Scrumptious Vegan Orange Cranberry Christmas Cookies

‘Tis the season to be baking! And these vegan Christmas cookies are proof that vegans do to have taste buds. With their orange vegan glaze, these cookies are so good that even my boss, a vegan skeptic, asked for the recipe! Enjoy!

• Makes: 24 large cookies-48 bite sized cookies.
• Time Needed: 1 hour

You Will Need

For the Cookies:

• 2 1/4 Cups Flour
• 1 Cup Beet Sugar (or your favorite natural sweetener- try evaporated
  cane juice!)
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar (Just mix molasses with Beet sugar!)
• 1 Cup Soft Soy Butter (or non-dairy margarine.)
• 1 Flax “Egg” or Ener-G Egg Replacer “Egg” (a flax ‘egg’ will add needed omegas to this cookie)
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1 Tsp. Orange Zest
• 2 Tbs. Orange Juice
• 2 Cups Dried Cranberries

For the Glaze:

• 1 Tsp. Orange Zest
• 3 Tbs. Orange Juice
• 1 1/2 Cup Powdered Beet Sugar

Directions :

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix until smooth. Mix in “egg” orange zest and juice. Blend together well.
2. Sift together Flour, salt and baking soda. Add it in thirds. Mix it well. After the first third, add the cranberries. Finish the flour mixture.
3. Measure 1 tablespoon of dough (for bite-sized cookies), and drop it on an un-greased pan. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown. While those are baking, mix up the glaze. Very simply mix together all of the ingredients. When the cookies are done, let cool on a rack for about 7 minutes before frosting. Just dip the cookies in the glaze, or drizzle the glaze oven them. Your choice! Eat and enjoy.

Vegan Halloween Cupcakes

This recipe can be made anytime of year, but with some orange piping gel and some black pipe cleaners, you instantly have fun Halloween vegan cupcakes! Decorate these with kids, you’ll have a blast.

You will Need:

• 3 Cups Flour
• 2 Cups Unrefined Sugar (Beet is good, or use your favorite natural sweetener)
• 6 Tbs. Cocoa Powder (best quality possible)
• 2 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Unsweetened Soy Milk (Almond or Rice work well, too!)
• 3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
• 2 Ener-G ‘Eggs’ (or Flax ‘Eggs’)
• 2 Tsp. Pure Vanilla or Almond Extract

Directions:

1. First step is to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Now we start the batter. This is a very simple dry/wet method. Mix up all the dry ingredients into one bowl and do the same to the wet in another. Blend them together with a mixer for about 3 minutes. Batter is done when smooth.

2. Get out your cupcake pan and just oil the top (so that if the cakes bake over the cups, they won’t stick.) Fill the cup liners about 2/3 the way full. You can fill them more or less depending on how big you like your cupcakes. Place in oven and let bake about 20 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
3. Let them completely cool before you go crazy decorating. This is where I can no longer help you, you must rely on *gasp* your own creativity to do this, my young padawans. Here is what I will tell you, you can never go wrong with lots of different natural food colorings mixed into vanilla vegan icing . Black pipe cleaners (for spider legs), crumbled up chocolate graham crackers (for dirt) or vegan chocolate chips (for eyes, etc). Below is a quick recipe for vegan vanilla frosting.

You will Need:

• 1/2 Cup Non-Dairy or Soy Margarine (Softened)
• 1/4 Cup Soy Milk (Rice or Almond)
• 3 Cups Powdered Sugar (Run your sugar of choice through a food processor with a little cornstarch)
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

It’s best to use an electric mixer (or one of those fancy stand mixers). In a large bowl, cream the margarine and soy milk together. Add about 2 cups of the sugar and continue to whip. When smooth, add the extract and the rest of the sugar. Mix until fluffy.