Ginger & Spice Cakies

Yes! Cakies - kind of a cookie, kind of a cake...kind of a marriage made in heaven ;-) I was after a very soft cake like cookie with all the flavour of gingerbread and these hit the spot perfectly, especially with a little drizzle of vanilla glaze on them! They are also a great addition to the holiday baking season, now fervently upon us :-) 

I based the recipe on a recipe in my old childhood favourite cookie cook book, Scholastic's "The Cookie Book" - I've referenced it before on the blog, it was purchased about 1983 through my school and I do still use it! If anyone else in Canada remembers this book, do let me know :-)

In the book these were called "Molasses Cookies" and the name must have put me off as I never made them. They were descibed as soft and a quick read of the ingredients indicated this recipe was probably just what I was after, a big soft gingerbread spiced cookie.

Naturally I made a few changes: omitted the egg altogether (and it wasn't missed), omitted the raisins, swapped the molasses for Golden Syrup and added a drizzle of vanilla glaze. Now, I love molasses but I was after a more delicate flavoured cookie here, molasses can sometimes overpower things I find. Plus, I already have a gingerbread recipe I absolutely adore and make every Christmas and didn't want something similar here. 

That being said, I know Golden Syrup is hard to find (if at all) for those in North America so molasses can be used instead. You will end up with a darker cookie with a different taste to these but I have no doubt they will still taste great :-

Ginger & Spice Cakies:

-makes 15 cookies

1/4 cup / 50g vegan butter

1/4 cup / 60g golden caster sugar, granulated is fine too
1/4 cup / 90g Golden Syrup
1/4 cup / 60ml unsweetened soy milk
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cup / 200g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves

Glaze:
1/2 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)
2 - 3 tsp unsweetened dairy free milk (I used almond milk here)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.

Measure out the soy milk and add the vinegar. Give it a stir then set aside to curdle. In another bowl mix together the flour, salt and spices - set aside.

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until well mixed. Add the syrup and mix well. Add the baking soda to the milk and vinegar mixture and give it a stir, it should get a little foamy. Add this to the butter mixture and stir. WARNING: it will look like a disgusting curdled mess at this point but that's fine - it is actually what you are after :-)

Tip in the flour mixture and stir just until there is no more flour showing but do not over mix. You should have a soft dough, slightly more akin to thick cake batter than cookie dough.

Drop by heaped tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, about an inch apart. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for about 12 minutes. They should be lightly golden around the edges but still soft to the touch.

Let cool on the tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Glaze: mix together 2 tsp of the milk and the vanilla with the powdered sugar, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. If it is too thick add a bit more milk - I needed just another 1/8 tsp. You want the glaze thick but "drizzable"- let it fall down from the spoon and if it's falls in ribbons that's about right.

Keep the cookies on the wire rack but place a sheet of baking paper underneath and drizzle the glaze all over the cookies in a back and forth motion. Leave for about an hour for the glaze to set then they are ready!

❤

Nutritional Information: based on 1 cookie out of 15

Calories: 121

Fat: 2.4g

Sat Fat: 0.5g

Protein: 1.5g

Carbs: 23.1g

Sugar: 8.0g

Fibre: 0.4g

Sodium: 72.9mg

You Might Also Like:

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(recipe link in post)

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❤

Hazelnut Espresso Thumbprint Cookies

Well, these are another winning recipe from the latest Canadian Living Holiday Baking Magazine! A coffee flavoured hazelnut cookie filled with hazelnut spread. Absolutely delicious and quite possibly a new favourite cookie for me, yes, they are that good! If you are like me and absolutely LOVE anything coffee and hazelnut flavoured, you will love these. 

The great thing about the recipe is it never called for eggs so besides the obvious use of vegan replacements these didn't need veganizing. As such I didn't change the recipe at all so won't be reprinting it here, just click on the link for the recipe. (I only reprint recipes if I've made substantial changes.)

(Amusing side note - blogger just asked if by "veganizing" I meant "navel-gazing" - that would have been an embarrassing auto-correct!).

The taste and texture of these cookies are just perfect. When I first tried one on it's own I thought it was good but possibly not sweet enough. Then I remembered that the cookie was made to house a little nutella in them so tried it again with some vegan nutella in and Oh.My.Word. Incredible. So yes, they need the nutella ;-) An altogether beautiful cookie.

Hazelnut Espresso Thumbprint Cookies - click for recipe.

