Why Not?

Food in general and sweet treats in particular can become so closely correlated to certain special occasions, that it can suddenly seem as though one can not exist without the other. While I would agree that no, it is absolutely not Hannukah without latkes, or Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, what can be said for the other side of the coin? What about the non-holiday, any-old-day, random need for latkes or pumpkin pie? Would it throw the Earth off its very axis to indulge that impulse every now and then? Is it selfish? Unnecessary?

One of the many reasons why I love holidays, all holidays, is because they give us a reason to pause and simply celebrate. Much of the time, I couldn’t care less about what the actual significance is, where it came from, or why we remember it, but the mere opportunity to do something fun and special is all I need. Thus, I present to you an any-old-day treat, with no particular import, meaning, or curious back story. They’re just good cookies, and they’d be good today, tomorrow, Mother’s Day if you truly need a good excuse, or whenever. Because really, why not?

Happy Friday- Go ahead, celebrate the weekend!

Yield: Makes 2 Dozen Cookies

Fudge-Mallow Cookies

Name: Fudge-Mallow Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 Cup Vegan Butter; 1 Cup Granulated Sugar; 1 1/2 Tablespoons Molasses; 2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, or White Whole Wheat Flour (or All Purpose, if You Fancy); 1/2 Cup Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder; 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda; 1/2 Teaspoon Salt; 1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips; 5 Ounces Vegan Marshmallows, Chopped to About Raisin-Sized Pieces; 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

No Ratings

Super chewy, chocolate, and packed full of gooey marshmallows, these cookies are perfect for any ocassion, and no special ocassion in particular. This crowd-pleasing combination will always be a hit.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 27 minutes

Ingredients

1 Cup Vegan Butter
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons Molasses
2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, or White Whole Wheat Flour (or All Purpose, if You Fancy)
1/2 Cup Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
5 Ounces Vegan Marshmallows, Chopped to About Raisin-Sized Pieces
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 and line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
In your stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, beating thoroughly until fluffy. Add the molasses and mix until fully combined, scraping down the sides halfway through processing as it tends to stubbornly hide in lumps away from the beater.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Toss in the chocolate chips and chopped marshmallows, making sure that everything is coated in flour so that the mix-ins don’t just clump together.
Add the flour mixture into your mixer, and slowly turn the motor back on so that the dry goods don’t go flying. Pour in the vanilla, and turn up the speed to medium-low, mixing until everything is combined. It may take a minute or two because this is a very stiff dough, but be patient and resist the urge to add liquid!
Scoop out about 3 tablespoons worth of dough per cookie, either with two spoons or an ice cream/cookie scoop, and drop them onto your prepared baking sheets, allowing plenty of room for them to spread- No more than 9 per sheet. Trust me, these things end up expanding like crazy.
Flatten the tops lightly with the palm of your hand, and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are no longer shiny and firm around the edges. Remove them from the baking sheet immediately and allow them to cool.

Recommended Products

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Nutrition Information:

Yield:

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 254Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 22mgSodium: 176mgCarbohydrates: 39gFiber: 3gSugar: 16gProtein: 5g

All nutritional information presented within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on BitterSweetBlog.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. Even though I try to provide accurate nutritional information to the best of my ability, these figures should still be considered estimations.

April 29, 2011December 10, 2021

Hannah (BitterSweet)21 Comments

Trading Milk for Cookies

Bloggers are easily the most generous people on the planet. Perhaps it’s a shared gene that includes the desire to write and confide one’s intimate thoughts to complete strangers on the internet, but for whatever reason, I’ve found that those with blogs seem to go above and beyond to share the things they love with the world. All it took was a passing a mention of my jealousy for Marika‘s new found soy creamer, only available in Canada, and I found myself with a parcel containing just that a few weeks later, with a few single serve soymilks thrown in for good measure. I’m still floored by such unhesitating kindness.

Despite her protests that she needed nothing in return, no good deed can go unpunished, so I set to work scheming up an appropriate ‘thank you’ present. Trying to settle on a special treat that would still hold up to shipping across the border, it quickly became clear that the only option would be to trade cookies for milk.

