As we get closer to Christmas, I have a stash of cookies (many frozen, except for the meringues), ready to put out or hand out as needed. We had our first unexpected guest with a gift, so we boxed an assortment of cookies and gifted in return. Easy peasy!

We now need to put out some vegan treats, and so I am pulling out the Vegan Shortbread Cookies https://gardenlove.food.blog/2019/11/28/vegan-shortbread-cookies/

and the Vegan Cinnamon Cocoa Date Balls. https://gardenlove.food.blog/2019/10/13/vegan-cinnamon-cocoa-date-balls/

Now I am revisiting some of my cookie recipes and remaking them in Vegan versions. The Butter Pecan recipe tasted just perfectly buttery with Vegan Becel substituted for butter. The Cocoa Sugar Cookies, I altered the ingredients a little bit as we are also leaving out eggs, and I felt they would be better without the baking powder (less of a cakey texture).

Basic Vegan Cookie Ingredients:

1 Cup all purpose flour

1/2 Cup Brown sugar

1/2 Cup Vegan Margarine

1 tsp Vanilla

Pinch of salt

Ingredient Variations:

For Butter Pecan – 1/2 cup pecans chopped with whole pecans for tops of cookies

For Cocoa Sugar – 1/3 cup pure cocoa powder

Granulated Sugar for rolling

Vegan Cookie Instructions:

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

(The Vegan margarine is already softened and easy to blend with the flour, so it’s easy enough to blend all four ingredients together at once.)

Mix margarine, brown sugar, flour and vanilla with beaters.

For Butter Pecan, stir in chopped pecans

For Cocoa Sugar blend in cocoa powder with mixer.

Roll teaspoons of dough into balls.

For Butter Pecan, flatten on prepared cookie sheet.

For Cocoa Sugar, roll dough balls into granulated sugar and then flatten on cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

My meat-eater cookie testers today reported that they preferred the vegan version cookies for both varieties! The Butter Pecan were described as buttery, and both were described as chewy!