Snickerdoodle Cookies {vegan}

I have a friend who loves snickerdoodle cookies. It’s become my mission to find different recipes or variations of snickerdoodle treats (bars, brownies, cakes etc.) to make for him on his birthday.

I have another friend who is mostly vegan and recently had a baby. A few months ago I bought egg replacer (Bob’s Red Mill) to make a vegan cake for her birthday. On the back of the package of egg replacer was a recipe for vegan snickerdoodle cookies. I have long since lost (thrown away) the plastic wrapper that held my egg replacer and contained the recipe I wanted to try. I still have plenty of egg replacer.

So what does my snickerdoodle friend have to do with my vegan friend? Not much, except vegan snickerdoodle cookies were the first vegan cookie recipe I saw and wanted to make. I will tell you that I wasn’t overly thrilled at the idea of making these cookies for Julie. Only because I wanted to try at least one and I was convinced I wouldn’t like them.

While making the cookie dough I, of course, had to taste the dough. The dough convinced me even more that I wouldn’t like these vegan cookies. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a bad cookie dough. Not even oatmeal raisin. And I hate raisins. But this dough was plain terrible. Bitter, almost. Didn’t taste like normal snickerdoodle cookie dough at all. It didn’t even really taste sweet.

After trying the cookie dough I had very low expectations for the actual cookie. But then a funny thing happened. When I took the first pan of cookies out of the oven, they looked exactly like other very delicious looking non-vegan snickerdoodle cookies I’ve previously made. So I let them cool a bit and then bit into one. And kept biting. I ate straight through one cookie and then picked up another. And another. These cookies were nearly perfect and tasted completely non-vegan. In a million years I wouldn’t have picked these cookies as vegan in a line up (or taste test).

A lot of the vegan recipes that I perused on the internet called for Earth Balance butter. I used vegetable shortening. I’m almost positive the recipe on the back of the Bob’s Red Mill packaging called for vegetable shortening. Vegetable shortening, apparently, is a huge no-no amongst serious vegans. Less face it. I’m not even vegan. If you are a serious vegan, you should probably use Earth Balance butter. I will say that I found a website that claims that Crisco vegetable shortening (the kind I used) is absolutely vegan – per Crisco itself. But I’m not here to tell you what kind of non-butter substance to use in your cookies. I’m just telling you what I used.

ingredients.

1 c. Crisco vegetable shortening (or butter substitute)
1 1/2 heaping c. sugar
1 T. egg replacer (powder) plus 4 to 5 T. warm water, combined)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
approximately 3 c. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 T. sugar
3 T. cinnamon

directions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix shortening, sugar, vanilla and egg replacer together at medium speed. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. If you find that your dough is dry and will not stick together just add a little bit of water until it resembles normal cookie dough. I know this sounds terribly gross but it works. You could probably add some non-dairy milk instead of the water, but I didn’t have any on hand.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
Roll the cookie dough into one-inch balls (mine were the size of a ping-pong ball), then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.
lace on a baking sheet lined with parchment, and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Te cookies will probably look not done after 8 minutes (this seems especially common to me with snickerdoodle cookies). Don’t worry. The cookies will “set” as they cool. If they last that long!

Recipe rating: 