DAY SEVEN
What would Christmas be without a little bit of cookie decoration? These bakings are the best occasion to gather with your family or friends (whoever you have access to at the moment) and live your best creative life to let the days pass by quicker in lockdown.
First of all: You will need patience because the cookie dough will have to wait in the fridge for one hour. Since we all have too much time on our hands currently, this probably won’t be a huge problem.
Secondly, you need aquafaba for the royal icing. So chickpea water from the can or from soaking and cooking them afterwards. Just buy a can of chickpeas and you should be fine.
Thirdly, don’t forget it’s not only about the cookies, but it’s also about the whole experience. Spend some quality time with your loved ones, put on some Christmas songs and start decorating. It will be worth it.
Ingredients for the Cookies:
- 170 g vegan butter (soft)
- 170 g refined sugar (or Erythritol if you don’t want to use sugar)
- 2 Tbsp (unsweetened) almond milk or other preferred plant-based milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional, but adds a special taste)
- 270 g flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Ingredients for the Royal Icing:
- 89 ml aquafaba
- 480 gr powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
You will need:
- A baking tray
- Cookie cutters
- Plastic bags or piping bags
- A rolling pin
- Baking paper
Preparing the cookies
- Beat the soft butter with the whisk or mixer for about one minute.
- Add the sugar and beat it for two more minutes.
- After that add the milk, starch, vanilla and almond extract and whisk it again.
- Mix the flour, baking powder and salt separately and sift it before adding it to the dough.
- Add the dry ingredients section by section so it can mix well.
- The mixture should feel like play-dough. If it’s too soft you can add a little bit more flour so it doesn’t spread afterwards.
- Split the dough into two equal parts and roll them out on baking paper. You can use flour to prevent it from sticking. The dough should be about 0.6 cm of height.
- Now you can store both of them in the fridge for one hour and prepare the Royal Icing in the meantime.
Making the Royal Icing
- Mix the aquafaba with a mixer (you can do it with a whisk as well, it’ll only take longer) for about three to four minutes until it becomes foamy
- Add the lemon juice to stabilise the foam and the vanilla extract for flavour
- Sift the powdered sugar and it in sections
- Finally, add in the salt
This is now the base for your icing. It’s usable in various ways. You can split it into different parts and colour it or change the consistency depending on the purpose of usage. Thicker icing is practical to draw outlines and a more liquid mixture helps with filling the decoration after creating the borders on the cookies.
Baking the Cookies
At last, it’s time to pull the cutest cookie cutters out of the depth of your long-forgotten drawer. Make sure to wash the dust of the last year off and prepare a bowl of flour to dip the cutters in before putting them on the dough. This will prevent them from sticking to the mixture. Get the dough out of the fridge and start with the cookie cutting. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 180°C.
Bake the cookies for 8-15 minutes and make sure to rotate the baking tray in the middle to bake all of the them evenly. Let them cool down before decorating afterwards.
Decorating the Cookies
This is the absolute best part of the process. Be creative: Get nuts, seeds, and other edible ingredients to make your cookies even more beautiful. Fill the Royal Icing into piping bags or plastic bags to decorate them more precisely. Finally, relax and enjoy the evening while you let your inner Van Gogh shine. You can even make a competition with your friends and family and vote whose creations are the best. This is how you make eating cookies a fun experience! A great excuse to eat more! Bon Appetit!
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