This morning I felt like baking cookies (something I haven’t done in a while!). I decided on an old favorite, Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. My baking supplies were limited. I was out of chocolate chips and brown sugar, so I made a basic peanut butter fudge, froze it, and chopped it up like chocolate chunks.

I now work in a non-vegan bakery as a cake decorator. Last week was my first week and I decorated hundreds of cupcakes and a bunch of cakes. It’s the perfect job for me because I only have to do my favorite part of making cakes-the decorating, constantly! And I get to practice my decorating skills without having a million cakes lying around my house to eat. I guess making all those sweets and not eating any of them reminded me I needed to satisfy my own sweet tooth once in a while via chocolate peanut butter cookies! Ha!

These cookies did all the talking.

Making “rainbow” hypnosis cookies took 5 different doughs. I didn’t have it in me to make 7, so blue and orange unfortunately didn’t get to join the party.

Hello everyone!
I’ve finished the cookie inventing and writing parts of this project, so keep checking back for updates on the book in the near future!

In the meantime, click here to look at the full collection of cookie photos.
And if you haven’t friended vegan cookies on MySpace yet, here it is!

As promised, some recent creations:

Vanilla Sandwich Cookies

Super Cute Turtle Cookies

Chocolate and Vanilla Jam Thumbprints

And a recipe! All the posts in which I include recipes are tagged with “recipe” under the “category” headline on the right of the screen. Here they all are: http://vegancookies.wordpress.com/category/recipe/

Chocolate Thumbprints
Makes 18 cookies

Aww, thumbprint cookies are so cute. With a fudgy texture and deep chocolate flavor, these are not your average thumbprint cookie. You can use any kind of jam you like. Of course they’re good with your typical strawberry or raspberry jam, but there are so many possibilities like peach or blueberry!

1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoons jam, your choice

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the oil, sugar, soy milk, and extracts.
Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and stir until completely mixed. Add a bit more flour if the dough looks wet.

Shape into tablespoon-sized balls and place on a lightly oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet (do not flatten) and bake for 9 minutes.

Remove from oven and using your thumb, press into each cookie, making a thumbprint. Put about 1/2 teaspoon jam on each cookie. Return to the oven and bake for 3 more minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool and enjoy!

These homemade fortune cookies and pirouettes (“flute cookies”) hold their shape while cooling by resting on a champagne glass.

Hi, everyone! We’re still alive! But pretty busy with getting new recipes up and welcoming in the new testers. Here’s what I’ve come up with lately:

Orange Vanilla Cream/Dreamsicle Bars

These are the bar of a dream, a pastel orange surreal dream! They’re perfectly delicate.

No-Bake Date Oat Bars

Root Beer Float Cookies

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

The drink is now in cookie form! These are chocolate-y and cinnamon-y with a hint of spicyness.

Magical Floating Margarita Cookies

Because they will sweep you off your feet. Or just because they look like they’re floating a little in this photo.

Art Show Cookie Cake made for art show

Peace Cookie Cake

This is actually a cookie cake cake. There’s a chocolate cake underneath the cookie and frosting!

Ginger Cookies, three ways

Turbinado-sugared

Crystallised ginger

Chocolate Covered Crystallised Ginger

Chocolate Covered Crystallised Ginger

Butterscotcho-mania!

Scotchies!

Peanut Butter Butterscotch with Butterscotch Chips and bits of PB Fudge

7-Layer Bars

St. Patty’s Day!
Homemade vegan Bailey’s is the basis of these cookies!

Kolaches and Apricot Fold-overs (recipe courtesy of AsstroGirl!) and Apricot Almond Cookies

Odds ‘n’ Ends

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Cookie Cake!

Ladies’ Kisses/Almond Milanos

I’ve been really busy/sick lately, but managed to come up with a few recipes in the past week or so. Here’s to catching up with the blog!

Peanut Kiss Cookies

Classic! I use a kiss mold I found at a thrift store in a hershey kiss making kit. The rest of the equipment was useless, but the mold is wonderful!

Chewy Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cookies

A chewy cookie with bits of smashed candy cane and chocolate chips scattered throughout.

Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars

I might need to come up with a new name for these. They are very similar to those chocolate chip granola bars, except more flavorful and a bit softer. So good!

Jammy Dodgers

This classic British cookie has gone vegan!

English Toffee Squares

These are veganized from an old family recipe!

English Toffee Squares

Makes 25 squares

1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, or a mixture)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream together the margarine and brown sugar with electric beaters. Add the vanilla.
Gradually sift in the flour and stir until incorporated.

Press dough into an 8×8-inch* nonstick (or lined with parchment) baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes until firm and golden. Don’t take them out too early or they won’t get crispy and toffee-like.

Remove from oven and uniformly sprinkle the chocolate chips in the pan. Return to the oven for about 30 seconds so the chocolate is melty and spreadable. Using a knife, spread the chocolate evenly over the cookie layer. Sprinkle with the nuts, then let cool (the fridge or freezer helps with this if you’re in a hurry) so the chocolate firms up. Cut into 25 squares and transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

*This recipe can be halved and baked in a 8×4-inch loaf pan.

Crispy Swirly Pinwheel Cookies with Pink Sugar

Two ways.

With vanilla on the outside.

Chocolate on the outside.

Intense Dark Chocolate Cookies with Sprinkles

Experimentation with gluten free baked goods.
These chocolate chip cookies use rice flour instead of wheat. I found they had a bit of a gritty “aftertexture”, so more experimentation to follow.

Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cookies

This was an interesting idea I couldn’t let go of and they turned out fantastic!

Classic Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Chewy Caramel Pecan Cookies

Mini Chip Snowball Cookies