Be My Vegan Valentine

Some mornings I swear I wake up with super energy powers. Like the first morning that started this whole vegan thing when I woke up at 9am after the New Years Eve party, went to the store, and made amazing vegan pancakes. This morning was one of those mornings. For some reason I got this idea lying in bed and just had to wake up and do it right away. So I made my coffee and made Vegan Valentines Cookies!
Here is a link to the SUPER EASY recipe for vegan sugar cookies that I used:

(I'm going to pause here for a side note- The internet is your friend as a vegan on the path of cheap and simple. Use it. Google searching things like "easy vegan recipes" "simple vegan sugar cookies" " is ___ vegan?" and using the website www.supercook.com to input ingredients you already have on hand to find recipes is super quick and easy and it is like having a vegan guide with you at all times.)

Anyway, back to cookies, here is the link:

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6394.0

Ingredients:

I picked this one because I have all of the ingredients in the house and because I thought maple syrup in the batter sounded awesome and because it does not call for soy milk. (I am trying not to use substitutes- a)because they're expensive, and b)because to me it kind of defeats part of the purpose of being vegan.) I followed the recipe exactly EXCEPT I only used about a little less than 1/3 cup of oil, and added a drizzle of water to the mixture when I was forming it into a dough, after combining the wet and dry ingredients. I will also note that I sifted my flour. Maybe it's because my grandmother always does that, it makes it nice to mix thoroughly.  And I used almost a whole banana instead of egg. I am absolutely LOVING using bananas in place of eggs in recipes. It depends on the size of the banana as to how much to use. I read in one place that 1 egg=1 banana, then I read in another place that 1 egg=half a banana. So I used about 2/3 of a banana. Just make sure you mash it up really well- no chunky dough! I didn't use my hands to form the dough into a big ball because I feel like too much dough gets wasted sticking to my hands. Mixing it up with a fork made it form into a nice ball of dough just fine. Also, I don't trust recipes that say not to grease the tray, so I sprayed non-stick cooking spray on the cookie pan. I don't want my cookies to stick!!

Rolling the dough balls in the mixture of cinnamon and sugar was fun. Make pretty small balls, because when you flatten them on the cookie tray they are pretty big. This would be much easier if you have a heart shaped cookie cutter. I don't so I shaped them with knives. They come out looking cool and marble-y because of the cinnamon. The first go-round I put the cookies really spread out on the tray because I wasn't sure if they would spread/flatten more on the tray while in the oven and I didn't want them to run into each other. But it turns out that they basically stay perfectly just as you shape them on the tray, so on the first tray I fit about 8 and on the second tray I fit about 13.5 (I had a little baby heart). Make sure to flatten them or they will be too doughy and less cookie-ish.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. The recipe says 7 minutes, but again, my grandmother always bakes her cookies for 8 minutes, and they came out perfect.

So here's where it gets fun. Leave them on the tray for a few minutes to let them bake a tiny bit more. Then put them on a plate and LET THEM COOL! After they cool, ice them! I used Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Vanilla Icing. (Yes, it's vegan. Snobby vegans will say it's not vegan because it is processed and bad for you and junk food vegan. But by my definition for my purposes of being vegan it is vegan because it includes absolutely no dairy. I read up online a lot on these matters before I eat or cook with something. So set your own standards and stick to them, that is what is most important. I'm not saying it's healthy- vegan does not mean healthy necessarily, although it tends to make you have a healthier lifestyle. They're vegan cookies, but they're still COOKIES!)

Final step- thinly slice strawberries and shape into hearts and put on cookies. I also sprinkled a little bit of the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture on the icing before putting on the strawberries. Waste not! I threw the little bits that I cut off of the strawberries to form them into hearts into a strawberry banana smoothie afterward. And here is the glorious final product:

They are delicious! I'm having some friends over tomorrow and I can't wait to spread the love with these treats!!

Happy Lovely Eating!
-Gina