I make a lot of things myself. I love to knit, I just recently learned to crochet, and I am attempting to learn to sew (that is not going as well as I might like).
One of my biggest passions is baking. And without trying to sound too pompous or self-congratulatory, I am pretty good at it. I always enjoyed baking- but the discovery of an egg allergy in my son put me in a position where firstly, I needed to make more things myself (egg is in SO many surprising things!), and secondly, a challenge to bake without eggs.
The vegan kitchen has been a huge salvation in this regard! No, I am not vegan (though I still toy with making the conversion- not quite committed to giving up milk, cheese and yogurt- especially since dear son is also allergic to soy) But exploring the vegan kitchen has given me a chance to learn a lot of new things- and the best is, baking without eggs! Yippee!
This cookbook has been a great teaching tool for baking egg free! What I have learned from making these cookies, I have been able to apply to "normal" recipes, to make goodies that are safe for my son to eat.
There are a lot of great recipes in this book! The one I wanted to make the most the instant I saw it were the oreos. I LOVE oreos. Love love love them! The best ones are the double stuff ones. Which I cannot get where I live. Not to mention that oreos are kinda pricey here- AND ridiculously bad for you. Major bummer. (Like the thing you are most concerned about when eating something chocolaty and delicious is how bad it is for you...)
But I only JUST got around to making them for a few reasons. One, looking at the recipe, it looked like it might be somewhat time consuming (I was right- I was busy for pretty much a whole afternoon. Totally worth it though!). But the biggest problem was an ingredient problem. Mainly, that the recipe called for vegetable shortening. Which I cannot find here, anywhere. In the past, I have had no issues just using butter instead (since I am not vegan). But with the filling I thought "well, if I use butter, the filling won't really be the pretty white oreo-type filling!" So I held off.
I got it in my head, though, to make these cookies with the kids during their spring break. It seemed like a great rainy-day activity, so I picked a day that had been forecast to rain most of the day (it didn't). And I did some research. Namely- what the heck is vegetable shortening made out of, anyways?
Turns out, it depends on where its from, but shortening is actually a term for any fat that is solid at room temperature. So lard is also shortening (but, ick! I so was not going to use that!). The good ole American standard Crisco is a mix of soybean and cottonseed oils (I never knew that). Then I saw that a popular brand of shortening in Australia is made from coconut oil. Coconut oil! I can work with that!
So, my non-vegan /vegan cookies. These are not really vegan because I used normal milk instead of non-dairy milk. I subbed the shortening with coconut oil (and, no, it did not taste at all coconutty), and the flour I used whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour (which I generally do with ALL baking, and don't really BUY the white stuff anymore). So, that's it! I need to adjust the baking time next time, as they were on the soft side- but I have noticed that with all the cookies (don't know if its an altitude thing or if its my oven). Definitely must make these again!
