Many in the WFPB community recommend avoiding holiday baking as a way to dodge all of the processed sugar and junk food around the holiday season. Of course with two little ones (and Santa coming soon) I had to at least make one batch of cookies. While prparing their boxed gingerbread (aka Ninjabread) cookies I got a hankering for some gingerbread myself. It's absolutely my favorite kind of Christmas cookie and I look forward to making them every year. So I set on a mission to find a WFPB version. Unfortunately almost every single WFPB cookie requires a food processor. This is typically because they are based on nuts, nut butters and/or dates which need to be chopped and mixed more powerfully than you can do by hand. Here are several recipes I plan on making once I have a food processor. (A little birdie told me that I may be getting one for Chrismas!) In the mean time I set out to find something that I could make today. A few days ago I splurged and bought a package of date sugar for just such an occasion. Date sugar is basically ground, dehydrated dates and is apparently VERY expensive. I bought an 8oz bag (which is maybe 2 cups total) for $7.50! I also set out to find a substitute for butter. I read that you can use either applesauce or mashed bananas. I already knew how to make a flax "egg." So I Googled "Gingersnaps" because I love their bite and crunch. I picked the first one that popped up - "Grandma's Gingersnaps Recipe" and went with it. I followed the recipe, but with my whole food, plant-based substitutions: 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce for the margarine, 2 cups whole -wheat flour and a flax egg. For the sugar I switched out two thirds of it for date sugar. I didn't switch it all out because I was afraid to both ruin the recipe and waste that precious date sugar. I also omitted the salt and put them on a silicone baking sheet. I baked them as
directed. What I got was NOT a spicy, crunchy ginger snap. What I got were fluffy, puffy gingerbread pillows. So delightfully soft and chewy. I had rolled the first batch in sugar as the recipe directed, but found them too sweet. So I left that out with the rest. One of my favorite things about these cookies was how chewy they are in the middle. With a traditionally made cookie, you might worry that it wasn't done enough in the middle. However, as these have no eggs, there's no risk of salmonella, and no worries. My picky 3 year old ate one right up.
My suspicion is that the date sugar, not dissolving, acted more like a powdered sugar which gave these cookies more of a puff. No matter how I intended these to turn out, they really are delicious and I'm pleased that I was able to use my new skills to make a (mostly) WFPB compliant Christmas treat. I think I'll even leave one out for Santa to enjoy. ;)
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