Vegan Cookies

K threw a cookie party where guests were to bring a batch of cookies for everyone to try. She herself made a few types of cookies to get the party started, one of them being vegan cookies because K is currently on a dairy-free diet. K's baby D is allergic to dairy, in particular allergic to cow's milk protein so this prevents K from having anything with dairy in it. Because of this I decided to also make some dairy-free cookies so she could have other cookie options besides her own to eat. After some internet searching I stumbled upon this recipe which was perfect since the party was during the holiday season. The recipe's animal free ingredients can be seen to the left.

The only ingredients that might be a little different from the norm is the margarine and the yogurt. Since most margarine has dairy in it one must pay attention to the labeling on the margarine. To be safe only buy the ones that are labeled vegan and not just labeled non-dairy. The term "non-dairy" only means less than 0.5% milk by weight (Wikipedia) so it is possible to still have a little bit of dairy in "non-dairy" products. Earth Balance is a good brand to go with. Smart Balance also has a few vegan options.

The other ingredient that you can get a vegan substitute for is yogurt. Vegan yogurts can be made from soy or coconut, found at a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's. But again be careful and look for that "vegan" labeling because even some soy yogurts such as Stonyfield O'Soy grow their cultures in Milk so therefore have trace amounts of milk and can cause an allergic reaction (about their soy yogurt).

The recipe itself is pretty standard. One thing of note is that although it calls for a spritz gun (a cookie gun that presses out cookies with a design), if you don't have one you can just made little cookies by hand like I did. The cookies will look more like whoopie pies instead of looking like cookie sandwiches, but they still taste delicious. Another tip about the recipe is that once the filling is made it should be immediately used to fill the cookies. If you leave it out for a while it gets hard and difficult spread.

Recipe Link: Chocolate Spritz Cookies with Candy Cane Filling