So, the other day I knew I was invited to a 4th of July party, and I also knew that my friend Jenn was going to be there; Jenn is a karaoke monster and, more importantly for this discussion, vegan. And because America is founded on both a) tolerance and b) carbs, I figured I, a non-vegan, would make some cookies she could enjoy. 

These were … a challenge, quite frankly, but once I got past the crumbliness of the dough, they baked up nicely — they even held up well enough to be emblazoned with the traditional fork-tine cross-hatching that’s marked Peanut-Butter Cookies since Gramma first made them for you.

Baking vegan is a challenge, but I’ve had some experience with gluten-free cooking, and it wasn’t that different — once you understand how food behaves without, say, the long-chain molecule of gluten, you can kinda wrap your head around how it behaves in the absence of animal fats — dryer, less cohesive, less of a ‘oily’ mouthfeel. At the same time, these are full of shortening and peanut butter — no one’s gonna feel like they’re missing anything. When I made these, I split the dough into thirds and did plain, chocolate chip (although not all chocolate chips are vegan — check the label) and salted variations, which in the last two involved either adding what felt like the right amount of chips or sprinkling the cookies with salt before baking. Sure, I cooked vegan in part to get outside of my traditional baking box of animal fats and eggs and so on — but I also got to enjoy Jenn’s smile when she dug in. 

On a less sentimental note, I can’t say enough about parchment paper; if you make cookies, good God, get some. It not only prevents sticking and makes clean-up a snap, it also enables you to significantly reduce turnaroundtime between batches — you can rest the cookie tray on a rack for three minutes when the cookies are done, then gently side the parchment paper off the cookie tray while sliding the tray off the rack. Voila — you can start a new batch while the prior one cools on the rack on the paper. Parchment paper is, like, $3.00 a roll, but in terms of preventing burned cookies sticking to your baking sheets, it’s priceless. 

VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES (taken from Hellyeahitsvegan.com)

¾ c creamy peanut butter (I used Whole Foods brand, in the name of economy)
½ c shortening (again, check the label to be sure it’s vegan)
1¼ c light brown sugar
3 tbsp soy milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp ground flax seeds mixed into 3 tbsp warm water
1¾ c flour (I used bleached whole wheat, which gives a coarser, earthier feel; more conventional flour will give you a  more golden, less rustic cookie) 
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda

1) Preheat oven to 375°. In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, shortening, and brown sugar.

2) Add soy milk, vanilla, and flax mixture and beat well.

3) In a small bowl, sift together flour, salt, and soda.

4) Add dry mixture to wet; mix well. Drop by heaping tablespoons, 2″ apart on an cookie-sheet lined with parchment; the density of my dough meant that my cookies didn’t have much “spread,” and i could put subsequent batches closer than 2”, but you should always do a test batch of any new dough well-spaced out to see what heat does to it. Flatten lengthwise and crosswise with fork tines — if you dip the fork in a glass of warm water between pressings you’ll find the dough sticks to the tines far less.  Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool parchment paper on rack. Store in an airtight container.

Tomorrow: Either Kitchen Tool basics … or your questions, which can be sent to jamesrocchi “at” Gmail.com