Turning yet again to my Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies as printed in Go Dairy Free, I built an entirely new framework with the help of that solid foundation. Have I given myself away by now? I simply love that darn cookie, any way you slice it (or more accurately, any way you scoop and flatten it.)

This time, seeking to spice things up a bit and liven up the same-old, same-old, I created what I lovingly named Lively Lemon Cookies. Zesty citrus meets spicy galangal, essentially the southeast Asian version of ginger root, for a hot and sweet union. White chips add pops of cooling sweetness, but I can imagine that the bitter contrast of dark chocolate could make for an equally addictive treat. Spiciness is highly subjective, so I erred on the side of caution, dialing it back a bit, but now I feel that I might actually have done better to double the dose. Thus, I’m providing a range so you can suit your own taste buds.

Starting with the aforementioned chocolate chip cookie recipe, use all granulated sugar, add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground galangal (or ginger), the zest of 1 lemon, 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch cayenne pepper. Finally, switch out the semi-sweet chocolate chips for white chocolate chips, or if unavailable, roughly chopped macadamia nuts.

February 28, 2011

Hannah (BitterSweet)20 Comments

Cut-Out the Frustration

Right up there with piping frosting roses or rolling fondant, cut-out cookies are the bane of many dessert enthusiasts’ existence- At least as much is true for myself. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to fuss over one dough, just to beat it into submission so that it looks like adorable miniature people, or animals, or whatever else those metal torture devices otherwise known as cookie cutters so desire. It would be a whole different story if we were talking about a rich, buttery croissant, but all this hassle purely for aesthetic purposes? No thanks, I’d rather make something ugly but delicious in most cases.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to one’s tastes, however, and with a holiday as cutesy as Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it suddenly hit me that the time was right to tackle those most irritating cut-out cookies yet again. Because there have been requests, and because I love you guys, consider it an early V-Day gift to share and eat alike. The name of the game is to just keep it super simple.

So simple, in fact, that I didn’t bother decorating them after they were baked. To save time and misery, I piled on the colored sugar and sprinkles before the cookies hit the oven, so once the kitchen timer went off, they were completely done, ready to be wrapped up and given away. It’s a small suggestion, but perhaps it can save a fellow baker an hour or two from an already jam-packed schedule. For that reason alone it seemed worth sharing.

100% frustration-free, there’s no chilling of the dough, and for someone working at a steady clip, they can be ready for sampling within a hour. Go ahead, pull out your most intricate cookie cutters, make your own crazy shapes, slice that dough to within an centimeter of it’s sugary life, because it won’t spread for anything. No more blobby, over-weight looking forest creatures here, as every line stays as sharp and crisp as you originally intended.

However, soft and chewy sugar cookies these are not; for all that ease and speed, there is a small textural trade off. Though I much prefer a delicate, pillowy cookie with the barest toothsome bite, these morsels are Crunchy, with a capital “C”. Think of them more as crisp tea cookies, much like biscotti, and you will not be disappointed.

An unintended bonus of that solid composition? They’re fantastic candidates for shipping to loved ones afar! (Just make sure they’re better wrapped and protected than those pictured above… It’s just for illustrative purposes. Don’t send cookies in plain envelopes, folks!)

Yield: Makes Approximately 30 Cookies (Yield Varies Depending on Size of Cookie Cutters)

Crunchy Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

No Ratings

100% frustration-free, there’s no chilling of the dough. Go ahead, pull out your most intricate cookie cutters, make your own crazy shapes, slice that dough to within an centimeter of it’s sugary life, because it won’t spread for anything.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

3 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Vegan Butter
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup or Agave Nectar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 – 2 Teaspoons Orange or Lemon Zest
Colored Sugar or Sprinkles (Optional)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350, and line two baking sheets either with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In either a large metal bowl or a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. While you can certainly bring this dough together by hand, it will require some vigorous stirring, so I would advise bringing out the big guns for this one if you’ve got ’em.
Meanwhile, combine the butter, sugar, and corn syrup or agave in a small saucepan and set over medium-low heat. Gently cook the mixture and stir occasionally, just until the butter has melted and the sugar granules have dissolved. Pour the hot liquid into the bowl of dry ingredients, and mix well. It will become very thick and hard to mix, but give it all you’ve got and make haste- It will become only stiffer as it cools.
Turn out the smooth dough onto a lightly floured surface, press it into a ball, and roll it out to about an 1/8-inch in thickness. Cut it into your desired shapes with cookie cutters and transfer the cookies over to your prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles as desired, and lightly press the decorations in with the palm of your hand.
Bake each sheet individually for 8 – 15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. You should be looking for the barest amount of browning on the edges, but nothing that’s fully golden brown. Let the cookies sit for a minute before moving them over to a wire rack to cool.

