December 2, 2008

Snickerdoodles

I love snickerdoodles. Plain sugar cookies just don’t do it for me, but roll them in a little cinnamon-sugar and I’m sold. (Roll nearly anything in cinnamon sugar and I’m sold.)

This is a cookie that preforms beautifully when veganized. If you have a family recipe you use, I can almost guarantee you that all you need to do is sub Earth Balance Margarine for butter and Ener-g G Egg Replacer for eggs and you’ll be set. Here is a recipe I made after checking out several different snickerdoodle recipes. It’s fast, easy, and pretty near failproof. In fact, stick some ribbon on them and you have an instant holiday gift!

One thing you should know, that I just found out today. The temperature of the cookie dough as it goes in the oven determines the shape and overall look of the cookies. If you want cookies that are pillowy and show a lot of cracks and texture, the dough needs to be pretty cold as it goes into the oven. If you like thinner, more even-looking cookies, let the dough warm up a little before baking.

If the dough is cold, the cookies don’t have much time to warm up and flatten out before the outside of the cookie bakes and prevents further expansion. If it’s already a little warm, the cookies will expand and spread (and flatten) in the first few minutes of cooking. The pictures above are cookies baked when the dough was cold. The photo to the left was made with warmer-dough.

These cookies are a snap if you make them in a stand-mixer, but only take slightly more elbow grease if you’re doing them by hand. And they ship beautifully.

Snickerdoodles
Makes about 18 Cookies

1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Earth Balance
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Prepared Ener-g Egg-Replacer Egg
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/4 tsp Baking Soda

Cinnamon Sugar, for rolling

Cream sugar, Earth Balance, and vanilla extract together. Prepare the Ener-G Egg by following the package instructions (1 1/2 tsp powder whisked with 2 Tbs hot water until foamy), and add it to the Earth Balance and sugar mixture. Whip (or whisk) it all up until it’s light a fluffy, like so:

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Add 2/3 of the dry ingredients to the whipped mixture and whip until combined. Add in the remaining flour and mix by hand. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375º F.

When the dough is chilled, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Using a #40 ice cream scoop, make balls of dough (each ball will be made with 2 Tbs of dough, if you don’t have a #40 scoop). Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar.

Now time to squish them! Using a fork (or whatever you want), squish the dough out into cookie shapes.

Bake at 375º F for 10 minutes for chewy cookies, 12 minutes for crunchy. Remove from oven and let sit for 30 seconds. They’ll be very soft when they come out of the oven, but that’s just fine! Gently remove cookies from the baking sheet and let cool for a few minutes on a wire rack before serving.

These are especially good with soy nog. Just saying.

October 28, 2008

Kaju Katli

My idea for a Halloween post just wasn’t working out. Good thing I have another holiday to cook for.

Happy Diwali!

Diwali is a major Indian holiday, a festival of light. There are lots of tasty dishes people make for Diwali, usually always vegetarian. And like all holidays, there are all sorts of appropriate sweets and desserts you can make. Here’s a really easy one, and you probably have all the ingredients you need already.

I got the idea for this from Saffron Hut, so the base recipe comes from there. I added a pinch of salt to balance the sweet, as well as some cardamom because it’s not only delicious, but traditional.

Kaju Katli (cashew diamonds) is sort of a cross between marzipan and brittle. It has the sweet, chewy-ness of marzipan with the rich, creamy taste of brittle. A lot of times it’s decorated with some edible silver leaf, but I didn’t have any (nor do I have the faintest idea where to get some!). Instead I used cardamom pods, some pretty colored sugar, and a nice anise star.

It’s simple, quick, and delicious. A perfect way to celebrate Diwali, or just try out a new sweet treat!

Kaju Katli
Makes 20-30 Diamonds

1 Cup Cashews, raw and unsalted
4 Cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed (optional)
1 Pinch Salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Water

Grind the cashews into as fine a powder as you can. You can try your coffee grinder; shake it or rap it against the counter to keep the cashews from gumming up the blade. You can also try a blender, a food processor, or a mortar and pestle.

Mix cardamom powder, salt, and cashews together. Heat water and sugar in a pot until boiling. Add cashews and stir well with a rubber spatula. Cook for abut 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. You can tell it’s ready when it a dribble of it on a cool plate forms a soft ball.

Pour out the mixture onto lightly oiled aluminum foil. A lot of directions I read say you should let the mixture cool and then knead until glassy. The rill out to 1/4″ thick and slice into diamonds. I cooked mine a little too long, so it set up firmer than it should have. I just cut it after it cooled (instead of kneading it and rolling it out) and that worked fine, but I think the textured suffered a little.

Store in an airtight container in layers separated by parchment paper.

Have a great Diwali!

And pssst! I’ve won the 2008 VegNews Veggie Award for best blog of 2008! Thank you to everyone who voted for me. You can find me in the November edition of VegNews Magazine. Yippee!