The Great Vegan Cookie Swap of 2103 (& Giveaway!)

Some traditions just cannot be skipped. Like Christmas Cookie Swap traditions, for example!

My wonderful pals and I started having vegan cookie swap parties a few years back. Some years we've gone big and invited loads of people... but this year I was feeling much more low-key. My dad is (finally!!) healing and I am resuming my normal routines. All the same, I'm still feeling pretty quiet and I'm in the mood for lots of cozy time with friends. The cookie party was intimate and wonderful... festive, quiet, full of good company and good cheer.

 Last year we started a Very Important Policy for the cookie swap: First you must bring along a very super mega-healthy dinner dish. I made a ginormous pot of minestrone soup (not pictured), and my pals brought along a huge raw kale salad, a huge bowl of red cabbage slaw, and some rice crackers with homemade vegan cheese. So delicious and nutritious. This is important because this way you fill up on really, really healthy and delicious vegetables, and it prevents excessive cookie consumption.

 We didn't actually have that many people come to the party, but we had some very enthusiastic bakers this year (*cough* coldandsleepy! *cough*). Here you see, clockwise from top:
Black Sesame Seed Benne Cakes
Coconut Sugar Cookies with awesome decorations
Gingerbread Tiles (veganized from this recipe)
Gingerbread biscotti (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)
Butterscotch Bars (veganized from Joy of Cooking: so. damned. good)
Chai Spice Snickerdoodles (from Isa Does It)

Also, you can't see them here, but we also had a great batch of
Nutty Caramel Barley Bars (from Whole Grain Vegan Baking)
and Persimmon Blondies

Here you see: (clockwise from top)
Horchata Cookies (from Cheers To Vegan Sweets)
Two different Oatmeal Cookie variations, one with chocolate chips and fresh cranberries, and one with sour cherry preserves in the middle
Kendra's Amazing Fig & Cardamom Cookies - one batch with Cocoa powder, one plain

 After so many months of feeling pretty worried and glum and preoccupied about my sweet dad's health, I am currently experiencing an explosion of joy for life. This extends into an even-more-than-usual Christmas Cheer... So, I made a total of four types of cookies! I probably would have made more if I hadn't run out of time.

Back in September, during VeganMoFo, I bookmarked just about every single traditional German baked good that Mihl blogged about, including this recipe for Marizpan Crescents. I was so happy to make one of her recipes - they turned out Perfect, Yummy & Beautiful! A 100% success. They weren't actually that hard to make, but they look very special, and they taste special too. I'll definitely make these beauties again.

I also used my favorite Joy of Vegan Baking recipe for brownies, but turned them into Peppermint Brownies by adding a 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract (that stuff is potent!) and I used chopped-up Peppermint Chocolate bars instead of plain ol' chocolate chips. These are so delicious!

On the right are some Horchata Cookies from my new copy of Cheers to Vegan Sweets. They are really nice, light cookies, with a bright limey glaze. I can't wait to explore more recipes from this book.

 And of course, I just had to make a batch of my favorite Christmas cookie of all time, Gingerbread Tiles. I found this recipe in Sunset magazine years ago, veganized it, and I've never looked back. They are dense, and chewy, and mega-spicy (they even have a 1/4 tsp black pepper in them!). Oh man, they are so good. (there's a link to the original recipe up above).

super cute pictures of Kendra Instagramming our glorious array of cookies

So, I copied her. Here is the view from above. Amazing!

Now my freezer is all stocked up with yummy treats which should last me for a long, long time. 

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ANNUAL COOKBOOKLETTE GIVEAWAY!

As you know, every year I give away a few of the homemade cookbooklettes I make for holiday presents. They feature recipes I've discovered and fallen in love with that year, and are illustrated with little doodles like you see on the blog. This year I'll give away 15 copies - anywhere in the world! Just leave a comment and tell me something you like about wintertime. Please make sure I can find you (either through a blogger link or leave your email). If you're hard to find, I'll just pick a different winner

P.S. A question for you

I have so many pictures left over from the fall, when I was just too overwhelmed to blog. Would it be weird to blog about Thanksgiving at this point? About my autumn garden harvest? What do you think?