Why ducks and hearts, you ask? Because those are the only cookie cutters we have. The pink frosting has maraschino cherry flavoring and the yellow has yellow food coloring.
On Friday I had a sudden impending visit from my brother Andrew. I thought, "Oh no, what am I going to feed a 17-year-old boy?" Especially since my brother has always been suspicious of my cooking. (Once I made sugarless jam-filled muffins, and Andrew told me they were gross. Meanwhile he was consuming several of them.) I need not have worried, however. Andrew recently spent nine months as a boarding student at Holden Village, where a kitchen staff provides the village with delicious often-vegetarian/vegan meals and fresh-baked bread. My brother came home with a broader appreciation of foods. For dinner he suggested we have pasta with feta and pesto, and he liked the tempeh I added in.
But enough of my brother's eating habits. I'd already planned to make cookies that day, and Andrew arrived at the apartment just in time for freshly-baked sugar cookies. I enjoyed turning our dining table into a cookie-decorating station for Katie and Andrew: plates of cookies, bowls of frosting, containers of sprinkles. And these sugar cookies will please even a finicky 17-year-old.
Vegan Sugar Cookies
Dough Ingredients
2 3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 Tbs. water
1 Tbs. ground flax seed
1 1/2 c. plus 1 Tbs. sugar or Sucanat*
1 c. vegan margarine, softened
*I always prefer to use Sucanat over white sugar, but it makes the cookies darker.
1. Preheat oven to 325 D. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix water and flax seed in a small bowl.
3. Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
4. Cream sugar and margarine in a bowl with an electric beater. Beat in vanilla, then flax seed. Beat until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat until a soft dough forms.
5. Divide dough into two balls. On a floured surface, roll out one ball to a 1/4-inch thickness. Use cookie cutters for desired shape and put on baking sheet. Repeat with second ball of dough.
6. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Cool ten minutes on the sheets and then let them cool completely on a wire rack.
Frosting Ingredients
3 c. powdered sugar
3 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. vanilla vegan milk (right now I prefer oat milk, lots of calcium)
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract, or 1 tsp. maraschino cherry flavor, or food coloring, or lemon zest and juice, or anything else you think sounds delicious
1. Beat ingredients together. Add more "milk" if it's too thick.
2. Frost cookies! Add sprinkles!
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