Vegan Cream Cheese Cut Out Cookies

When we were kids, my mom always made her amazing cream cheese cookies for Easter.  They were sweet with a subtle, tangy bite to them from some cream cheese added to the batter, and great iced or plain.  I thought I would give it a go at a vegan version, and they came out great!  They have great flavor and texture, however, they aren't very "tangy." I'll use a home-cultured cream cheese next time.

Here they are:

Bunnies, flowers and a nice dragonfly. Deelish!

Vegan Fazool’s Easy Cream Cheese Cookies

* denotes a traditional, citrusy cookie option!*

½ C. (one stick, 4 ounces) room temp Vegan Butter

(I used EB, but would love to try Bryanna’s Buttah in this, which is on my to-make list)

½ C. (half a package, 4 ounces) room temp Vegan Cream Cheese

(I used Tofutti, but next time I’m going to use homemade vegan cream cheese for more of a tang, Miyoko has a great one in her book!)

1 C. Organic Sugar (I used TJ’s)

2 tsp best Vanilla Extract*

*or 1 tsp vanilla and ½ tsp lemon or orange extract if you want a traditional, citrusy cookie

*1 tsp citrus zest (organic, please) if you want it lemony, orange-y or limey

1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ tsp salt

2 C. Flour (I used King Arthur’s white whole wheat, you can use AP)

1 tsp Baking Powder

Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on the size of your cutters.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Ready a baking tray with a Silpat or parchment paper (or just grease it lightly).  Take the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge about 30 minutes prior to making the recipe so they soften a bit.  I like to cut them up and put them in the mixing bowl to increase the surface area and help them to soften faster (Emory had already done this before the video started). 

Either by hand or using a stand mixer (I love my stand mixer for making cookies, but I don’t love it for yeast dough), cream in the sugar and vanilla extract (and citrus extract if using) until uniform in texture, I used the lowest setting on my stand mixer with a paddle attachment (see video ;-).  Now, add zest (if using) vinegar and salt, and continue mixing to incorporate.  Sift in flour and baking powder.  

Blend until a nice, uniform dough forms.  It’s a lovely, workable dough. 

Deelish dough!

Now, form the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk.  Wrap well in plastic wrap and stash in the freezer for about an hour until it’s thoroughly chilled, or in the fridge for two hours (or up to overnight).  You can keep it frozen for months if you don’t want to use it today, just put the wrapped dough in  a freezer bag for extra protection.  Take it out and put it in the fridge the night before you want to bake it so it can thaw.  You can also keep it refrigerated for up to a few days if you don’t want to cut and bake cookies the same day that you make the dough.

Dough Disk

Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper or use a Roul Pat (I love mine!!) with a piece of parchment on top to prevent the rolling pin from sticking).  Roll out to between ¼ and ½ inch thick (3/8 is the standard thickness for cut-outs).  Use your favorite seasonal cookie cutters (we used Spring/Easter themed ones) and add any fun, edible decorations to the cookies now (or wait to ice them later, though this recipe is sweet enough to leave them plain).  I prefer my cookies with just a few chips or candies pressed in, but icing is also great, particularly on the citrus-y ones.  If the dough starts getting too warm and losing its structure, stash it in the freezer for a few minutes (I just put the whole Roul Pat in the freezer with the rolled out dough on it, covered with a piece of parchment!) and when you take it out it will be nice and firm again for more cutting!

Bake cookies at 350 for 10-14 minutes.  Baking time will vary depending on the size of your cookies and your equipment—darker cookie trays bake hotter and faster than lighter, aluminum ones, for instance.  When cookies are *just* beginning to get golden on the edges, they are done.  Remove from the oven and let sit on the baking tray for about four minutes, then carefully remove them with a spatula to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. 

I made this recipe sweet enough so that the cookies do not need to be iced, however, you can certainly ice them!  You can use any confectioner’s sugar icing recipe that you want and natural food coloring for some pretty spring colors, or ice them white with some more citrus zest mixed into the icing.  Or, do like we did, and just use some chips or candies pressed into the raw dough for decoration.

Bunnies, flowers and chicks, yum!

 Here's the video.  Particularly funny happenings starting around 3:30 min and again between about 6 and 12 min, particularly at 8:58 min marks :-)

Enjoy!