The Christmas Cookies That Weren’t

Despite best intentions, holiday gifts always end up as a rushed, last-minute affair. What with the endless waffling over precisely what to make and share, there ends up being little time to actually bake, wrap, and ship those treats off so that they arrive before the appointed holidays have passed. Well, for the first year in recent memory, those sweets never made it to the post office at all, let alone their destinations. To put it simply, it was an “epic fail” on my part.

Still borderline delirious after being taken out by a vicious head cold, perhaps it was not the best idea to leap into a project of such scale. But oh, what false confidence I had! I even did a test run of the recipe, to make sure it was tasty, reasonably mail-able, and all around a solid choice. Shaped as adorable little wreaths and brilliantly emerald green, they were so perfectly festive, too! Glittering with a light sprinkle of coarse sugar, I was certain that these sweet, minty little numbers would be the hit of the holidays. Of course, I tested them as a small batch… And I foolishly believed that this formula could effortlessly be increased, by four times, no less.

No dice. As soon as the mixer started to crank up into gear, I knew I was in deep sh– …dough. Flour and sugar spraying over the sides of my overburdened mixing bowl like a lawn sprinkler on a rampage, those ingredients had no desire to come together and make cookies. Feverishly working to remedy the situation and add more of the dry goods with no rhyme, reason, or measuring, things only got worse with every haphazard addition. The dough was unsalvageable; a depressing lump of lurid green goo that no one in their right mind would want to consume.

So, to all of my friends and loved ones, these are the cookies that you should have received this holiday season:

Can you accept an IOU, and the (successful, small batch) recipe, instead?

Yield: Makes 40 – 50 Cookies

Minted Matcha Wreaths

No Ratings

Shaped as adorable little wreaths and brilliantly emerald green, these spritz cookies glittering with a light sprinkle of coarse sugar for a perfectly festive finishing touch.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 37 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Vegan Butter
4 Ounces (1/2 Package) Vegan Cream Cheese
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 3/4 Teaspoon Matcha Powder
1 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Peppermint Extract
1 3/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Garbanzo Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Decorative White Sugar Crystals or Turbinado Sugar, as Needed for Decoration

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheet with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Set aside.
In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment installed, thoroughly cream together the vegan butter, cream cheese, sugar, and matcha, so that the mixture is homogeneous. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure that everything is incorporated. Add in both extracts, mix to combine, and set aside.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together all of the remaining dry goods for the cookies so that the ingredients are well-distributed throughout the mixture. Slowly add them to the stand mixer, incorporating them in 2 or 3 separate additions. The resulting batter with be very thick, and it may seem like it’s not going to come together, but just be patient; Do not, under and circumstances, add any extra liquid!
Once you achieve a cohesive dough, place a few mounds of it into your spritz cookie gun, which should already have the design you desired installed (the wreath shape, if you want to keep with the intended theme here.) Squeeze out cookies as directed by the manufacturer of the gun, reload when you run out of dough, and repeat. Lightly sprinkle decorative sugar on top of the cookies.
Bake for 8 – 12 minutes, until no long “wet” looking on top and the cookies look solid, with just the vaguest hint of golden color around the edges. Be sure to pull them before they become too brown, or you’ll loose the effect of having pretty green wreaths.
Let the cookies cool on the sheets for at least 10 minutes, and then completely on a wire rack.

