Fegan Baking

vegan peanut butter blossom cookies

my mom has been baking these almost exclusively at christmastime since she discovered how nomalicious they are! so needless to say, i was stoked and somewhat intimidated to attempt to veganize them

i needn’t have worried; they turned out awesome! shout out to my mom - don’t worry you’ve still got a one-up on oatmeal cookies ;)

VEGAN PEANUT BUTTER BLOSSOM COOKIES

a ton of chocolate pieces
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
3/4 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. applesauce
2 tbsp. almond milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
extra bonus sugar

as far as the chocolate pieces go, the original recipe calls for 48 hershey’s kisses. i have two problems with that:
a.)  i’ll be DAMNED if i’ve ever gotten 48 cookies out of that that recipe that is a LOT of fucking cookies
b.)  hershey’s kisses (even the dark ones - yum) contain milkfat and therefore are NOT vegan-friendly

i used this swanky swagalicious ghirardelli super dark chocolate - no animal products in the ingredients whatsoever, still super delish, and relatively wallet-friendly. i just broke the bars into small pieces, and one bar was plenty. granted, the hershey’s kisses look adorable in the cookies, so if you’re not vegan, i fully support using them!

ANYWHO beat the shortening and peanut butter until well-blended. add the sugars, and beat until fluffy. add the applesauce, almond milk and vanilla; mix well. gradually add the flour, baking soda and salt, mixing with each addition til smooth. carefully roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar. bake 8ish minutes until slightly brown. after removing from the oven, immediately poke a chocolate piece into the middle of each cookie, cracking the edges and giving it that super-yummy look

this veganization was a great success - tastes the same to me! and i’m quite a seasoned cookie-eater you can trust my opinion