Recipe Round-Up: The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur

Is there anyone who doesn't like cookies? The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur by Kelly Peloza is full of all sorts of cookie recipes, from the simple to the more complicated, and ranging from the classics to the inventive.

PB&J Thumbprints: Thumbprint cookies are cute and always welcome, but to make them even better add peanut butter! Peanut butter cookie dough and jam are perfect. Kelly suggests raspberry and blueberry jams, my blueberry jam was just too runny, so I only made raspberry. Though I bet strawberry would be super as well, which is my favourite jam for PB&J sandwiches. I got 19 cookies out of this recipe (it says makes 16-20), and needed to cook for another few minutes.
Rating: :)



Chinese Almond Cookies: These are one of the standout recipes of this book for me. They are crunchy yet chewy, and are satisfyingly large. The recipe said it makes 13-15 palm-sized cookies, though I only got 9 cookies, and I have pretty little hands (though maybe I have small wrists and small fingers but freakish palms?). I found the dough a bit dry, so needed to add a few splashes of oat milk to bring it together.
Rating: :D



Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies: Chocolate chip cookies are the comfort food of the cookie world, and this recipe gives a lovely twist with an orange-flavoured dough and satisfying chocolate chunks. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup or about 6oz chocolate chunks, I found that 6oz was a lot more than 3/4 cup. The recipe said it makes 16 cookies, but I got 24. I needed to bake for about 20 minutes instead of 10 to get them firm enough to stay together.
Rating: :)



Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies: These are another outstanding cookie! Lemon poppy seed is one of my favourite flavours of muffin, but it also makes for a great cookie! The lemon flavour here comes entirely from lemon zest, but it really shines through. I first made these cookies for a cookie and DVD day, and they have been requested again since!
Rating: :D



Vanilla Thumbprints: Yes, more thumbprints! These are the classic vanilla cookie, but Kelly suggests going to town with any jam flavour you can think of! I made it with a mix of raspberry, apricot and blueberry (which as you can see, was a bit runny). They look so pretty, like a sparkling jewel box! All the jam flavours were great with it.
Rating: :)



Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies: Gluten-free friends don't have to miss out when I bake-and-bring. I brought these along to a board gaming night, and they were enjoyed by people of all dietary persuasions. This recipe uses a mix of white rice flour, soy flour and cornstarch as the flour base. It was quite a hard dough initially, so I added a few splashes of soy milk. I only ended up using 1/2 cup chocolate chips rather than 3/4 cup, which was plenty.
Rating: :)



Ginger Snaps: These are some great, crunchy, gingery cookies. The recipe said it makes 19 cookies, but I made a half batch and got 19 cookies, so I am not sure how that all worked out. I made these cookies to take along for a christmas bowling gathering, and they were well received!
Rating: :)



Oatmeal Scotchies: Another bake and bring recipe, I took this along to an election night gathering last weekend where they got good reviews. Last year I managed to finally get my hands on four bottles of vegan butterscotch chips, and this was the first time I had used them. I ate a few out of the bottle and holy heck so sweet, turns out I do not really like butterscotch chips! However thankfully when baked into some butterscotch and oat cookie dough the sweetness mellows out.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Valerie and Abbey snuggling together. Valerie is a sweet little adoption kitten, the last left of her litter. Abbey is our beautiful clinic cat, who will be 18 years old in a week and a half. In the past Abbey has loved having a kitten to snuggle with, but it has been quite a while since we have had kittens. They are so sweet together.