Fork and Beans Virtual Advent Calendar
(treats not included)
Excuse me while I get my tissue and blow my nose
as I sing, one last time, my favorite song from the past 2 weeks,
“The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies”:
(I cannot believe today is the last day of cookie making)
Fiiiiiiivvvvveeeee Shortbread Lights!
AND A….
Peanut Butter Delight Coooook-ie!
I jokingly proposed to someone in the comments section
that I was considering doing the 365 days of cookies because I was so sad to see this theme end.
I mean, picture it: A cookie a day!
Oh boy, is my stomach giggling (and expanding) at the thought of that.
Think of how popular I will be among my neighborhood.
The smell of freshly baked cookies pours throughout the streets.
A string of new friends line at my door to meet me…
I would be crowned the Cookie Queen of L.A.
and everywhere I go, people would want my autograph and to take pictures with me and…
Timeout, Cara, you are getting a bit carried away with this scenario.
(((I’m reliving what I wished my high school social life was like))).
On the realistic side, I have been saying since October that I need to lay off the sugar for a bit,
so maybe baking every day wouldn’t be a good idea.
But these sugar cookies–they taste SO GOOD!!!
I swear, no one will ever know it’s gluten free and vegan.
Pinky swear.
They will convince anyone to bake cookies every day for one year.
I limited my intake to a mere 2 3 but it’s only been within the first 4 7 minutes…
I still have some time remaining…
Brooke’s Grammie’s Sugar Cookies
Makes 2 dozen
INGREDIENTS:
- 2/3 c. shortening
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tb tofu, blended (or 1 1/2 tsp Ener-g egg replacer + 3 Tbs warm water)
- 4 tsp hemp milk (my fav non-dairy milk to use in baking)
- 2 c. All Purpose Authentic Foods GF flour
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
DIRECTIONS:
- Thoroughly cream shortening, sugar, peel and vanilla. Add egg replacer and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in milk.
- Sift flour, xanthan, baking powder and salt together. Add into creamed mixture.
- Divide dough in half and chill for 1 hour.
- On lightly floured surface, roll into 1/8″ thick between 2 pieces of wax paper. Cut into desired shapes.
- Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Allow to cool before decorating.
Check out Brooke’s blog for one last glance of her “12 Days of Christmas Cookies”
I have to give that girl a big shout out.
She made all of this possible–she did the hard work 100% of the way,
all I did was convert her recipes as told.
Go and thank that woman for being awesome!
24 comments
mj monaghan says:
Dec 16, 2011
Cara, I have been on high protein, super-low carbs … until I FLEW off the wagon with pumpkin pie, as I posted about around Thanksgiving. I LOVE cookies, and you’re killin’ me with the 12 days thing. Your pictures are absolutely beautiful and I want to eat every one you’ve posted so far. Alas, maybe I will make one of them and splurge one day next week. Love your blog, and I’m not even doing carbs! Now … stop tempting me, hehehe!!!!! ;O
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
How do you think I feel?? I had to eat each batch (well it wasn’t required to eat the entire batch, it just worked out that way) and now I have an outbreak of acne (lovely). Thanks for the wonderful comments! Might I suggest trying the persimmon cookies? At least you will be eating high protein nuts and fruit with your carbs
mj monaghan says:
Dec 16, 2011
Okay, you convinced me. I can do serious damage to a batch of cookies, so persimmon it is.
Cara says:
Dec 17, 2011
That was easy
hehe
Richa@HobbyandMore says:
Dec 16, 2011
all your post are put up so early.. i am just about getting down to editing my pictures from yesterday.. these sugar trees look so pretttyy.. i need to pick up some gf flour to try all these cookies! i can use some of the extra pounds.. but i cant deal with the tooth cavities.. i pic those up like a magnet.. i’ll make mine super low sugar!
you should do 12 days of savory things now! or just dont do anything and have a super cozy time with greg!
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
It’s funny you say that I’m early because today I was 4 hours late compared to my usual. I typically have them done the night before and schedule them to publish in the morning but yesterday I was so busy, I missed the sun so I had to wait till this morning for it to rise again. 12 Days of Savory? Ooooohhh, I like that! I have trying to come up with a few more cute ideas before Christmas but I am blank! I have sugar-fried my brain.
Do try the Authentic Foods Flour–so far, it is my favorite in terms of consistency and similarities to regular flour. It’s lovely!
Jacqui says:
Dec 16, 2011
These are beautiful! I do believe this is the recipe we will be using for the cookies we are taking to Christmas dinner! I did sugar cookies with my daughter and niece (both three years old) yesterday, and while they were vegan, they weren’t gluten free. But they ate most of them.. and most of the frosting, just not together! They were quite the quality testers!
So, now I have to make more this week.. so I am going to give this recipe a go! Thank you so much for doing this 12 days of cookies! I am going to decide on one other recipe to make.. I just don’t know which one. Which one would you recommend if you had to narrow it to one? Not to put you on the spot or anything..
