Greetings, friends! This afternoon, Shannon came over to my apartment for our first baking adventure, and it was awesome. In honor of October, we decided that we needed to make cookies for the fall. Utilizing flour, Sugar in the Raw (aka turbinado sugar), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a lot of vanilla, plus some cinnamon apple tea- we improvised our own spiced cinnamon autumn cookies! And they turned out warm and delicious,with a hot cup of tea as the sun set in the fall sky outside. We pressed some of them into my red heart shaped cookie cutter and they baked into warm hearts- and Shannon said the sweetest thing, she carefully scooped it up when it was cooling and she said "I have to be careful, cause I don't wanna break your heart!" Literally, and figuratively. <3
This would probably be a good time to mention, my best friend is just about the cutest thing in the world. From the top of her head to the tips of her canvas sneaker covered toes. And her hugs have magical healing power, true story. This would also be a good time to mention why we made this blog in the first place. We're juniors in college now, but we originally met back in high school. I like to say that she's my OTP, cause we always got each other. And a secret handshake that's half made up as we go along! So anyways, we really like to bake together. I love looking at recipes and getting ideas, we both love to bake. One of our most successful collaborations in the past has been vegan Mexican chocolate snickerdoodles- they were boss, and will most certainly be made again this year.So, I suggested to her that we make a blog about our baking adventures together! And so, here we are. : )
There were also many "that's what she said" comments flying around- all coming from Shannon! I'm personally fond of the line "your mother" these days, but she had great timing on lots of them. Speaking of moms, we also talked about her mom, who is just plain awesome, and definitely one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. We agreed that she's kind of like a ray of sunshine : )
We used two mixing bowls, one for the wet ingredients plus the sugar, and one for the flour, a pinch of salt, and a heaping dash of cinnamon and spices (we're both fans.) After mixing separately, we stirred them together and then put them onto a baking sheet in the 350 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes. I've got matching kitchen towels and oven mitts and potholders, with an adorable blue teapot and flowers print, that we used (and it brightened up the kitchen). And the whole apartment smelled delicious and spiced for a couple hours afterwards....:D
So the basic recipe for our cookies from today would go something like this, approximately:
~Vegan Spiced Autumn Cookies~
- 2 cups flour
- A pinch of salt
-1/2 tsp baking soda (or 2 tsp baking powder)
- 1 cup Sugar in the raw
- 1/4 cup flavored black tea of your choice
- Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves to your taste
-1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
-1 tsp (or more if you wish!) vanilla extract
-Cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top of the dough before putting it in the oven
Vegan baking is doable, fun, and approachable- sometimes you have to get a little creative, but that's just part of the adventure of it all! I wish you a happy and healthy autumn- full of the little joys, like the warm scent of freshly baked cookies in the oven, that make life so beautiful.
xoxo
Shama
