organizing it on my calendar so it's not all at the same time. Whoops! As I get older, I'm realizing that when I feel overwhelmed, the best thing I can do is take a breather. I'm embracing the fact that I can have coffee with a friend or take some down time in the kitchen or with a book and the rest of that to-do list doesn't look so scary.

If you are in need of last minute cookies these are definitely the way to go. They took all of 10 minutes to put together and another 15 to bake up. The ingredients are all things that I had in the house and there is no fancy footwork once the dough is made-you just spoon it onto the baking sheet and pop it in the oven. I love how the brown sugar created a deeper flavor than a regular sugar cookie, and the oatmeal adds a nice texture. I took some out at about 14 minutes and some out just a few minutes longer to try them soft and crunchy. Fab both ways...but the crunchy ones taste really good dunked in your afternoon tea :)

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies
barely adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer (or use your hand mixer). Once it is pale and creamy add in the vanilla, then the eggs (one at a time), scraping the bowl and mixing until totally combined after each addition.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add into the butter mixture in 3 batches, mixing each until just combined. Add the oats in and mix those until just barely combined as well.
Scoop out a tablespoon of dough for each cookie and drop on a cookie sheet a few inches apart. Keep an eye on the cookies starting at about 13 minutes. If you like them a little crispier, go to 15-16 minutes.

Biscoff No-Bake Cookies

Baking for me is grounding. Rough day with the kids or the Air Force? (or more likely both!?) Give me 15 minutes in the kitchen with Mumford and Sons on and I can start to shake the day off. A few more minutes of whisking or listening to the whir of my mixer and by the time the dishes are done I can breathe again. It's a way of bringing my focus into one single thing, like focusing on your breath while meditating.

I think that's the same reason I read so much historical fiction. If the story and the writing are right, I can escape into a world completely unlike my own and come out refreshed on the other side.

I had one of those days today. So into my kitchen I went and in 15 minutes plus dishes, these went into my fridge. I can breathe again and face the tomorrow with my reserve filled back up.

No bake cookies have many fine qualities, but beauty is not one of them. Luckily, this particular variety is so addicting no one seems to mind. This is the kind of cookie that will brighten your day, or someone else's. They are sweet, but not so decadent that you can't have two. They're easy, fast, and freeze divinely. What's not to love? I have been known to polish off half of a batch before I can force myself to give the rest away.

Luckily I have my lovely book club friends to help me eat these tomorrow night. We are reading my favorite book in the world, Persuasion, and I like to think Jane might approve of these...


Biscoff No-Bake Cookies
slightly adapted from Brown Eyed Baker via Sugarcraft

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
pinch of salt
3/4 c Biscoff spread (I find that about 1/2 the container works nicely)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats (plus a little more to adjust consistency if needed)

In a large saucepan, begin melting the butter and add in sugar, milk and salt. Heat until a rolling boil is reached, and then boil for one more minute. Take off the heat and then add in Biscoff and vanilla. Stir to completely combine, and then add in the oats. If mixture is too runny, add in extra oats. Drop tablespoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet (parchment paper works best for me) and place in the fridge until solid, usually within an hour or two. These cookies won't spread as they cool, so put them as close together as you need to on the baking sheets.

Molasses Cream Sandwich Cookies

    

I know, I know. Molasses cookies in the summer? (And yes I also know that it's not "officially" summer yet, but it's 103 today in Oklahoma so it counts. Man I miss New England sometimes!) So while molasses does have a more autumn tone to it's flavor I think it's good to eat something with a bite to it in the midst of all the light summer fare. 

These are the cookies my Nana made for us when I was little. It was probably the only time we used molasses growing up, and the only reason I had it in my pantry for years as an adult. It wasn't until I really taught myself how to cook a few years ago that I began to appreciate the flavor in other recipes. 

I decided to mix things up a little and since I had buttercream frosting laying around from a preschool class project, I thought sandwich cookies might be fun. Anything with frosting in the middle is automatically a win in my boys' book, and what mom can resist that?

 The sweetness of the buttercream sets off the bite of the molasses really well. They don't compete like two disparate flavors can when combined, but set each other off to perfect advantage. There's a reason the original was a family classic, and I'm thinking the updated version might be here for good too. 

Nana's Molasses Cookies (about 3 dozen)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar (plus 1/2 cup for rolling cookies in)
2 tbsp molasses 
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp clove
1 tsp salt
 
Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer. Add in Molasses and then the egg, making sure they are completely combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, clove and salt. 

Pour flour mixture into wet ingredients and stir to combine. 

Roll tablespoon of dough into balls. Roll dough balls in sugar and place on cookie sheet. Flatten each cookie with a glass.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 20 minutes.

Classic Buttercream Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream

In a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment mix sugar and butter together. When combined, add in the vanilla and raise the speed of the mixer so that the mixture is being whipped. Drizzle in cream until the consistency you want is reached and then continue to whip for another minute or two until the mixture is really fluffy. 

Assembly:
Spoon about 2 tablespoons of buttercream frosting between two cookies and press together. 

Butterscotch Chip Cookies

Some nights after the boys are in bed I want nothing more than to veg on the couch and watch some trainwreck reality tv. Other nights I might have a little more brain power but not much more oomph and you'll see me knitting and watching whatever PBS shows are stacked up in our DVR. (Hello, Shakespeare Uncovered. I'm obsessed.) But there are other nights where I just need to get in the kitchen. Cooking, and especially baking, are a total stress relief for me. Even when I'm making a difficult recipe and don't look like I'm enjoying it at all, I am. It's the intellectual challenge of trying something new. If it's a success, I like to tinker with it to see what it would taste like if I try this method or a slight ingredient change. If it's a complete failure, I want to figure out what went wrong and what I can fix (after a bit of swearing and grumping, let's be honest).

I stumbled on the original recipe for these cookies on Pinterest ages ago. It's one of those small batch recipes that made only 2 chocolate chip cookies. I was in a mood to bake, craving something sweet and just needing 10 or 15 minutes of zen in kitchen. This recipe only required one bowl, and I had everything to make them with except chocolate chips. After digging through my chocolate stash I found a bag of butterscotch chips languishing on the bottom. I know there was a recipe I bought them for, but it never got made, so I though, why not? I decreased the amount of chips because the butterscotch is so much richer than a simple chocolate. The result stopped us cold. The husband and I devoured these in approximately 15 seconds. They are just the perfect mix of gooey middle and melting butterscotch. Luckily the original recipe made 4 cookies instead of the expected 2. A few weeks later we tried it with chocolate chips. Excellent, but just not the same. I tweaked the recipe slightly, and expanded it make around a dozen. This is the kind of cookie you can heat up in the microwave a few days later and have it taste like it just came out of the oven.
I made the dozen to take to a friend this afternoon, but somehow she only got 10.

Butterscotch Chip Cookies

adapted from No. 2 Pencil

6 Tbsp butter, softened

6 Tbsp packed brown sugar

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 egg yolks

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 c flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

4 Tbsp butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350. 

Put softened butter into medium bowl and then add sugars, salt and vanilla. Stir until combined and then mix in egg yolks. Add baking soda and flour and combine. Finally, fold in the butterscotch chips, taking care that they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Drop by the teaspoonful onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The cookies will spread, so leave adequate space in between. 

Bake for 10 minutes. 

When you take the baking sheet out of the oven, bang it down on the counter top. This flattens the cookies, and gives them that sunken, wrinkled look.