Oh Sugar, You’re The Toast Of The Town

February 26 , 2017 by: Amber Trudeau Cookies

As promised from weeks ago, my completely no longer relevant Valentine’s Day post! Look, just get out there and invent a time machine, and we can pretend that I was all on the ball and stuff OK? Great, I’m glad you’re willing to do me a solid on this one 😉 . These are incredibly simple to non-Valentine-ize though (Halloween? Use orange and black sprinkles and maybe use a bit of star anise or orange extract instead of cinnamon and vanilla. Christmas? Mint extract and top with candy cane pieces or red and white sprinkles. Hmmm..in hindsight, I was kind of foolish, I could have saved up this post to use in case of emergency whereby I had no post available for you and just photoshopped those sprinkles to be any other colour. *le sigh*).

Now, I know sugar cookies are kind of considered a basic staple, so you’re likely thinking to yourself “psshhhttt…what is this nonsense Amber? Can you say ho-hum, because these sound so boring that I’m falling asleep halfway through the word “boring”. Not that I won’t still eat them of course, but geez Louise, I thought I knew you. Now hand one of them thar cookies over, so I have something to do with my right hand while my left hand is finger wagging at you. For shame (non-nom-nom), foooorrrrr shame *sad head shake*.

Here’s the skinny though, I have such a tendency to always want to do something a little crazy, a little weird, that sometimes I miss out on your classics entirely. When I started thinking about it, I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever actually made sugar cookies. And I don’t just mean “I’ve never posted a recipe for one on this blog”, I mean in my entire life. Now, that’s just wrong people. Dessert is all about the sugar (health be damned), so a cookie that is literally 50% sugar (in name at least anyway) just seems like something that is blasphemous to have not made prior to now. So, sit back and prepare to be bored apparently because this week, I’m taking you on the wild and wacky ride of the….sugar cookie.

Ok, ok, ok, I promise I’ll fancy-ify them at least a little bit. How do you feel about toasted things? Like toasting part of the flour in this recipe? Yeah, bet you didn’t see that one coming did you? So you can just give it up with your finger wagging now. I was originally thinking about toasting all the flour for the recipe, but after doing a little research and learning that (as I was kind of suspecting), toasting flour does affect how it works (according to this more sciency blog post:

“…exposing flour to direct heat cooks it. This changes the structure of its starch and gluten molecules, and therefore it behaves differently from raw flour; one notable change is that it loses some of its elasticity. Consequently, the primary use Hervé This suggested for roasted flour is in sablés, i.e. cookies with a crumbly, sandy consistency, for which a weak gluten network is desirable.”

So, all that being said, I figured I’d take the risk of toasting half my flour, then cross my fingers and hope for the best. Another delicious delicious variation is that I used brown sugar. I actually did that for two reasons. 1) Brown sugar being moister and a bit more molasses-y, I was hoping it would somewhat correct for the toasted flour potentially creating a more crumbly texture. 2) I super love brown sugar and very very frequently switch out white sugar for brown. It practically looks like caramel already, what’s not to love here?

I absolutely guarantee if you make these cookies, they will make you the toast of the town 😉  (Lawyers note: not actually a guarantee)

Toasted Brown Sugar Cookies

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup vegan butter
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1 egg replacer (I used butterscotch liqueur in place of the  water here just for fun, but you can do whatever you like)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup + 2 tablespoons toasted flour (you can find instructions on how to toast your flour here)
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • sprinkles (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper (or grease).
  2. In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, blend together butter, oil and both sugars until fully combined. Add in egg replacer and vanilla.
  3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, sift together both flours, cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
  4. On low speed, mix dry ingredients into your wet ingredients in a couple of batches and mix until combined.
  5. Using a large cookie scoop (or create a golf ball sized mound) drop the dough onto the lined baking sheet. Put on some sprinkles if desired. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges just start to brown.
  6. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before moving to finish cooling.

0 Comments

Add a comment

About Amber

Amber Profile

Hi, I'm Amber Trudeau.  I bake.... a lot.

I'm also vegan, and found that whenever I went out to a restaurant my dessert choices were limited to sorbet, sorbet, and sorbet.  So I started making my own desserts. I wanted them to taste good though - so my ultimatum was to make delicious desserts that also happen to be dairy-free and egg-free. Every week or so, I challenge myself to try something new.  To recreate some kind of traditional dessert that tastes amazing without using animal products.

Have a challenge for me? Send me a note:

Social

Follow me on: