Big Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies

Well, these are another gem from the Canadian Living 2010 Holiday Baking Magazine, and, unlike the last post, this one was already vegan! Well, more or less, it did call for unsalted butter which I replaced with half vegan margarine and half vegetable fat (shortening). I did this as I use Vitalite which I love but find it very soft in baking. I find adding half vegetable fat gives the baked goods more structure and support. Of course if you find whatever vegan margarine you use gives you success then just use straight vegan margarine.

The orange is gorgeous in this but you can just omit that for a plain chocolate chip cookie. Altogether a very yummy success! I'll post my version here with all the grams but for those of you who prefer cups etc. the recipe is on their website. Just a note, you will need to chill the dough for 2 hours before baking, so they do need a little forward planning :-) If you can't wait, I have updated my standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe based on this one, it's quick and delicious too!

Big Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies
Recipe stated 26 cookies, I got 16 (I think! forgot to count!!)

90g vegan margarine
90g vegetable fat (shortening) room temperature
70g caster sugar
65g light muscovado sugar (light brown)
210g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g vegan chocolate chips

In a stand mixer add the vegetable fat, margarine and sugars. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and orange zest and beat well. In a separate bowl add the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and whisk well. Add this to the butter/sugar mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until it almost comes together. Add the chocolate chips and stir well, the mixture will seem a bit dry but that's fine. Bring it together tightly and form into a 10" log shape. Wrap in cling film and roll back and forth until you have a nice rotund log shape. Pop into the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Slice the log into 3/4" slices and place 1" apart on the baking sheet. I found mine didn't look very round after cutting so reformed them a bit with my hands here. Pop in the preheated oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until the edges start to look slightly golden. Cool on tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Source: Canadian Living Holiday Baking Magazine and online.

It was hard to keep the boy out of this picture!! 

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Eggnog Knots

Wahey! My mom sent me the latest Canadian Living Holiday Baking magazine!! Thanks Mom!! Those of you  who have followed me for awhile know I get this magazine every year and have great fun veganizing whatever I can :-) This year's was slightly different though as it was all cookies - no complaints here! Furthermore, the back even listed all the cookies that don't contain egg or dairy. Nice. So, what's the first cookie I make from it? One that needs veganizing, of course ;-) These just sounded so good, I do love my eggnog, click here for my drink recipe, and thought these looked very cute. So cute in fact I even copied their styling for my photo!

These are seriously good, the recipe called for an egg yolk which I was going to replace with just some cornstarch but then thought Birds custard powder would be better. It's basically just cornstarch anyway but the added colour makes it even look like an egg yolk! Well, they turned out perfect, the texture of these cookies is sublime, they really do melt in the mouth and the dough is so easy to work with. I wasn't however, that keen on their glaze for these. It was icing sugar, rum and nutmeg and I just found it a bit too bitter, too much rum perhaps? Yeah, I can't believe I'm saying that either..... So I had another go and made some Maple Cinnamon Knots. I didn't take a picture of these as they looked the same, just a little darker but were by far my favourites, whiskey and cinnamon flavours in the cookie then glazed in a maple glaze - lovely!

I'll post both versions here as really, I was the only one not too keen on the eggnog version, husband and in-laws both loved it. Basically you can change the flavours in these to whatever you like, you don't even have to add a spice, they would be nice just vanilla too. Recipe makes 20 'knots'.

Eggnog Knots:
50g vegan margarine
50g vegetable fat (shortening)
40g caster sugar (or granulated)
1/2 Tbsp Bird's custard powder
1/2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp dark rum
140g plain flour
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
Glaze:
110g icing sugar
2 Tbsp dark rum
1 tsp water
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Maple Cinnamon Knots:
50g vegan margarine
50g vegetable fat (shortening)
40g caster sugar (or granulated)
1/2 Tbsp Bird's Custard powder
1/2 Tbsp water
140g plain flour
1 Tbsp whiskey
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Maple Glaze:
110g icing sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp hot water

Preheat oven to 150C / 300F and line a baking sheet with baking paper. In a large bowl mix the butter and vegetable fat until well blended. Add the sugar and whisk until light and fluffy. In a small bowl mix the custard powder with the water until dissolved. Add this to the butter mixture and whisk well, then whisk in the rum or whiskey. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt and spice. Add this to the wet mixture and stir until it just comes together, use your hands at the end if need be and form into a log.

