Vegan Cookies = The Gift Of Awesome

This is my obligatory Christmas Cookie post. I spent a very long time this weekend baking Christmas cookies for my friends, family, and coworkers. I leave town tomorrow after work and I wanted the cookies to be as fresh as possible for Christmas, so I knew it had to happen all at once on this weekend. It was mostly great, with just a few bumps along the way. I am forever indebted to my stand mixer. She's been hooking me up since my high school graduation, and churned out many a christmas cookie -- this year more than ever. I went all out this year and made SEVEN different kinds of cookies, a variety I carefully selected. Observe:

The first ones I made were Cranberry Bliss Bars. Once upon a time when I worked at the mall before I went vegan, I would always go up to Starbucks and get one of these on my short breaks during the Christmas season. Sadly it's been at least seven years since I've had one, and this is THE YEAR. I made a cookie base like I would for a chocolate chip cookie and instead of chocolate chips, I put in vegan white chocolate chips (totally ordered 4 bags online) and dried cranberries.

If I were the only person eating them I would have thrown in some walnuts too, but someone always gives you kickback about nuts in cookies, so I left them out. Then I made a white chocolate frosting to go over the baked cookie bars, then sprinkled with some more cranberries, and then drizzled some leftover white chocolate frosting over the top of that, cut them into little authentic triangles, and that's it. Definitely the most labor-intensive cookie of the bunch, but worth the nostalgic blast.

Next, I made these shortbread cookies with chocolate fudge and cherries. I have made these cookies a few times before, and I somehow always forget that they suck to make, because the dough is too thick and too hard to push out of a pastry bag. I broke my first piping bag, then transferred all my dough to another one hoping for a new result. Broke again, then I transferred the dough back to the mixer and added more almond milk, then to a new pastry bag and they came out a lot easier. I made some ganache to put in the middle and stuck a cherry on top because I couldn't decide if I wanted cherry or chocolate. Let them have both. They are so pretty and taste really good, that's probably why I always forget how annoying the piping part is.

I made these cookies special for my Dad! He loves gingerbread stuff, and he loves biscotti, and so I knew these gingerbread biscotti from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar that are dipped in white chocolate would be perfect. I didn't have any candied ginger so I left that off and sprinkled cinnamon sugar instead. Biscotti is easy, it just takes a little longer to bake. Also, I did not cut them into the correct number of cookies. It's okay, I'm pretty.

My mom likes the snowball cookies the best, so I made some of those too, also from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, but used the almond variation because she hates pecans. These are messy and get a little sticky so I put them at the bottom of the box to keep them from rolling around sticking up the other cookies. I think they are also called Russian Tea Cakes too. I can see that. I can see them with some tea.

So I've been wanting to make NYC cookies for a while, and in theory they sound great. It's a big cakey sugar cookie with some frosting and you're done. This was not the case. It is just a cake batter that you pour onto your cookie sheet in puddles and they just came out really misshapen and too crunchy on the sides, also way too big. I baked these too close to when I needed to leave, you know, because shop-up, and I just let the cookies sit on a cooling rack, a little over-lapping, to wait until I got home to finish them, and when I got home they had all gotten too crispy or stuck together. So I decided to make a cookie ball! I processed the cookies into crumbs, made a batch of frosting, mixed it together, made balls, froze them, melted black and white chocolate and dipped! Best save ever!

I asked Alex to pick one kind of cookie he really likes and he picked the peanut butter cookies that you stick a Hershey's kiss into the middle while they're still warm. No Hershey Kisses are vegan, so I just stuck three regular vegan chocolate chips into the middle, waited for them to melt, then pressed another one on top! These are my fave. And Alex's fave. Meant to be.

Okay I guess he requested two kinds -- the peanut butter kisses and the snickerdoodle cookies from Isa Does It. I always use a pumpkin pie spice blend instead of the chai spice blend because... you know boys. They are scared of new things infecting their cookies with new flavors or opportunities. He thinks cardamom is weird. But they are always good, nonetheless.

I made up a box for a bunch of friends, coworkers, and some customers who are really good to me. My customer who brings me all the tomatoes, basil and arugula is obviously getting one, because he is the best. My friends are the best. My family is the best. So they all get cookies. It's only fair.

Merry Christmas to all the vegans out there! Keep on giving the gift of awesomeness to everyone who hasn't figured out that vegans are the coolest.

Xo,

KZ <33