These cookies are good. Really good. They hold their shape and have the perfect texture; tender, flaky, with a slight chew and are a little crisp around the edges! I simpley adapted a regular cut out sugar cookie recipe to be dairy free and egg free by using a stick of salted vegan butter (not from a tub) and a starch based egg replacer. You can use extracts of your choice or just stick with good old vanilla- it's totally up to you!
Start by adding sugar and softened v.butter into the mixing bowl. I'm using a Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment, but a hand mixer will do as well. Don't have either? Get your whisk out. It's time to give those arm muscles a good work out!
Cream the mixture, starting on low and then up to medium.
While that's getting all smushed together, make the equivalent of one egg using an egg replacer of your choice. You don't have to use this brand, it's just what I've got on hand.
Now is the time to sift all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and to set it aside for a moment...
...because it's flavour time! I chose to use three extracts; 1/2tsp of butter, and a 1/4tsp each of lemon and almond. The butter extract is vegan and adds a richness to the cookie. As for the other two, they're both my favourites!
Yes, the recipe I wrote calls for only a 1/2tsp of extract and here I am using a full teaspoon. It's hard for me to follow instructions (even if they're my own) 100%. If you follow my blog, you'll know I like to deviate from recipes, ha ha ahahaha.
Oh by the way, I kind of have an obsession with almond scented and flavoured items. It wasn't always like this. I use to be completely repulsed by it, but that has since change.
...it looks like this (after about a minute). It'll look pale in colour and fluffier in texture. Remember to give the bowl a good scrape down to ensure everything is evenly incorporated!
Remember that lovely bowl of flour, baking powder and salt? Add that into the mixing bowl.
Start incorporating it all together on the lowest speed possible, or else...well just try it. Turn your mixer on high and see what happens.
Actually, don't. Unless you like inhaling flour and cleaning and totally messing up any decent measuring that you did previously. But you don't like any of that, do you. DO YOU?!
That's what I thought. Lowest speed.
After a minute or two, it'll look crumbly and not much like a dough.
Don't worry, it's fine. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time. Wait about 30 seconds between tablespoons, to ensure the water gets distributed throughout.
Soon enough, everything will pull away from the sides of the bowl and a soft dough will have formed!
Since there are no eggs, this recipe makes for a relatively pale dough which I find makes a prettier iced cookie.
Wrap the dough tight in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
To roll the dough out, I would suggest doing so between two sheets of wax paper, parchment paper or even plastic wrap. Not only does it help with rolling the dough out, it eliminates the need to add flour to prevent sticking, thus making more texturally consistent cookies.
I made my cookies a little less than a quarter of an inch thick and baked them at 350F (325F convection) for about 10 minutes or until the edges were golden. Once they were cooked and cooled on a rack, they were frosted with a simple egg free icing made of powdered sugar, soy milk and food colouring. Voila!
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Check out my super "rustic" cookie decorating skills. Rich decorated the dreidels (I outlined) and I did the rest. They're not the prettiest cookies I've made, but they tasted good!