Recipe notes:
♥ I swapped the butter with vegan butter, I used Vitalite.
♥ I used blanched hazelnuts and processed them in my food processor until as fine as they would get. They weren't like flour, just really finely chopped. I think this gave the best texture. I was also really lazy and didn't bother roasting them first. I'm sure that would have added even more flavour but just to let you know that if you are feeling lazy too there's no need to roast first ;-)
♥ I used store bought vegan nutella. Here in Ireland Spar's own label Hazelnut spread is "accidentally" vegan. There are other brands out there that do specifically vegan hazelnut spread OR you can make your own, although I haven't tried this you can always trust the recipes at Seitan is my Motor.
♥ Recipe said to use a teaspoon measure for the cookies. I thought these would be too small so used a measured tablespoon instead. Once they baked I thought, oh dear, these really are too big. Then I ate one and changed my mind ;-)
♥ I piped the hazelnut spread in with a star tip and love the way that looks.
♥ If you thinking of giving these as gifts, just keep in mind that the hazelnut spread in there makes these unable to stack or pack really well.

Roll the dough into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. I then used the round end of a knitting needle I have to make the indentation.

Once baked the hole does puff up a bit so make sure you make that indentation quite deep and large.

Wait until they are fully cool before filling with the hazelnut spread.

♥

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Well, it's that time of year again when my mom sends me the latest Canadian Living Holiday Baking magazine special! I love these, as I'm sure you'll know by now if you've read this blog for any length of time as they always have great ideas. I immediately started jotting down recipes I wanted to veganize and these Cinnamon Roll Cookies were first on my list. I've simply replaced the egg with a little plain soy yogurt and of course the butter with vegan butter but mostly made some changes in the method. Namely I've found that giving the dough a little knead after the first chill helps develop the gluten a bit which in turn helps the dough bind together better without the egg.

In the end these cookies are delicious and as you can see, beyond cute! They are small, which may not come across in the pictures here, only about an inch and a half wide, taste almost just like cinnamon rolls and would make great gifts this holiday season as they hold together and pack really well. The texture is lovely, slightly crisp on the outside but soft inside and you can eat these just like a cinnamon roll - by peeling off the layers until you get to the solid middle full of buttery, cinnamony loveliness!

As for the glaze, the recipe called for a cream cheese glaze, which of course would go perfectly with a cinnamon roll cookie. I didn't have any cream cheese when I first made these so just made a basic vanilla glaze, as you see in these pictures, which was perfect. 

The next time I made these I did make up a cream cheese glaze which was delicious BUT it wouldn't really drizzle easily like the first glaze, the cream cheese made it rather gloopy so it was easier to just spread all over the top. Tasted good but then you lose the look of the cinnamon roll, it just looked like a glazed round cookie. 

You could pipe it on but furthermore, the cream cheese glaze never set, and that set, slightly crisp drizzle glaze is essential (I think). So, in the end the cream cheese glaze was a fail so I'm sticking with the regular vanilla glaze for these.

 Cinnamon Roll Cookies

• 80g vegan butter (1/3 cup + 2 tsp)

• 100g brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)

• 1 Tbsp plain soy yogurt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 175g plain flour (1 1/4 cup)

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/8 tsp salt

♥

• 1 Tbsp packed brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp vegan butter

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

♥

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp icing sugar

• 3 tsp soy cream (or any dairy free milk)

• 1/8 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl add the vegan butter, brown sugar, soy yogurt and vanilla and beat well until lighter in colour and somewhat fluffy. In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Add half of this to the butter mixture and beat well until all incorporated then add the rest of the flour to the mixture and beat well. You should have a dough that is slightly crumbly but will squish together.

Pull it all together with your hands and shape into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

After chilling, if you try and roll the dough out now it will crack and split and you'll be cursing my name to high heaven! Flour your work surface and knead it. You must knead it here, not hard like you are making bread, just a gentle knead for about 2 - 3 minutes. You will notice the dough change from rather firm and crackly to a smooth ball. Add more flour as need be to stop it from sticking but don't go overboard, I probably added no more than 1 tablespoon here. 

Keep the surface dusted with flour and roll the dough out to a 30 x 25 cm rectangle. Approximate, you don't have to be overly exact here!

Mix together the brown sugar, vegan butter and cinnamon until you have a paste and spread this over top:

Note: the spread will be thin!

From the long side, carefully roll it up, pinching the long end to seal, roll it a little bit to keep it round and you'll find it has stretched out a bit at this point. I slightly push the ends in to get it back to around 30cm long. It will be VERY soft at this stage, and yes, now you may be cursing my name to high heaven, lol! Carefully transfer it to a sheet of cling film, wrap it up, place it on a long plate or baking sheet and freeze it for 30 minutes to firm up.

Preheat the oven to 190C. Remove the dough from the freezer, unwrap the cling film and slice it in about 1/4" slices. I ended up with 20 cookies from the log. After you slice them, reshape them into circles with your hands as they will squish a little during cutting:

Now bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, rotating the pan once halfway through. They will be lightly golden around the edges and feel fairly firm. 

