Cookie Party! & Annual Cookbooklette Giveaway!

a serious array of vegan cookies

This weekend we hosted our annual Vegan Christmas Cookie Swap Party! You know those parties where everyone gets together to swap holiday cookies? And you know how you could never go, because none of the cookies would be vegan except your own? Well, my pals and I have solved that problem -- for years now, we've had a cookie party and it's great fun!

One lesson we learned the hard way is that the cookie party needs to start off with a proper, super-healthy dinner. This ensures that you are comfortably full with yummy, nutritious food before you even approach the cookies. This also ensure that more cookies will make it home (for freezing or re-gifting), and fewer cookies will go straight to your tummy.

I made a gigantic pot of Minestrone Soup. My friend Ms. A brought an absolutely delicious salad of chickpeas, roasted winter squash, sprouts, and garlic-ginger pumpkin seed dressing. That pumpkin seed dressing was totally amazing. And Ms. N brought along a wonderful grain salad with zucchini, chickpeas and preserved lemon - from "Salad Samurai." Without any coordination, this was a great combo of dishes!

 After our big dinner, we sat around and chatted and caught up, and generally relaxed while we digested for a bit. Meanwhile, Mr. VE&T went over and ate a few cookies. Later, when we were finally ready to do some cookie sampling -- we had made our tea and decaf coffee, we had our little cookie plates at the ready -- we headed over to the cookie table to survey our accomplishments.