Mmmaple

Though endlessly tempted by the idea of lining up a “12 days of cookies” series of posts, it just never seems to work out. Six days into December and only now do I remember those grand plans, dreamed up in warm August, so far away from the holiday action. How time flies, and how impossibly busy this season always turns out to be. Regardless, I’ve always been an advocate of quality over quantity, so I’ll save the indecision and uncertainty over questionable cookies, and just present you with one fail-safe, fool-proof winner of a baked good. Who needs the extra 11 recipes if they’ll never get made, anyway?

Both simple in concept and complex in flavor, these sweet little gems will satisfy the sweet tooth of anyone on your list. Rich maple flavor carries these surprisingly soft cookies, accented by the subtle warmth of ginger. Tame enough for the kids to appreciate but still plenty sophisticated for all types of palates, I instantly regretted preparing only a half batch the first time around- They flew faster than I could press two together into a sandwich!

The funny thing is, I thought these were absolute goners as they went into the oven. Impossibly soft, sticky dough molded into delicate little shapes? There was no chance they would stand up to the heat of the oven… And yet, out they came, as perfectly shaped as before. Just treat them with a gentle hand and keep the dough as cold as possible, and you shouldn’t end up with any amorphous cookie blobs, either.

Yield: Yield depends on size of cookie cutters; Makes about 2 Dozen 1-Inch Sandwich Cookies

Maple-Ginger Sandwich Cremes

No Ratings

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

Maple-Ginger Cookies:

1 Cup Vegan Butter
2 Tablespoons Vegan Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Maple Sugar
1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
1 Teaspoon Maple Extract, Optional
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Tapioca Starch

Ginger Creme Filling:

1/2 Cup Vegan Butter
2 – 3 Cups Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/8 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup

Instructions

In your stand mixer, cream together the vegan butter, cream cheese, maple sugar, and brown sugar, until softened and smooth. Add in the maple syrup, extract, and salt, and beat on a low speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula before proceeding, to make sure that everything is being incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift together the ginger, flour, and starch, before adding the mixture slowly into the bowl of the stand mixer. Slowly mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until you achieve a smooth, cohesive dough. Scrape it out and cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough thoroughly until firm; at least 2 hours.
Ounce chilled, preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Cut your dough in half, and on a lightly floured surface, roll one half out to about 1/8 inch in thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes of any sort, but try to keep them on the smaller side. My maple leaves were just about an inch wide. Use a thin metal spatula to remove the cut shapes and transfer them to your prepared baking sheets, to prevent tearing or mushing. Be gentle, because it is a very soft dough. If you have trouble removing them from the counter, place a frozen metal cookie sheet over the whole length of dough, and allow the dough to cool down and become firmer before trying to move the cookies again.
Place your sheet of cut but unbaked cookies in the freezer for just 15 minutes before sliding it into the oven, to make sure they all hold their shape. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 15 minutes before transferring them to wire racks. Repeat with the remaining half of dough, and re-roll scraps and repeat once more.
For the filling, once the cookies are completely cool, begin by beating the vegan butter in your stand mixer to soften. Add in the first 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar, along with the spices, vanilla, and maple syrup. Mix on low speed until the sugar is mostly incorporated, and then turn it up to high, whipping the mixture for 3 – 5 minutes until light and fluffy. If it still seems too loose to you, add in the remaining cup of confectioner’s sugar, and whip on high again. Spread on cookies and sandwich two together.

Friday, Black Friday

Lock the doors and hide the credit cards; it’s the scariest shopping day of the year! While more discount-savvy commercial hunters may relish the opportunity to forage and gather, scooping up the best sales around, I tremble in fear of the mere concept of waking up at 4 am in order to buy holiday gifts. Even for big ticket items reduced by hundreds of dollars, the pain and suffering simply can’t be worth the written price tag. Big price cuts bring big crowds, and I can’t help but flash back to the image of hapless gawkers being trampled half to death as soon as store doors crack open an inch. No, I’d be much happier safely holed up in the kitchen, cranking up the oven and making my own holiday gifts, as per usual.

