Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy thanksgiving! I was thinking today about all the things I am thankful for, but I won't bore you with that sentimental post. But one thing I am very thankful for is my beautiful kitty, who is still a healthy, loving purrbot despite her advanced years and the occasional medical scare. I think she's probably pretty thankful that Thanksgiving isn't a holiday that requires a hat.



I am also very thankful to be sharing this holiday with my vegan friends. I made some vegan sugar cookies with some vegan royal icing. I hope they likes 'em! Walter and I have both taste-tested them; I am sure my friends will be thankful if they don't keel over from them!



I found the cookie recipe here (this is a lovely blog which I found by chance!) but I thought their icing looked a little runny and not necessarily a perfect substitute for royal icing so I kept searching and found an on-line forum about vegan icing for a gingerbread house and it seemed a little more promising:

7 cups icing sugar
4 tbsps egg replacement
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
7 tbps water

I added way way more water than this recipe called for...the egg replacement I used calls for 2 tbsp of water for each tsp of replacement and I didn't originally add this as I wasn't sure...I probably ended up adding at least 6 more tbsp water as the icing was like heavy duty cement! It worked pretty well for piping and for flooding. I just iced the cookies this morning and they haven't dried yet so can't compare just yet to "real" royal icing. Walter says the icing tastes funny but I don't think so.

With the cookies, I used Earth balance margarine and some soy cream cheese (not what was called for since I couldn't find that brand). Also, I'm not sure if we have Ener-G in Canada but I found Pane Riso egg replacement instead so I used that. With these substitutions, following this recipe exactly lead to a big crumbly mess. So I added more cream cheese, probably half a cup more. The next time I think I would either use a different vegan margarine with a bit more structure (the Earth Balance was VERY soft) or some more soy cream cheese or soft tofu. It needs more "wet glue". But as with knitting and blocking, putting this dough in the fridge for a couple of hours and then working it somewhat cold helped it get some form so I was able to roll it out and use the cookie cutters.

Overall, a fairly successful attempt, but will need more practice to get the textures/taste right. I also need to do this a bit more in advance so the cookies have time to dry before transportation! Some have been messed up in the moving about which is a shame since it takes so long for me to make them -- especially after the piping course I took yesterday (my hand is still cramped!).

Anyway, we're about to leave for our vegan Thanksgiving - having tofurkey...yum! I know I might be shot down dead for saying this, but I actually prefer tofurkey to turkey!

Happy thanksgiving.