Everybody loves a good red velvet cake or cupcake. They’re sweet and delicious, and they even have a pretty and unique red colour, which makes them that much better. Topped with cream cheese frosting, and you have an amazing dessert! Well, I decided the only way to make them better was to make red velvet cookies. (Of course I mainly wanted to do this for the cookie dough, that’s besides the point.) I mean, who doesn’t like a delicious red velvet cookie with frosting? So I went to see if I could find myself a recipe in the vast wonderment that is the internet, and I was not disappointed. Now, I always like a challenge, so I decided to take it upon myself to remix this recipe. I am thinking of becoming a vegan, so what better way to explore the vegan world than dabbling in it? That’s right, I went there, Vegan Red Velvet Cookies. Hey who knows if it works, they might even be a bit healthier and a little less guilt free than regular cookies. (I’m still looking for that magic calorie free oven, they’re not easy to come by these days.) I got this recipe from, http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/08/red-velvet-white-chocolate-chip-cookies/ , a very good cooking blog, with lots of good cooking recipes. I don’t take any credit for they’re recipe, I’m just putting a slight twist on it. For any non-vegan people out there here are the original recipe ingredients:
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
3/4 cup white chocolate chips, divided
Now the Vegan rules are that no animal products should be consumed. So no dairy, eggs, or meat products should be in the recipe. So to make the cookies to taste halfway normal, I’ll need to substitute some ingredients for the ones that we need to take out. So back to the internet again! One item I found that can replace eggs in recipes is applesauce, weird right? There are actually unending possibilities for substituting out certain ingredients to make the recipe healthier or to take out ingredients for dietary or cultural needs for example vegans. So for eggs I will substitute 1/4 cups of applesauce per eggs. There are two big substitution options for butter, which comes from cows, so obviously is not considered healthy for vegans. You can use Crisco for an unhealthier option, or canola oil. For this purpose, partly because I’m a chicken and want these to actually taste good, I’ll use the crisco, but either are okay to use. Since chocolate is derived from milk and contains some dairy products, use dark chocolate instead of milk, and you’re good to go. Now time to edit the recipe vegan style:
Vegan Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup Crisco
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
1/4 cups of applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp red food coloring
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips.
Now time for the baking instructions! Yay! These were also taken from the website afore mentioned, the same place where I found the recipe from.
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, whip together butter, sugar and vinegar until pale and fluffy, about 3 – 4 minutes. Mix in egg. Add in vanilla and red food coloring and mix until blended. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combine. Mix in white chocolate chips (note: I mixed in half of the white chocolate chips then set aside the other half to press into the tops of the rolled dough balls so more of them show through when baking…but I just noticed over at Gonna Want Seconds that she just pressed some extra white chocolate chips into the tops of cookies AFTER baking, genius!). Scoop dough out by the heaping tablespoonfuls and shape into balls. Transfer to Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake in preheated oven 9 – 11 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.
Now depending on how much cookie dough you take out (probably a lot if you’re anything like me), you should be able to make about 2 dozen delicious red velvet cookies. Now for the finishing touches just add some cream cheese frosting to put on top of the cookies and you have the perfect delicious dessert. Some ideas for frosting are putting a lot in the middle to make a cookie sandwich or frosting the top. Either way, these will taste amazing. Tell me your thoughts if you decide to make and try these, I like them, but I’d like to know your thoughts too, or if you have anymore recipes you would like to be vegan-ized.
Cooking and Booking 