Dark as coal but a much sweeter gift to receive, it seemed only fitting to make a black dessert for the occasion. Contrary to how it looks, however, it’s not a brownie, and doesn’t even taste a bit chocolaty. Though a generous scoop of black cocoa is employed to intensify that charcoal color, it doesn’t contribute significant flavor. Instead, this bar is all spice, all the time. Complex and delicately nuanced, this is a gingerbread built for the discerning palate looking for something just a bit different from the same old spice blend. Rounded out by rich molasses, these bars are fantastically dense and chewy, like the best blondies should be. Though I hesitate to call them blondies based on their appearance, that’s how they started life; A few tweaks that lead to bigger alterations, built upon a recipe in my Blondies and Brownies ebook.

Seeking out a slightly fancier presentation, you may have noticed that these bars were in fact cut as rounds. Fun, unique, and eye-catching, I do love the shape, but it creates quite a bit of blondie “waste” in the process. Not to worry, nothing is truly wasted here- Especially if those scraps are used to make…

Caramel-cinnamon ice cream with black gingerbread chunks? Not such a bad consolation prize for the baker, I’d say!

Being only the day after Thanksgiving, it may seem like I’m jumping the gun on holiday gifts here, but this season it’s non-stop holiday madness for me; Hannukah is less than a week away, already! Even if you’re planning ahead for Christmas, the good news is that once baked and sliced, these bars keep beautifully in the freezer for up to 3 months, wrapped in plastic and stored in an air-tight container. So bake your heart out, and leave your wallet at home! Black Friday can be a much tastier affair.

Yield: Makes 12 - 18 Bars

Black Gingerbread Bars

No Ratings

Dark as coal but much sweeter, they're not simple brownies either. Complex and delicately nuanced, this is a gingerbread built for the adventurous eater, looking for something just a bit different from the same old spice blend. Rounded out by rich molasses, these bars are fantastically dense and chewy, like the best blondies should be.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Black Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Instant Coffee Powder
1 Tablespoon Finely Grated Fresh Ginger
1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger
2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Cloves
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon Paprika
Pinch Ground Black Pepper
1 1/2 Cups Chopped Walnuts
1/3 Cup Brown Rice Syrup
1/3 Cup Molasses
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Canola Oil
1/2 Cup Apple Butter
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Crystalized Ginger

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, coffee powder, and spices so that all the dry goods are well mixed. Add in the chopped chopped walnuts, and toss to coat with flour, so that the pieces don’t simply sink to the bottom of your bars.
Separately, mix together the rice syrup, molasses, sugar, oil, apple butter, and vanilla. Pour these wet ingredients into the bowl of dry, and stir just enough to bring everything together. A few errant lumps are just fine; Be sure not to over-mix. The resulting batter will be extremely thick and sticky, to the point of being difficult to mix- Don’t panic! Just make sure you get out any pockets of dry ingredients before proceeding.
Transfer the batter into your prepared pan, and use lightly moistened hands to press it down into one even layer until it reaches all of the corners and sides. Sprinkle the chopped crystalized ginger over the top, and press gently into the unbaked bars with your fingertips.
Bake for 28 – 35 minutes, or until no longer shiny on top, firm around the edges, and highly aromatic. Let cool completely before slicing either into squares, or cutting into rounds with a cookie cutter.

Caramel-Cinnamon Ice Cream with Black Gingerbread Chunks

No Ratings

Creamy cinnamon-scented ice cream is swirled with rich ribbons of gooey caramel and freckled with chunks of chewy gingerbread. It's worth making extra bars to serve this on top!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 5 hours

Total Time 5 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 Cup Full-Fat Coconut Milk
2 Cups Vanilla Vegan Creamer
1 Cup Vegan Caramel Sauce
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Pinch Salt
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Heaping Cup Bite-Sized Black Gingerbread Cubes (See Recipe Above)

Instructions

This ice cream is really easy as can be; Combine the coconut milk and creamer in a medium sauce pan, along with the caramel, cinnamon, salt, and corn starch. Whisk vigorously to combine and beat out any lumps. Turn on the heat to medium, and whisk occasionally until it just comes up to a boil and has thickened significantly. Cool completely and add the vanilla.
Chill thoroughly before churning in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, adding in the gingerbread chunks in the last 5 minutes of churning.
Transfer to an air-tight container, and freeze solidly for at least 4 hours before serving.