Yesterday’s post, had me thinking about thumbprint cookies, and how much I want one.
Ok, so I wasn’t able to work some greens into the recipe. So what? I thought I’d make a compromise with myself and try a vegan baked good instead.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
So here’s what happened:
First, I found a recipe (thank you Barefoot Contessa), then I got all sorts of creative, halved it, and veganized it. Or so I thought. The goal was to come up with a coconut crusted, lemon thumbprint cookie. Well, I noticed that the recipe called for an egg-wash to help the coconut stick, and eggs aren’t vegan friendly. No biggie, since the dough itself wasn’t sticky enough to help the coconut adhere on its own, I scrapped it altogether.
Now I thought I was own a roll:
Coconut oil- check
sugar-check
flour-check
vanilla extract (or lemon zest)-check
salt-check
lemon filling-check.
I mixed everything together, minus the lemon filling, and taste tested as I went. Do you know how flippin GOOD coconut oil and sugar is? Yeah, neither did I. Consider me a convert.
Then I stuffed the dough into my cookie press. It was too thick and didn’t work.
On to plan B: slice and bake!
Ok, now I was doing well again. I sliced up the dough, set it on my pan, made a little indent in the middle of each slice, topped them with lemon filling and popped them in the oven.
yum…
While I was waiting, I read the side of the jar of lemon filling:
DAIRY! Major fail. The cookies aren’t vegan anymore, but they are good!
Lemon Drop Cookies (inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
dash of sea salt
1/2 tsp lemon zest
lemon curd for filling (use jam to keep this vegan!)
Directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix coconut oil, sugar, flour, salt and zest together in a medium-sized bowl. If you are doing this with a spoon you may want to soften the coconut oil first. 15-20 seconds in the microwave should do the trick.
Next, roll out tablespoon sized cookies and place on cookie sheet. If you do this immediately after making the dough- and DO NOT refrigerate it- you should be able to roll in coconut flakes. I made the mistake of storing the dough in the refrigerator overnight and it lost a lot of its moisture. It was also impossible to work with.
Now, with the back of a spoon, make a little indent in the top of each cookie and place about a teaspoon of lemon curd in the impression.
Pop the cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes & enjoy.
A Cook's Nook 