Vegan, Keto Christmas Cookies (What???)
Sunday was my cookie baking extravaganza! Although I set aside the whole day, I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped (how does that happen?) I made orange-chocolate chip biscotti, iced gingerbread oatmeal cookies, a sugar-free cookie for myself, and the dough for gingerbread cutout cookies. The gingerbread dough is sitting in the fridge, patiently waiting to be rolled, cut and baked. All these cookies were vegan (but only the sugar-free one was keto.) If you’re interested in making vegan cookies, you can do one of two things: a) simply pick a recipe that’s already vegan, or b) take a non-vegan recipe and make vegan substitutions. For this cookie baking party, I did both. I got the recipe for the iced gingerbread oatmeal cookies from Sally’s Baking Addiction. This is not a vegan blog. But her recipes are so delicious- I’ve made several of her cookies and use vegan substitutions. If it calls for milk, I use oatmilk, soymilk, or almond milk. For the butter, I use Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks. You can usually find them in a regular grocery store, and they act and taste just like butter in a recipe. Eggs are the most challenging thing to substitute. For most cookies, I’ve found that a flax egg works great. A flax egg is one tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with three tablespoons of water. Mix it, let it sit for a few minutes, and it becomes thick and gloppy- like the texture of an egg. I usually stick to recipes that only call for one egg. If there are multiple eggs, then it seems like a pretty important part of the recipe and I don’t want to mess with that. There are plenty other recipes to choose from! Like… anything from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the queen of vegan cookies. For my gingerbread cutout cookie dough, I used her recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. And I used her recipe for the biscotti from Veganomicon. Her orange-chocolate chip biscotti are insanely delicious. One year we gave some to my son’s teacher and he wrote me a note telling me that they were the most delicious biscotti he had ever tasted, vegan or otherwise. The recipe in the book is actually for almond-anise biscotti, but she gives a variation for orange biscotti. I’ve never made the almond anise version. Maybe someday I will, but I don’t see how they could compare with the orange chocolate chip. As you can imagine, my house smelled AMAZING. First with the gingerbread spices, and then with the orange and chocolate. I got inspired to make my own cookies, and used this recipe for keto chocolate chip cookies from Chocolate Covered Katie. I do NOT follow a ketogenic diet! But if I find a vegan, keto cookie recipe I’ll make it every once in a while. If the recipe is keto I know it has no sugar. Her version calls for erythritol, but I used this: The maple-flavored syrup is sweetened with monkfruit, and the chocolate chips are sweetened with stevia and erythritol. If I eat too much erythritol is bothers my stomach, but in moderation it’s okay. I added the zest of an orange to these cookies and they were yummy! I ate ONE and put the rest away. If these cookies had sugar in them, I would have kept eating and eating them. I would have eaten until I felt ill, and that’s why I don’t eat sugar. Most of the cookies went into the freezer. I still have a couple more cookies to bake, but it feels good to have a large stash already made. I’ll take them out over the next couple of weeks to add to gifts, and of course for my family to eat. I had my son in mind when I made the gingerbread oat cookies- he’s a big oatmeal cookie fan. The gingerbread cutout cookie dough will be used to make our gingerbread houses! I’ll bake the pieces of the house this week, build the houses on Saturday, and we’ll decorate them on Sunday. I’ve learned over the years that this project is best done in stages. How about you- do you bake cookies? What’s your favorite cookie?