My friends and I have a nice potluck tradition where we each go around and "introduce" the dishes we brought. So, we were all standing there (politely!) describing the cookies we had made and waiting to sample them. Meanwhile, Mr. VE&T kept reaching in and grabbing cookies and going "mmm!" Ha ha! He's got some serious enthusiasm. At this point, my friend Ms. A whispered to me "you've gotta do a doodle of that!"

~~~

Last year, it was my friend Ms. N who went crazy and made 5 different kinds of cookies. This year, I was that person. What can I say?! I am in full-on Christmas spirit mode this year! So, I'll start with the cookies I made, and then the ones my pals made. Where possible, I'll link to the recipes.

Lebkuchen: German gingerbread-type cookies

This recipe is from Mihl's totally stunning (and free!) new e-book of Christmas recipes, Zuckerguss Zine. Check it out... I mean, really : Stollen Waffles?? I cannot wait to try that recipe.

Marzipan Jam Cookies

Also from Zuckerguss Zine. Oh my gosh, dear reader, these cookies are so delicious and not hard at all to make. Don't they look fancy and amazing? It's a shortbread cookie with a marzipan swirl and a dollop of jam. YUM. I used some plum jam that a friend gave me this summer, and it was great - just a touch tart and a touch sweet. 

Almond & Candied Citrus Spice Cookies

Here is the recipe, also from Seitan is my Motor. Do you remember the candied lime and orange peel I made from "Vegan Food Gifts" last week? Well, I put those babies right to work in these cookies, and OH MY GOD. I think this might be one of my top cookies ever. So good. My pal Ms N took one bite of this cookie and her eyes rolled back in her head and she started swooning and decided to simply leave it at that and not eat any other cookies that night. Seriously, these are magical.

Obviously, I totally groove on Mihl's cookie sensibilities. I have so many more recipes from her blog bookmarked, that I have yet to try.

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

This recipe from My Darling Vegan caught my eye recently and I'm so glad I tried it. The cookies were easy to make, the recipe made a ton of (small) cookies, and they came out perfectly! They've got peppermint extract and crushed candy canes in them for some real peppermint pizzazz. I also added a touch of chocolate extract for extra chocolate power! This recipe is highly recommended.

Angela's Turtle Cookies

I really fell in love with The Oh She Glows Cookbook this year, so when I saw this recipe from Angela Liddon - featured as a guest post on the Keepin It Kind blog, I knew I'd like it. The cookies have dates and pecans and chocolate chips and they are hearty without being heavy - a perfect oatmeal cookie. I even accidentally left out ALL of the maple syrup, and then I thought to myself "this dough seems too dry" and so, fortunately I added a little bit of maple syrup... and the cookies still came out great. What a forgiving recipe! 

By the way, Kristy at Keepin It Kind has a load of great cookie recipes up online, from her virtual
online cookie swap party last year. Check it out!

So, like a crazed cookie elf, I made all those cookies. But happily, my friends made cookies too!

 Chocolate Chip Rosemary Cookies

Maybe you've heard about this surprising and delicious recipe - it's featured in Isa's most recent cookbook "Isa Does It," but you can also find the recipe (and a video!) here. I havn't yet made this recipe myself, so I was super glad that my pal Ms. K brought these. I was so curious about them. I'm a bit of an herb-i-phobe when it comes to sweeties, but I really did like these. I think when I make them, I'll probably reduce the rosemary just a touch, because of my sensibilities, but I was surprised by how much I liked them.

Chocolate Ginger Cookies ~ and ~ Sourdough Peanut Butter Blondies

Ms. K also brought along some delicious Chocolate Ginger Cookies - also from Isa Does It. Such perfect texture and flavor! Apparently they are supposed to have white chocolate chips, but we don't really have those available around here. Plus, is it ever possible to go wrong with regular chocolate chips? I don't think so.

Ms. S brought Sourdough Peanut Butter Blondies. She presented them as a bit of an experiment, but I thought they came out perfectly - a great degree of density and cakiness (not too far in either direction), a great peanutty flavor that wasn't overwhelming, and I loved the big crunch of the roasted peanuts on top.

 Graham Cracker Sandwich Cookies ~ and ~ Linzer Cookies

Boy howdy, aren't these beautiful?? Ms. S also brought these super fancy cookies - two different kinds of Linzer cookies (some with raspberry jam filling and some with chocolate ganache filling), and graham cracker sandwich cookies with chocolate buttercream filling. Ooh la la! Aren't those little teddy bear cut-outs adorable?!

 Chocolate-Dipped Earl Grey Shortbreads

Ms. A brought these shortbreads and they were AMAZING. Perfectly delicate and crumbly, just the right hint of Earl Grey flavor, and the chocolate on just half the cookie was great. I gave my mom and dad a little sampler pack of cookies from this party and my mom was quite smitten with these.

Lime Icebox Cookies

Ms N brought three different treats: first up, these lovely citrusy gems - based on the Grapefruit Icebox Cookies recipe from "Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar." I had recently given her a bunch of limes from our lime tree - and look what she did with them. Yeah! I oughta give her limes more often! As much as I love chocolatey treats, I also have a life-long love of citrusy treats, and I was quite impressed with these.

Chocolate Peppermint Bark

She also brought a sizeable batch of Chocolate Peppermint Bark, much to my delight. I think the chocolate + peppermint combo is truly one of my greatest joys in life. Why is it so magical? Best of all, Mr. VE&T isn't really that into it (fool!), so it just means more for me. Mwahahaha. I think she said this was chocolate, peppermint oil, and crushed candy canes. It was the first thing I nibbled on, because I find it totally irresistible. 

Pecan Pie Truffles

Have you ever tried this recipe from Hannah Kaminsky? It was featured in the NYT a while back and it is totally superb. I've been thinking about this recipe, but hadn't made it since at least last year - and happily Ms N showed up with a cake pan full of them! They are basically balls of pecans, bourbon and brown sugar - rolled in dark chocolate. They are crazy good - crunchy, boozy, and satisfying.

So, as you can see - it was a quite a cookie party! Every single creation was absolutely delicious this year - no duds! Bit by bit, we are all improving our culinary skills - and the cookie party definitely shows that the proof is in the pudding. I've got a freezer full of cookies now. I'll share some with friends and my yoga students, and I'll definitely stash some away for future treats too. I like to have a little supply of sweeties on hand for my moments of need. 

portrait of the artist as a cookie monster

** We have a winner from the "Vegan Food Gifts" giveaway **

Congratulations to comment #27: Jen English!

**You guys. This is so cool. Jen is the person who inspired me to become a vegan, 15 years ago. And she just won this contest fair and square! How awesome is that!? <3 p="">

Annual Cookbooklette Giveaway!

Don't worry, even if you didn't win, I've got another giveaway for you! It's that time of the year when I give away TEN copies of my homemade zine. This contest is open to everyone, everywhere, all around the world! This little zine has recipes that I fell in love with this year (from various cookbooks and websites), along with lots of little cartoon doodles like the ones on my blog.

To Enter: just leave a comment on this post and say some thing about this post, or about cookies, or christmas, or zines or whatever. Also, please make sure you leave your email address or that your profile links to your email address. If I can't easily track you down to notify you, I"ll just move on and pick another winner. I'll pick a winner next Friday, December 19th. Good luck!