Charlotte and her cousin, Pike spent a cold, December evening all cozy inside making Christmas cookies with Grandma and Grandpa. Flour dusting the kitchen floor (and the kids' hair and clothes!), Charlotte cramming chunks of batter in her mouth at record speed, Pearl the dog licking the table, sugar sprinkles flying through the air, and elbows pushing one another to get to the cookies. Complete chaos! But in the end we had some very happy kids and a delicious batch of peppermint-flavored cookies to show for it! And that's what it's all about!
Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies
- Recipe from the book, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.
Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup margarine, slightly softened (like Earth Balance "butter" sticks)
1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract (you can also use almond, maple or any other flavor)
1/4 cup vanilla soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder and set aside.
In a larger bowl, cream the shortening, margarine and sugar with electric beaters until the mixture gets all soft and fluffy, for at least 4 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure everything mixes in. Now beat in the vanilla and lemon (or other) extracts and the soymilk to combine. Beat in half the flour mixture until moistened, then carefully mix in the remaining flour mixture to form a soft dough.
Divide the dough into two discs about 1 inch thick. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour a large, clean work surface. Roll the dough to a 3/8in. thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. If the dough seems too stiff to roll or cracks too much, let it rest at room temperature for 10min, then try rolling again.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have just started to turn golden brown around the edges.
Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for five minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutters.
Peppermint-flavored Icing:
- from Vegetarian Times
3 cups confectioners' sugar
3 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. vanilla soymilk
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
Mix all together and decorate with sparkling sugar or sprinkles.
I especially liked the peppermint extract in the icing-- it really gave the cookies a seasonal flavor. They tasted like candy cane cookies!