Divide this into half. Roll one half into a 10" log shape then cut into 1" pieces. Repeat with the other half. Take each 1" piece and roll into a ball then into a 6" long rope. Tie into a knot, well, they say 'tie' really you are placing it into a knot shape then put it on the baking sheet. They don't get much bigger so they can be fairly close together here, just make sure they are not touching. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden underneath and firm to the touch. (Mine took the full 30).

Mix the glaze ingredients together in a heatproof bowl and whisk until smooth. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water - make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl and heat the glaze up until it is slightly warm.

Now take your still warm cookies and dunk in the glaze making sure they are entirely coated. Remove with a couple forks and place on a wire rack with baking paper underneath to catch the drips. Repeat until all are coated then leave to set and cool.

Source: Canadian Living Holiday Cookies Magazine, and Online.

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Mint Chocolate Thins

White chocolate covered mint cookie and Mint dark chocolate covered chocolate cookie.

I have a new favourite cookie!! These come courtesy of Heidi Swanson in her fab cookbook, Super Natural Cooking. I absolutely love this book and have been wanting to make these for awhile now. The original recipe called for an egg white and butter, pretty easy to veganize really, vegan marg for the butter and in the end I just omitted the egg white and they turned out perfect! The first time I made these I replaced the icing sugar with fondant icing sugar. It did make the dough slightly easier to work with and the texture perhaps a bit finer but as I know that is a hard to find ingredient tried them again with just regular icing sugar and they turned out just as good.

Her recipe was a plain chocolate cookie covered in chocolate mint and was sublime. However I kept thinking they would be really good covered in white chocolate. For these I flavoured the cookie mint and left the white chocolate plain. I think these where actually our favourite here, but both are seriously good! 

These quantities are scaled down and make about 9 cookies, just double or triple as you like (they will go fast!) I decorated the white chocolate cookies with some red and green edible glitter flakes I found which happened to be vegan. I also would have liked to have double dipped them but as 2 packages of white chocolate buttons only covered 5 cookies decided that would end up way too pricey!

Mint Chocolate covered Chocolate Thins:

50g vegan margarine
50g icing sugar, fondant is nice but not essential
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp vanilla
60g plain flour
pinch salt
125g dark chocolate
1/4 - 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

White Chocolate covered Mint Chocolate Thins:

50g vegan margarine
50g icing sugar, fondant is nice but not essential
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
60g plain flour
pinch salt
125g vegan white chocolate buttons (5 bags)

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a large bowl cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla (or peppermint extract if making the white chocolate version) salt and cocoa powder and mix well. Add the flour and mix until it just comes together, it’s fine if it’s still crumbly – don’t overmix! Gather the dough up into a ball and give it a couple kneads just to bring it all together. Press it down into a disc shape and wrap in cling film then pop it in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Dust your counter with some flour and flour your rolling pin. Roll the dough out quite thin – about 1/8” thick. Cut out shapes using whatever size or shape cookie cutter you like. I used a round one with a fluted edge. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies fully cool.

When the cookies are cool make the chocolate dip – melt the chocolate either in the microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Add the peppermint extract, taste and add more if you like. (Omit the peppermint extract if making the white choc version.)


Dip the cookies in the chocolate and turn over using 2 forks. Remove from the bowl letting all the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl then place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Repeat with all the cookies. If you want to add sprinkles, do it now before the chocolate sets. Now place the cookies in the fridge for the chocolate coating to set.

Source: Adapted from Heidi Swanson's All Natural Thin Mint Recipe.

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