Become A Flax Chicken

Stock Your Pantry, Episode One:

You want to be able to bake for the holidays, but you are going vegan or you ran out of eggs!  Problem solved.  Become a Flax Chicken.  First, you need some flaxseeds:



The brand doesn't really matter.  Bob's Red Mill makes organic ones (pictured above), Hodgson Mill makes them packaged in a box, etc.  Just get some.  I like the ground/milled ones so that you don't need to grind them yourself, but you could do that, too.  Keep them in the fridge or freezer (if you have room in there!).  I didn't know that until recently, so my first box of flaxseeds just sat in my pantry for a year, and honestly, they still seem fine.  I'm still here, basically unharmed, and the box is empty.  Go figure.

Anyway, my very first ever and now beloved vegan chocoate chip cookie called for ground flax, and I got permission to post the recipe.  They are crisp-chewy and almost candy-like, thin and delicious.  We are going to make them together, and I took pics to help you out.

Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
It is from a fantastic vegan cookbook called Veganomicon.  Check it out.

1 3/4 cup oat flour (I always just use Old Fashoined Quaker Oats and grind them in the food processor)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds (yeah, baby, the SYP item is right here! This is going to be your "egg")
1/4 cup soy milk (I love Vanilla Silk or Eden Soy Organic Original, they are very different, though, so see what you like)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375.  So far, so good.

Now, in the bowl of your food processor, add the oats, just measure them in your dry measuring cups and put them right into the bowl with the metal blade attachement.  Also put in the baking soda and the salt, I just like to wizz it all together and wha-la, your dry ingredients are done:

If you have the oat flour, then just sift the ingredients together into a large bowl.

Ok, now, get a medium mixing bowl and in it, put your flaxseeds. Get your Teeny Tiny Wisk O' Doom, too.  Unless you haven't lost your Sir Whiskalot, that is. It will look like this:

Now, just wisk the flaxseeds and the soymilk together.  No big thing, nothing magical will happen, excepting that now you have become the unimaginable, you have become a FLAX CHICKEN!  You have laid your first flax egg (or maybe your 300th if you are a vegan already!).  Sorry to say, that for your first one, it is pretty liquidy (unlike some other flax/liquid mixes that use less liquid, like 2 or maybe 3 tablespoons per tablespoon of ground flax.  Then, you will then get an egg-white like consistency, but not in this recipe).
Then it will look like this:

I have thought about adding another tablespoon of ground flax to get a more egg-whitey consistency.  I think I will try that next time.  Anyway, let us soldier on...

Now you are going to add the brown and granulated sugars and stir, add the vanilla and stir, and then, start adding the canola oil in a thin stream, wisking vigorously (really give the Tiny Wisk O' Doom or a bigger Sir Wiskalot a workout) until it is emulsified.  I find it takes a few minutes of adding the oil and wisking a lot (at least with the Tiny Wisk O' Doom, anyway).  Then it will look like this:

Now you are going to commit a baking faux pas, unless you want to dirty another bowl.  I always err on the side of NOT dirtying another bowl, so, my true bakers, please turn your heads...
Add the dry ingredients into the wet ones (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! But, a tiny voice says, yes!! Do it!! It will be fine!).  Mix them around.  It will look like this:

Now, get out your cookie scoop (a medium Oxo scoop  if you want to know what I use) and plop those bad boys on your silpat or on a greased cookie sheet (Veganomicon says ungreased, but I don't like to take chances, these cookies are crisp-chewy and candy-like, and I have had them stick), like so:

And bake them in your 375 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes.  You will see the edges start to brown slightly, they are done when you see that.  Take them out and let them cool for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way:

If you try to take them off the sheet too early, they may tear, so wait the full 5 minutes!  I get 18 cookies using that medium oxo scoop.

Congratulations!  You have vegan cookies for the holidays and you have Stocked Your Pantry with some very useful ground flaxseeds.  A nice seasonal variation that I have tried is to sub 1/4 tsp of orange extract plus 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract (instead of the 1 tsp vanilla extract in the original recipe) and adding dried, organic cranberries (about 1/3 to 1/2 cup) and reducing the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup. 

Enjoy!