Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

After several tries, I think I've found my new go-to chocolate chip cookie. Though I call them oatmeal cookies, they're more like cookies with oats; you could just as well omit them, but I like the texture they add.

Ingredients
2tbsp flax meal plus 1/4c water
1tbsp potato starch (or tapioca starch, or Ener-G egg replacer)

1c vegan butter
3/4c sugar
1/4c pure maple syrup
2tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp molasses

1/2c sorghum flour
1/2c brown rice flour
1c oat flour
3/4tsp xanthum gum
2tsp baking powder
pinch salt

2c gluten free rolled oats
1c chocolate chips (add more or less, depending on your taste)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350. Stir together the flax meal and water in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes. Melt the butter, then stir in the sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and molasses. Add the flax meal mixture and potato starch. Mix together the flours, xanthum gum, baking powder and salt. Add the flour to the butter mixture and stir. Add the rolled oats and chocolate chips and knead with your hands to combine. Scoop the dough in 1tbsp portions onto sprayed or parchment-lined cookie sheets, flatten them with your hands (wetting them helps the dough not stick). Bake them for 8-10 minutes, or until they are slightly brown around the edges.

Pomegranate White Chip Cookies

It's my birthday! So, as a birthday present to everyone, here is one of the first gluten-free cookie recopies I came up with, and also one of my favorites. They're pretty healthy what with quinoa and flaxseed meal, and the coconut flour adds a delicate sweet flavor. These are great for winter when pomegranates are ripest.

Ingredients:
Flour mix (this makes about 4c, and you only need 3; you could always do a quadruple batch to make up the difference!)
1 c brown rice flour
1/2 c almond flour
1/2 c hazelnut flour
1/2 c quinoa flour
1/2 c coconut flour
1/4 c flaxseed meal
1/2 c oat flour
1 tsp xanthum gum
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Other ingredients:
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tbsp EnerG egg replacer
6 tbsp warm water

Add-ins:
1 pomegranate's worth of arils
1 recipe white chocolate chips

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2) Mix all the flours together in a big bowl - as I said, you'll have too much flour, but I'm too lazy to scale it down.
3) Melt the butter. Mix in the sugar and vanilla. Process the egg replacer and warm water in a food processor until foamy, then add to the butter mixture.
4) Add 3 c of the flour mix to the butter, and combine.
5) Scoop a level tbsp of dough into your hand, and press several pieces of white chocolate and five to six pomegranate arils into the ball and fold to combine. This is labor-intensive, but ensures that each cookie has both the mix-ins, and that the cookies don't turn purple from pomegranate juice. Flatten the ball out to about 2in diameter.
6) Bake each batch for 12 minutes, then let them cool for several minutes before transferring them off the cookie sheet. I got a rhythm going where I'd let them cool for about 6 minutes, then make the next batch, so by the time I had a full cookie sheet the one in the oven was done baking. Again, it's labor intensive, but so worth it.

"Yo Dawg" Oreo Cookies

This cookie was born about a month ago when we had extra Oreos that no one wanted to eat. So, naturally, I baked them into something! Since then, everyone who's tried them has pestered me constantly to make them again, and again, and again. These are especially good with mint Oreos.

Equipment: Oven, bowl, spoon, measuring devices, pan.

Ingredients:
1/2 c vegan butter (Earth Balance; or an equal amount of canola oil)
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (optional; throw in some mint extract if baking with mint Oreos)
1/4 c potato starch mixed with 1 c water (equivalent of 8 eggs)
3/4 c cocoa powder (I always use Hershey's special dark)
2 tsp baking soda (or 3 tsp baking powder)
2 c flour
8 double stuf Oreos (the minimum requirement, of course)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a large bowl. Mix in the sugar and extracts. Rigorously mix the potato starch and water with a fork in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture. Add the cocoa powder and baking soda. Finally add the flour and mix until a dough consistency is achieved. Crush up the Oreos; quarter-sized pieces are perfect. Knead them into the dough. Grease a cookie sheet. Form 2 tbsp of dough into a ball, then squash a little. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes; it's hard to tell when the cookies are done, so I'd suggest trying one after 10 minutes to make sure it's been cooked all the way through. Feel free to share these, but be aware that you may gain a few stalkers if you do.

Settlers of Catan Cookies

So, apparently I never put up my FAVORITE vegan sugar cookie recipe! This recipe is adapted from Perfect Vegan Sugar Cookies, and it is one of the few recipes that I don't mess with, because they actually are perfect. They work great in all kinds of shapes, and you can get really fancy with them. Anyways, here's the recipe:

Equipment:
Oven, cookie sheet, large mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons. (For fancy cookies: rolling pin/wine bottle, cookie cutters, lots of little bowls, toothpicks, ziplock bags and scissors).

Ingredients
Cookies:
1c vegan butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs (1 tbsp egg replacer, corn starch or potato starch mixed with 2 tbsp water, or mixed in dry if you're lazy like me.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 one-serving container of coconut yogurt (or soy yogurt, or 1/4 c vegan cream cheese or sour cream)
2 tsp baking powder (or 2 tsp baking soda with a little more corn starch, potoato starch, or egg replacer powder)
4 c flour (an estimate, add as much as you need to get the consistency you want)

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 F. Warm or melt the butter. Mix in the sugar, egg equivalent, and vanilla. Add the yogurt/cream cheese/sour cream and mix until combined. Mix in the baking powder. Add flour two cups at a time, mixing first with a spoon, then kneading with your hands until the dough is pliable, but stays together very well. If you are cutting cookies in shapes, roll out the dough (I use an empty wine bottle for a rolling pin), then use cookie cutters (or a Settlers piece wrapped in foil) to cut the cookies into the right shapes. Cookies can be baked pretty close, since they don't spread, for 10-15 minutes, just until they start turning golden brown on the edges. Let the cookies cool for at least an hour, then prepare the icing.

Icing:
Vegan milk
Corn syrup
Powdered sugar
Flavor extracts (I like almond, but anything will taste good)
Food coloring

Mix together the milk, corn syrup, and powdered sugar until you get a thick icing (you really just have to experiment with proportions, but start with a few cups of powdered sugar, 2 tbsp milk and 1 tbsp corn syrup, then adjust based on how the cookies are coming out.) Add flavor extracts and food coloring. Once cookies are thoroughly cooled, dip them in the icing, then hold them upside down for a few seconds to let the excess drip off, and put them on a covered surface to dry.
For fancy cookies, use plastic bags as icing bags or toothpicks to add details. If you decorate while the icing is still drying, the colors will mix a bit, and the icing will be smooth. If done correctly it can look really cool and professional. If that doesn't work, wait for the icing to dry for at least an hour, then decorate with other colors on top of the dry icing.