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A friend has asked if I can try to come up with some cookies for her son's birthday that at least look like things other kids have at their parties, because with his egg, dairy and nut allergies, he never gets a regular old birthday cake.  I have been looking at various recipes and usually like Lila Loa's vanilla sugar cookie recipe because it doesn't spread.  Was planning to use that recipe and substitute vegan margarine for the butter, but am not sure about what to substitute for the eggs.  Suggestions I've been given are soy flour and also apple sauce.  From what I have read, what one uses to substitute should be based on the purpose of the egg in the original recipe, but I am not sure whether the egg is for moisture or something else in this recipe.  Anyone have any insight about substitutions or a recipe that has already been tried that I could use?  Also, I have never used vegan margarine, so I wonder if it will cause them to spread or make other changes I'm not thinking of.

 

I typically use Royal Icing, but will be doing a glaze, using water instead of milk (have done that before with no problems) and plan to do a baseball themed set for him.  All suggestions and help are most welcomed.  Thanks!

Last edited by Julia M. Usher
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Thankyou for including this.  Both of my grandchildren have special needs in each class. One has to be dairy free.  One has to be peanut free. one has to be egg free.  A universal recipe is great.  For the egg I use powder meringue and juice instead of milk.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!  I never thought of using juice, which I would assume also lends a nice flavor.

Thank you for including this.  Both of my grandchildren have special needs in each class. One has to be dairy free.  One has to be peanut free. one has to be egg free.  A universal recipe is great.  For the egg I use powder meringue and juice instead of milk.

 

Whole egg can serve a couple of purposes in cookies: to moisten and tenderize (the yolks do the latter, as the protein in unwhipped whites tends to cause things to set faster/be firmer on baking). Check the melting point of any vegan fat substitutes that you use. Some, like coconut oil, have lower melting points than even butter and can cause more spreading depending on the ratio of fat to dry ingredients in the original recipe. Others don't.

 

I did a coconut oil substitution recently in my recipe, and I suppose because of the relatively high ratio of flour to fat in my recipe, I experienced no more spreading with coconut oil than with the butter in it, despite the lower melting point of the former. But there was a definite coconut taste to the end product, of course.

 

Best thing is to experiment unless someone has a tried and true vegan recipe (I don't), as it's very hard to tell what will happen to any given recipe when substitutions are made without knowing the composition and key ratios of certain ingredients in the original recipe.

Thank you so much for your experience and insight.   I need to start experimenting now because I really want these to work out well.  I'll follow up with my results - good and bad.

Whole egg can serve a couple of purposes in cookies: to moisten and tenderize (the yolks do the latter, as the protein in unwhipped whites tends to cause things to set faster/be firmer on baking). Check the melting point of any vegan fat substitutes that you use. Some, like coconut oil, have lower melting points than even butter and can cause more spreading depending on the ratio of fat to dry ingredients in the original recipe. Others don't.

 

I did a coconut oil substitution recently in my recipe, and I suppose because of the relatively high ratio of flour to fat in my recipe, I experienced no more spreading with coconut oil than with the butter in it, despite the lower melting point of the former. But there was a definite coconut taste to the end product, of course.

 

Best thing is to experiment unless someone has a tried and true vegan recipe (I don't), as it's very hard to tell what will happen to any given recipe when substitutions are made without knowing the composition and key ratios of certain ingredients in the original recipe.

I ended up substituting 1/4 cup applesauce + 1/2 tsp baking powder per egg.  I also did use the vegan margarine.  The consistency was a little scarey while mixing, but came together nicely with the addition of flour.  I ended up adding an extra cup of flour to get the consistency just right (total of 5 cups) and then did lightly flour the waxed paper for rolling out and cutting them.  I was still a bit worried about spreading, so I put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking for 8 minutes at 350' and had no spreading at all.  For a cookie with all of these constraints, they turned out quite tasty.

Originally Posted by Julia M. Usher:

b, Can you post the whole recipe here? I'm sure people would be interested in seeing it.

 

Sure!  Don't know why that didn't occur to me to start with!  lol

 

  • 1 cup slightly softened vegan buttery sticks (2 sticks)
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
  • 1/2 cup applesauce + 1tsp baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 5 cups of flour (or to correct consistency)

 Cream buttery sticks and sugars together. Mix in apple sauce/baking powder mixture (will look very scary until you begin to add flour). Add in vanilla, salt and baking powder.  Add flour one cup at a time. (I actually added the last cup 1/4 cup at a time until I achieved the correct consistency.)  Roll out and cut on very lightly floured wax paper or parchment. Not sure if this step is necessary, but I then put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes before baking at 350 for 8-9 minutes.  (The original form of this recipe came from Lila Loa and is called Vanilla 2.0.  The substitutions and adjustments I made to the recipe were vegan margarine, apple sauce + baking powder and an additional cup of flour.)

 

I have detailed my experience with it on my little piece of the internet, which can be found here:  http://achicknbiscuits.blogspo...-and-dairy-free.html.  (Julia - if it is not appropriate for me to post that link, please feel free to edit this post to remove it or tell me to do so.)

Here is a recipe I use (it uses pumpkin instead of applesauce with great results).  I have used it a while so cannot recall where I found it.  It is a great substitute.

GLUTEN FREE SUGAR COOKIES (VEGAN)

Ingredients
COOKIES
* 1/2 cup (120 g) room temperature coconut oil* (or vegan butter (i.e. Earth Balance), softened)
* 1/2 cup (100 g) organic cane sugar (ensure vegan friendliness)
* 1/4 cup (55 g) organic brown sugar (ensure vegan friendliness)
* 1/4 cup (68 g) pumpkin puree (acts as egg substitute; or sub with unsweetened applesauce with varied results)
* 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or other flavoring
* 1 3/4 cup (259 g) Gluten Free Flour blend (such as King Arthur)
* 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder (for thickening/binding)
* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1-2 tsp dairy-free milk (like unsweetened almond)

 

Here's my recipe for LACTOSE FREE Sugar cookies

Replace the butter in your recipe with an equal amount of Fleischmans Unsalted margarine.  Decrease eggs by 25 %.  Everything else remains the same.

Well, I know you're thinking, that's crazy, how do I tell the chicken to lay a egg that's 25% less?  My recipe calls for 2 large eggs.  I take one egg and crack it into a container, scramble it and take out one quarter of the mixture.

The dough mixes up crumbly, but once you ball it up and refrigerate it, the dough handles just like buttered cookies. 

 

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