Postgame Highlights: Super Bowl Snacks

Chocolate Covered Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Footballs

As promised in my last post, I have some pictures of my Super Bowl snacks to share with you.  I make no apologies for my lack of presentation.  The game had already started.  We just wanted to eat it, not move it around to get the best lighting! 

Katie made the hummus, flatbreads, and olive dip, along with some empanadas.  (Those were quite impressive but not vegan so I didn't photograph.)  Brian even put on his apron, dug out the fondu pot, and whipped up a fancy queso dip (also not vegan but I kinda wished it was!).  Oh, and we had some guacamole from Garden Fresh Gourmet, plus both yellow and blue corn tortilla chips.

Everything was really delicious.  I loved the bean dip and the hummus and flatbreads were amazing.  Oh, and those football cookies?  YUM!! 

Hummus

Whole-wheat flatbreads

Creamy Kalamata Spread from Veganomicon

Fresh veggies for dipping

Black Bean Chili Dip (with tortilla chips for dipping)

Want the recipes?

Hummus and Whole-Wheat Flatbreads

Black Bean Chili Dip

Chocolate Covered Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Footballs 

(I cheated and used a tube of store-bought decorator gel - shhh!)

How was your Super Bowl party?

Christmas Sugar Cookies

 

Sugar cookies have been a tradition in my family for generations.  Not only at Christmas but certainly that is the most popular time of year to bake them.  There are so many cute cookie cutters out there that I've started to make them more often throughout the year so now I usually do Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.  

For a long time I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  When I became vegan I continued to use it and simply replaced the egg with Ener-G.  The cookies still turned out well but somewhere along the line the dough started to give me trouble.  It just started to get harder and harder to work with so I went in search of a new recipe.

I tried Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking a couple of times but the texture wasn't quite right for me.  Then I came across a recipe online entitled "Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies."  I'm hesitant about any recipe that has "perfect" in the title but these cookies actually are perfect.  They are really easy to make, the dough comes together nicely, and texture is just as sugar cookie dough ought to be.  It rolls out well and comes back together to re-roll as needed.  And they taste delicious!

The finished cookies do have what is - in my opinion - the perfect sugar cookie texture.  They are thick and soft; almost underdone but not quite.  I am not a fan of icing on my cookies so I always sprinkle them with colored sugar before baking instead of icing them after.  CORRECTION: Brian decorates them with colored sugar before baking.  That's his job.  I can't take the credit for those beautifully-decorated bells and wreaths!

Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies
(recipe by john&kristie, modified by Amanda)

Ingredients:

1 cup non-dairy margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

Colored sugar for decorating

Directions:

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with an electric hand mixer), beat together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.  Add the Ener-G, water, and vanilla and beat for another 30 seconds.

2. Gradually add the flour and baking powder.  Add the Tofutti and beat all ingredients are combined and you have a smooth dough.  (If you didn't measure your ingredients carefully and the dough seems too dry, add a bit of water - one tbsp. at a time - to get the right consistency.  Conversely, if the dough seems too sticky, add a bit of flour - one tbsp. at a time - until it forms a smooth ball.)

3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.

4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Remove one half of the dough from the refrigerator. 

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.  Place 1 inch apart on baking sheets.  Decorate with colored sugar.

6. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until bottoms and edges just start to get light brown.  Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks.  Store in airtight container.

Makes 36 cookies.

What's your perfect sugar cookie?  Thick and soft?  Thin and crisp?  Sprinkled with sugar or iced?

Vanilla-Chai Snowflake Cookies

What's better than tea and cookies?  How about tea in your cookies?  I found this recipe for Vanilla-Chai cookies in The Detroit Free Press a few years and they quickly became one of my favorites.  They are more elegant and grown-up than the usual sugar cookies and gingerbread men and really stand out among the traditional favorites.  The original recipe uses a cookie press but after breaking two of those in one year, I've decided it's easier to roll them out.  If you want to go with the press, you only need to chill them for 30 minutes and may need to add a few minutes onto the baking time. 

Vanilla-Chai Snowflakes
(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1 cup Earth Balance margarine
½ cup sugar
Contents of 3 chai tea bags
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 1 egg
3 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

2. In an electric mixing bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer), on medium speed, cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Mix in the chai tea, Ener-G, and vanilla extract.  Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour.

3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap.  Chill the dough for at least two hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees 15 minutes before baking.  Roll out the dough to about ½-inch thickness and use a snowflake cutter (or whatever shape you desire) to cut out the cookies.  Place on a non-stick baking sheet and bake just until golden, rotating sheets halfway through, about 8-10 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes.

Lemon Vanilla Icing

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp. non-dairy milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1. Whisk ingredients together in a medium bowl.

2. Dip the surface of the still-warm cookie into the icing and place on wire rack.  Cool completely and let icing set.  Store these in airtight containers between layers of parchment or wax paper for 1 week.

Recipe courtesy of Detroit Free Press.  Adapted from Martha Stewart Holiday 2008 magazine.  Veganized by me.

Crazy for Christmas Cookies

This is a basket we put together to take to Christmas dinner.  
(photo by Brian)

Brian and I always do a lot of holiday baking.  We love to make a variety of cookies and chocolates and then give them away as gifts, take to parties, etc.  Since I went vegan, I’ve only made 2-3 of our cookies animal-free for selfish reasons.  If they weren’t vegan, I couldn’t eat them.  So long temptation, right?  This year I decided to be a more conscious baker and make almost all* the cookies vegan.  The result?  DELICIOUS cookies . . . but a LOT of them!  I just can’t help myself around cookies.  It’s like I grow shaggy blue fur, my eyes get big and googly, and I can only think about one thing – COOKIES!  Even hiding them in the spare bedroom behind a closed door didn't deter me.  If there are vegan cookies I will find them!

By now the cookies have been all eaten . . . mostly by me.  BUT it’s a new year.  Vacation is over and it’s back to the usual routine, which means I’ll be back on a regular eating and working out schedule.  After several gallons of water, lots of raw fruits and vegetables, my trusty Yogi Detox Tea, and a few good sweat sessions, I’ll awake from my sugar- and carbohydrate-induced coma and finally feel like myself again (fingers crossed!).  Thankfully Christmas only comes once a year, right? 

I’ll be posting some of these recipes in the future but for now here’s our 2010 cookie list:

• Gingerbread Cookies – The Joy of Vegan Baking
• Sugar Cookies - Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (veganized)
• Coconut Macaroons
• Truffles
• Five-Minute Coconut Fudge (crystallized ginger variation)
• Scottish Shortbread
• Vanilla-Chai Snowflake Cookies
• Ritz Cracker Thin Mints
• Candy Cane Cookies
• Chocolate Mint Balls

* Brian is always solely responsible for 2 cookies – the Scottish shortbread and coconut macaroons.  While both shortbread and macaroons can and have been made vegan, these particular recipes would not be the same if veganized.  I will, however, be searching for the closest possible vegan replacement…

What are your favorite holiday cookies to bake or eat?