Christmas
These vegan cookie recipes sweeten Advent
Vanilla crescents are the classic among Christmas cookies.
© Natasha Breen/Shutterstock.com
Whether it’s the classic from grandma’s kitchen or unusual variants: cookies can easily be made vegan. There are four recipes here.
In the Christmas bakery … you don’t necessarily need ingredients like butter, eggs or milk. Vegan cookies can also create a pre-Christmas mood. And you don’t necessarily have to resort to complicated recipes or unusual ingredients. You don’t have to do without childhood memories either: in many classic recipes, some ingredients can be replaced with a plant-based version. Here you will find inspiration for Christmas cookies without animal products.
The classic: rascals
Ingredients for about 40 biscuits: 300 g spelled or wheat flour, 50 g ground almonds, 80 g sugar, 1 sachet vanilla sugar, 1 tsp lemon zest, 175 g plant-based butter or margarine, 3 tbsp cold water, 100 g vegan jam of your choice, icing sugar for pollination
Preparation: Mix the flour, ground almonds, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl. Stir in the margarine or butter and water and knead until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, making circles, hearts or other shapes as you like. Use a smaller cutter to cut out circles or hearts in the center of half of the cookies. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for eight to ten minutes, then allow to cool. Meanwhile, briefly boil the jam in a saucepan so that it becomes more liquid. Brush the cookies without a hole with jam and place the top part of the cookie on top and fill the hole with jam. Once the jam has set, dust with powdered sugar if you like.
Vanilla crescents like grandma used to make
Ingredients for about 40 pieces: 280 g flour, 70 g sugar, 100 g ground almonds, 1 vanilla bean, 200 g vegetable butter, 1 packet vanilla sugar, 2 tbsp icing sugar
Preparation: Mix the flour, sugar, ground almonds and the pulp of the vanilla bean in a bowl. Add the butter in small cubes and knead into a smooth dough. Form the dough into a roll, wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut the roll of dough into slices about 1 cm thick and shape into crescents with your fingers. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the powdered sugar and vanilla in a shallow bowl. Take the vanilla croissants out of the oven and let them cool down a bit, then roll them in the vanilla-sugar mixture. The croissants should still be slightly warm.
Spicy Ginger Cashew Cookies
Ingredients for about 40 pieces: 180 g plant-based butter or margarine, 80 g sugar, 1 teaspoon ginger powder, 80 g cashew butter, 250 g spelled or wheat flour, 1 pinch of salt, 50 g cashew nuts, 50 g candied ginger pieces, 30 g soft apricots
Preparation: Beat the margarine, sugar and ginger powder with a hand mixer until creamy and stir in the cashew butter. Add flour and salt and knead into a homogeneous dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Finely chop the cashew nuts. Form small balls from the dough and roll them in the chopped cashew nuts. Place the balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and use a wooden spoon to make a small indentation in the middle of each ball. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes and then allow to cool. Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, chop the ginger and apricots and process into a smooth paste. Then put the ginger filling in the biscuit molds and let it dry.
Crispy cardamom cookies
Ingredients for about 40 pieces: 3 level tsp cardamom seeds (or ground cardamom), 240 g spelled or wheat flour, 240 g soft wheat semolina, 280 g vegetable butter or margarine, 230 g cane sugar, 20 pistachios
Preparation: Finely grind the cardamom seeds in a mortar. Mix in the flour and semolina and sift into a mixing bowl. Cream the margarine or butter and sugar with a hand mixer and gradually add the flour and semolina mixture while stirring. Let the slightly crumbly dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Form small balls from the dough and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, flattening the balls slightly. Decorate each cookie with half a pistachio and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, then allow to cool.