Vegan Verve

Since July is just around the corner its just about the time that you find yourself singing Jingle Bells for no rhyme or reason. Perhaps you think you’ve lost your mind but perhaps it is just that idea of “Christmas In July” floating around in your sub-conscious that comes out to play. Whether you have in fact gone insane or are simply celebrating a false holiday, it could get you craving treats of the real December holiday. Cookies, pies, cinnamon buns, fruit cake….ok well maybe not ALL treats of the holiday, but you crave nonetheless. So in this spirit I decided to try my hand at a new recipe of vegan sugar cookies. Usually I simply veganize my mother’s old recipe but this time I decided to try someone else’s sugar cookie recipe. Whether the recipe was a veganized version or vegan to begin with I do not know. Here is the recipe I borrowed from another blogger:

PERFECT VEGAN SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE (From John & Kristie )
This makes about 36 cookies. To view instructions follow link.

The recipe seemed simple enough and I didn’t have to even think about veganizing it (although veganization is not overly difficult its just nice not to have to do it!). I followed the instructions are per the website, however I had immediate problems. The dough was much too dry to allow for a cohesive dough so I knew it definitely would not be suitable for the necessary rolling out process sugar cookies require. I subsequently had to add about two tablespoons more water and approximately 1-2 tablespoons soymilk. Once it formed a relatively cohesive dough I placed it in the fridge as per instructed.

A couple hours later I took the dough out to soften and then rolled it on a floured surface. I used flower cutters (ok so not so Christmas in July-ish afterall) and then put them in the oven at 350 for about 13 minutes. I rotated them once to ensure even cooking (you never know with the oven I am forced to use, *sigh*). So I took out the cookies and let them cool on a wire rack as you can see in the above photo. However, within minutes time, the cookies went from firm but soft to nearly rock hard.

Now, I must mention that I live in Denver so I am over 5,000 feet which can cause incredible problems and dilemmas when cooking and/or baking and I always make necessary changes. But I would not have been surprised if the cookies had initially come out of the oven harder (due to higher evaporation rates at this elevation). But I suppose it is possible that moisture was drained from the cookies while cooling due to the elevation…..its happened before. However, the dough itself, before my corrections, was much too dry. This often does not occur at this elevation because the majority of the moisture is removed in baking not the mixing of a dough! Therefore I believe this recipe had its flaws from the get-go.

The dough itself (aside from moisture needs) was not quite as sweet as I am used to a sugar cookie dough being. Generally sugar cookie dough is a tad on the bland side but somewhat sweet. This dough needed sweetness and so did the final product (even though I did sprinkle them with sugar prior to baking). So between the moisture and sweetness needs of the dough and the final product becoming hard after a few minutes I would have to say this recipe needs work, at the very least at elevation. I would say it gets 3 stars out of 5.