Leave to cool on the sheet for a minute or so then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool. I just transfer the whole sheet to the wire rack so they don't get rack marks on them.

Once they are fully cool make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar, soy cream or milk and vanilla together until you have a thick yet runny glaze. When you spoon it up it should fall like ribbons back into the bowl. You don't want it too thin or the lines will just run into each other and you'll end up with thinly glazed cookies instead of drizzled. Add more icing sugar and or 'milk' until the consistency is right. Then simply drizzle over the cookies, whilst on the sheet to catch the drips, back and forth until done. You will probably have glaze leftover but it's better to have more than not enough. Leave the glaze to set then enjoy!

♥

Source: Canadian Living Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Nutritional Information: based on 1 cookie out of 20

Calories: 86

Fat: 2.8g

Sat Fat: 0.6g

Carbs: 14.3g

Sugar: 7.5g

Fibre: 0.3g

Sodium: 50mg

Protein: 0.9g

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Shortbread

♥

Lemon Coconut Posset with Golden Cardamom Shortbread

I know what you're thinking....what the hell's posset?!?! I had never heard of it but I saw it in a recent Food and Wine magazine and thought it sounded nice and light, basically lemon curd and cream whipped up, much like a syllabub but without the wine or alcohol factor. I've been wanting to try coconut whipped cream for ages now so this seemed like the perfect dessert to try it with.

FIVE cans of coconut milk later, we got there! Sigh...despite following all online coconut whipped cream tutorials to a 'T' mine just wasn't whipping like in their photos. I used full fat coconut milk, chilled it overnight to separate, scooped out just the thick cream, chilled my mixer bowl and beater but it just wouldn't whip up fully, you certainly couldn't get little whipped peaks like in the photos. 

I eventually determined that it's all down to brands. The first 2 brands both didn't whip really well but I used them to make the posset anyway and it was still really good, just a little more "floppy" than I would have liked. Then I decided to skip out the middle man and use one of those cartons of coconut CREAM you can buy here in the grocery store. I didn't even have to chill it and it whipped up great, held together and gave a perfect texture for the posset. Yay!

The whipped coconut cream is whisked into a homemade citrus curd made with agar. I actually use lemon and orange juice here as I find the orange counters some of the lemony bitterness and simply adds a nice flavour. 

Altogether this is such a light, cool and incredibly creamy dessert, perfect for a light ending, particularly after a curry. It's very zingy and while the coconut flavour is definitely there, it's not overpowering. We all really loved this, including my son.

I decided to add a biscuit to this dessert as I think the change in texture is nice and it kind of finishes off the dessert. I saw this recipe for Golden Cardamom Shortbread in my Canadian Living magazine and thought the flavours would go wonderfully with the lemon-coconut posset. I don't use cardamom much at all, I've only threw in a couple pods into curries so it was all new territory really. 

First, I couldn't find ground cardamom anywhere. A quick search online indicated that it's actually quite expensive so that may be why! Thankfully the pods are cheap, I already had a jar, and I do have a spice grinder, so I made my own. If you have a spice grinder I highly recommend it as this came out so incredibly fragrant and was really very easy.

In the end, I love these biscuits, the cardamom does give them a slightly more exotic taste, like a citrusy spicy ginger which goes wonderfully with the coconut posset, I tend to crumble them on top of the posset as I eat it! That being said, if you don't like cardamom or are unsure about it, simply replace with 1/4 tsp cinnamon or a little ground ginger.

Lemon Coconut Posset

Serves 4 - 6.

• 80ml fresh lemon juice, sieved

• 80ml orange juice, no pulp, I found bottled better here

• 1 Tbsp agar flakes

• 100g (1/2 cup) golden caster sugar

♥

• 250ml carton coconut cream, or the equivalent from chilled cans.

• 1/2 cup icing sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

First make the curd: In a saucepan add the lemon juice, orange juice and sugar. Stir off the heat for a few minutes, just so it's well mixed and the sugar can start to soften. Sprinkle over the agar flakes and let sit for 1 minute. Give it a good stir then turn the heat on and bring to the boil stirring now and again. When it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 3 - 5 minutes, until the sugar and agar have dissolved.

Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool and set, once cool enough place in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Now it should be set but once you give it a good stir it should be like lemon curd in consistency. I have always found at this point that it has little gelatine like balls in it, and who wants little hard bits in their dessert? No one. That's who. So take a fine sieve and push the curd through it to get it nice and smooth. Make sure you scrape any smooth curd clinging to the underside of the sieve when you are done. Now you should have a small bowl of smooth curd, pop it back in the fridge.

