Vegan shortbread (or chocolate chip cookies)

I made some shortbread today and they’re incredibly good, I didn’t think you would be able to make good ones (that are vegan), but this recipe proves that you can. If you can stop yourself from eating the fresh out the oven, they’re best when left to cool. Makes about 18 biscuits.

Ingredients:

250g/8oz vegan margarine
110g/4oz caster sugar
360g/12oz plain flour
Some icing sugar to sprinkle on top

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the vegan margarine and the sugar together until smooth in a medium sized bowl.
3. Stir in the flour (a little bit at a time) to get a smooth paste.
4. Put the dough on to a work surface and gently roll out until it is 1cm/½in thick.
5. Cut into fingers and place onto a baking tray.
6. Poke holes into the fingers then sprinkle with icing sugar and then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
7. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
8. Set aside to cool on a wire rack. Eat and enjoy!

Update: 18/04/2013

I thought I’d experiment with this recipe a bit today and make some shortbread chocolate chip cookies out of it. Not sure which recipe is better, possibly slightly biased towards the cookies because I’m eating them right now, but seriously, they’re both so tasty. Makes about 13 biscuits.

Ingredients:

250g/8oz vegan margarine
110g/4oz caster sugar
360g/12oz plain flour
Some icing sugar to sprinkle on top
200g vegan chocolate

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the vegan margarine and the sugar together until smooth in a medium sized bowl.
3. Stir in the flour (a little bit at a time) to get a smooth paste.
4. Cut the chocolate into small chunks (each square of chocolate into 3 or 4 pieces otherwise it is too difficult to roll them out)
5. Add the chocolate to the bowl and mix it in
6. Take a handful of dough  and shape it into a ball (make sure you have an even number of chocolate chunks in each ball), then put the dough on to a work surface and gently roll out until it is 1cm/½in thick. Place onto a lined baking tray.
7. Poke holes into the cookies and then sprinkle with icing sugar and then chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
8. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
9. Set aside to cool on a wire rack. Eat and enjoy!

Vegan double chocolate cookies

Thanks for the picture ‘simplezest.blogspot.co.uk’

So the last cookies I made were amazing, and I couldn’t help but think that they’d be even more amazing if they were double chocolate cookies (because who doesn’t like more chocolate?) so here they are. These cookies are so tasty, gooey and so good when you bite into a bit that has chocolate melted in it.

Ingredients:

(makes 18 cookies)

280g/8oz vegan margarine

400g/14oz sugar

4 tbsp oil

2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

250g/8.5oz plain flour

65g/2oz unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

300g/10.5oz vegan chocolate (can be dark chocolate, milk chocolate like moo free, or white chocolate and a combination works well too)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar.
3. Stir in the oil, one tbsp at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
4. In another bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, and (with a sieve) gradually stir it into the creamed mixture (large bowl).
5. Break up the chocolate bars into small(ish) chunks, fold the chunks into the mixture.
6. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto a greased baking tray/mold the mixture into cookie shapes and place them onto the tray
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated over.
8. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes, then put them on a wire rack to cool