Whether you have a child with a dairy or egg allergy, follow a vegan diet, want to cook a treat for a loved one who's vegan or you're just out of butter or eggs, vegan cookies are surprisingly easy and tasty to make with your kids.
The best part? Since there are no raw eggs, you and the kids can eat the dough!
Here's an assortment of vegan cookies we've made in our house, with links to each recipe (with slide shows of our kids whipping them up!).
- Vegan chocolate chip cookies : These wonderful cookies don't require any special ingredients and are also good with a dash of peppermint for mint chocolate chip cookies.
- Vegan cinnamon oatmeal cookies : Chunky, delicious and healthy, these are perfect for a cold winter's day.
- Sugarplums: Based on just dried fruit, sugar and orange juice, these are nostalgic, healthy and fun!
Want to convert a favorite recipe to vegan? Here's a few tips:
Instead of an egg, substitute:
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed and 3 Tbsp water.
- 1 Tbsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch mixed with 3 Tbsp water
- half of a banana mashed
- Commercial egg replacers (check the label – some contain egg whites)
Instead of butter, substitute:
- Coconut oil (like butter, this is solid at room temperature)
- Vegan margarine (if recipe calls for unsalted butter, reduce the salt in the recipe by half)
- Vegetable oil (use around 25% less oil: 3/4 cup oil = 1 cup butter)
- Half applesauce and half oil (good in bars and chunky cookies like oatmeal raisin)
Obviously, try to match the substitute to the type of cookie. For instance, applesauce or mashed banana will be noticeable in a sugar cookie and a vegan margarine and more traditional egg substitute will work better there. A nice chunky oatmeal cookie will easily mask the same ingredients. Likewise, bland cookies will be better suited to buttery tasting substitutes like margarine, where more flavorful cookies will be great with substitutes like oils and applesauce.
Experiment and have fun!
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