If you are using boxed coconut cream simply add the 250 ml carton to a mixer bowl and whip up, adding the icing sugar and vanilla halfway through. If you are chilling cans of coconut milk you will need about 250 ml of cream from the cans, one can should suffice but you may want to chill 2 just in case.

Now take your curd out of the fridge and whisk in about 1/2 cup of the coconut whipped cream until smooth. Now scrape the curd mixture into the coconut whipped cream and whisk really well. Spoon the mixture into serving bowls, whatever you like, I used my martini glasses here and got 3 servings but to be fair, they are a bit big, four servings would a better amount, or even up to 6. I like to pop them back in the fridge to chill and set a little more, although, you can eat them now.

♥

Golden Cardamom Shortbread

• 100g (1/2 cup) vegan butter

• 50g (1/4 cup packed) brown sugar

• 100g (3/4 cup) plain flour

• 2 Tbsp cornstarch

• 2 Tbsp rice flour

• 3/4 tsp freshly ground cardamom or 1/4 tsp cinnamon or ginger.

• granulated sugar

• gold edible dusting lustre - optional

First, if you are grinding your own cardamom it really is very simple. You want to grind just the seeds from inside the pods, I just smashed them with the side of a wide bladed knife and split them open.

Here are the pods on the left with the seeds from inside on the right.

Place the seeds in a spice grinder.

And grind until it is fine in texture, it's really quick :-)

Now, in a small bowl add the flour, cornstarch, rice flour and ground cardamom and whisk well. In a large bowl add the vegan butter and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2 additions, beating well after each addition.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and preheat the oven to a low 150C. Pack the dough into a tablespoon measure then scoop out and roll into a ball. Repeat until all the dough is gone, keeping them on a chopping board or plate.

Now roll each ball into some granulated sugar and place on the baking sheet a little apart from each other. I got my little design here from the bottom of a crystal rose bowl I have:

I just dipped the underside of the rose bowl into the sugar then pressed each cookie giving it the pretty design. A lot of wine glasses have decorative bottoms so you could use that too! 

Now pop them in the preheated oven and back for 30 minutes. Let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

If you like you can dust them with some edible gold lustre, mine's by sugarflair and happened to be vegan, I used a new clean little eyeshadow brush and just dusted a little bit on. To be honest I wouldn't bother doing it again though, it was mostly for the picture ;-) As you can see they are just as nice and sparkly without the E-numbers!

♥

Nutritional Information

Lemon Coconut Posset                                  

(Based on 1 serving out of 4)                                                                                 

Calories: 293                                                                   

Fat: 12.1g                                                                             

Sat Fat: 9.9g                                                                       

Protein: 2.4g                                                                   

Fibre: 0.3g                                                                          

Carbs: 45.3g                                                                       

Sugar: 42.1g                                                                       

Sodium: 2.9mg

Golden Cardamom Shortbread

 (Based on 1 shortbread)

Calories: 92

Fat: 4.4g

Sat Fat: 1g

Protein: 0.9g

Fibre: 0.3g

Carbs: 12g                                                              

Sugar: 3.7g

Sodium: 47.8g

♥

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♥

Merry Christmas Everyone!! (and a festive recipe round up for you)

First, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and fabulous New Year, thank you all for following, for commenting and e-mailing me throughout the year. You're the reason I do all this so thank you muchly!!

I realize this post may be a bit late, but I thought I would do a round up of some of our favourite holiday recipes featured on this blog, some of them from years ago. With the exception of the Nuts n Bolts and White Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread posts below I haven't been doing any 'new' recipes this December, instead I've been making our standard holiday favourites, so, here they are!

Holiday Baking Favourites:

Eggnot Knots

Mint Chocolate Thins

Christmas Cookies

Marzipan Mince Pies with Rummed up Vegan Whipped Cream

Egg Nog - Dairy, Egg, Alcohol and Soy Free! (phew!)

Hot Toddy Cupcakes

Snowball Cake Pops

Holiday Favourites from my Danish Heritage:

Vegan Rullepølse

Vegan Aebleskiver

Features from our Christmas Dinner:

Vegan Tourtiere: - we now always use the puy lentil version

...and here are the recipes for all the 'trimmings' we have, sage and onion stuffing, brussel sprouts and petite pois in lemon hazelnut butter and mushroom and onion gravy.

Chocolate Mousse Dome Cake - I made it Grand Marnier flavoured this year and decorated it like a christmas pud :-) I'll post the cake recipe when I finally perfect it!

Once again I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, that's it for me this year, I'm done my holiday baking and have put the tripod away!  Looking forward to the New Year and blogging new recipes and experiments then, for now, best wishes for the holidays and thanks again for all your support!

Much love,

Deb

♥