Vegan Cinnamon Snaps

This weekend was cookie overload.

I baked 110 cookies Saturday morning and by the end of the day, I had sampled 7 different cookies and returned home with 7 different cookie dozens. Yes, I went to my first vegan cookie exchange!!

I wanted to keep it a secret, so I could look pretty awesome with 8 different cookies come Christmas, but I already told my mom, so now it can be public knowledge.

Renee was super kind to organize the exchange, rounding up her friends that were agreeable (or brave enough!) to make a ton of vegan cookies to share. For a few, this was their first time baking, nevermind baking vegan cookies. Hourrah!

We had a veritable feast: Isa’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Renee’s Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies, Coconut No Bake Cookies, coffee-infused date squares, Meyer lemon sugar cut-out cookies (I hope Renee shares the recipe, they were delicious), sugar cookies, black/white pinwheel cookies and everything was fantastic.

My contribution were Cinnamon Snaps, which I veganized very easily from my (Not Vegan) Cinnamon Snaps recipe. I wanted to keep a more neutral flavour so I used the Ener-G egg replacer to replace the egg. Otherwise it was already vegan.

I made a tester batch last week and the results were highly enjoyed by my friends. Crunchy and crispy on the outside, speckled with sugar, while being soft and chewy on the inside. They aged very will with a better texture after resting a day and still were excellent a week later, at which point they were gone.

I wanted a more pronounced cinnamon flavour, so I increased the cinnamon in the dough and coating. I think it worked out very well and have included my recipe below.

Not one to typically procrastinate, I opted to make 3 batches of cookies on Saturday morning. I wasn’t sure whether I could double of quadruple the recipe (ie., would it fit in my mixer?) so I made 3 consecutive batches.

In the middle, I ran out of baking soda. Thankfully Rob went to the store at 8am. I also had no time to take photos, so Rob had fun taking some holiday-themed photos with our mini Christmas tree and fireplace.

For now we have rationed the cookies – half in the freezer and half for eating before Christmas. Maybe wouldn’t that just be torture not to be eating them yet? 😉

Have you ever been to a cookie exchange? Did you like it? I loved it. I am already looking forward to next year’s cookie exchange. 🙂

Vegan Cinnamon Snaps
Adapted from my (Not Vegan) Cinnamon Snaps

3/4 cup shortening (Crisco, white)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg equivalent (I used Ener-G egg replacer, whisked well with water as per the package directions)
1/4 cup molasses
2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cane sugar (or other large granule sugar), for rolling
2 tbsp ground cinnamon, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. With a standmixer using its K-bar, cream together the shortening and sugar on medium or high. Scrape down the sides and add the vegan egg and molasses. Cream on medium until evenly mixed. Scrape down the sides.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

4. Slowly add the dry mix to wet, adding approximately 1/3 at a time, in the stand mixer. Mix on low-to-medium, until it is combined together.

5. In a small bowl, place the cane sugar and cinnamon for rolling.

6. Using your hands, roll dough into 1″ balls. Roll into the sugar-cinnamon. You don’t need to cover the bottom part of the cookie.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until set and cracked. Cool on the sheet for a just a few seconds, then transfer immediately (once transportable) to a wire rack to cool.

8. Taste test after they have cooled down. They should be soft and chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. The flavours set nicely overnight.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.