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
It’s a close tie between the Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares and the Persimmon Cookies. My gut is going with the Persimmons because they are just heavenly. So are the PB Squares! But the persimmons are…hey, same with the PB… aaaaahhhhhh!
Laurel says:
Dec 16, 2011
“Oh sugar, honey, honey, you are my candy girl and I can’t stop loving you.” Is that what the band play when you step out your front door? I love sugar cookies! Or, well I used to love sugar cookies and that tender, sugary goodness. Yours look so pretty (per usual). I wouldn’t have thought of using both frosting AND sprinkles. Perfect, especially for that tree. Well, I took a leaf from your book. I’ve got an experimental batch of New York Times GF, SF, Vegan cookies in my fridge “maturing.” Lucky for me I don’t remember what butter and eggs used to taste like. I hope you and Greg have a splendid, romantic weekend. You could put oatmeal date cookies on his pillow.
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
Romantic. haha. I’m sorry, that word makes me giggle seeing that we are the least romantic people
Cookies that are “maturing”? Is this like the cheese commercials and you are waiting for your cookies to stop telling inappropriate jokes? Now you have caught my curiosity…
Laurel says:
Dec 16, 2011
Absolutely. I didn’t believe it but honest to goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better chocolate chip cookie and I don’t care what anyone says. Now if I could just sell them. My house needs cleaning.
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
Okay, you MUST share this secret with me now!!!
Laurel says:
Dec 17, 2011
According to Jacques Torres letting the cookies age in the refrigerator for 24 to 36 hours allows the grains and the liquids to get fancy with each other and produce some luscious offspring. My neighbor’s eyes popped out when she tasted them. So did my belly when I ate way, way too many which was why I foisted them off on my neighbor and her 4 year old so he could have Christmas cookies too.
Cara says:
Dec 17, 2011
Recipe…NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
CinnamonQuill/GlutenFreeFeed says:
Dec 16, 2011
Ha, how funny that I just got a comment from you on my site…because I’ve been over here on your site for the past several minutes checking out all this cookie action. Trying to choose my weapon for the day…sugar cookies? EGG NOG rounds? It’s proving tastefully difficult. Incredibly impressed. You need to release the 12 days into a little ebook, EH? My head is nodding, is yours?
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
(((Hi friend!!))) Make them all!! Strangely yes, my head is nodding in agreement as well. How did you do that? However, I wish I could take credit for all of these–I just converted them from Brooke’s genius brain. We should get *her* an ebook
Brooke says:
Dec 16, 2011
These look so cute! I’m glad they worked out for you and I’m glad your man is back to share them with you! Thanks for embarking on all this craziness with me!! <3
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
Yeah like he would help me eat any of these. He is the biggest snob when it comes to cookies (ie: he’s not a fan of sugar) But I did make him taste-test an oatmeal date cookie and he ate the whole thing! He said it was really good (you are sitting on gold, my friend).
coldandsleepy says:
Dec 16, 2011
Aw sheesh. How can we be on the last day of Cookiemas already?!
I love these… they’re so cute. The Emperor and I have been talking about how we can’t eat the baked ornaments on our tree because they’re yucky and made out of salt. I wonder if it would totally confuse him to make sugar cookies using the same cookie cutters… hmm…
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
Cookiemas! Love that name so much. You are too clever for your own good (what does that expression mean anyway? Why is it too good for your own good? What is that saying about the person? I don’t get it but I just said it to you)
It sounds like you are in need of making sugar cookies stat! For the Emperor’s sake, of course…
Heather says:
Dec 16, 2011
I swear to you every post of yours I read makes me fall more in love with Fork and Beans (did that sound creepy, sorry if it did, I truly am not a creeper) – and your cookies; boy, could I get myself into alot of trouble if I made 2 dozen of Grammies Sugar Cookies and I probably wouldn’t be able to fit into my pants
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
Have you not been reading my comments to you? I already admitted my obsession so I think we are even in our creepiness. haha.
Get those stretchy pants ready, Heather…
Nora @ Natural Noshing says:
Dec 16, 2011
I am going to miss your cookie posts!!! And your top-notch singing as well!!!
I would totally be lining up at your door for new cookies everyday, I don’t think your mental picture is too far off…might even convInce me to move to LA to just become your neighbor
What a fabulous job you did on your 12 days of cookies! I’ll stop by and say hello to Brooke too!
Although I’m in sugar overload from all the christmas goodie gifts I’ve been making, the sugar cookies still look yummy enough that I’m craving them now!!
Cara says:
Dec 16, 2011
HAHA–my top-notch singing (I’m still chuckling from that one).
If that is all it took to convince you to move to LA well, then, I am just plain mad at myself that I didn’t do it sooner