Chewy and Egg-Free

In case you haven't noticed yet, some of my favorite things in cookies include oatmeal, peanut butter, and nuts in general. So, when I stumbled across these Peanut Butter-Oatmeal cookies, I began salivating immediately. Not only do they contain all three of my favorite cookie ingredients, they're also vegan, which is a field of baking that I have been wanting more experience in. Also, I bought a big thing of soy milk and vegan butter to make gb's frosting and now I need to use all of it up as quickly as possible.



I added butterscotch chips to mine because those are my favorite chips, and these cookies were going to be just for me. (Don't worry, I ended up sharing a couple of them.) Unfortunately, the butterscotch was a little more sugary than I remembered and ended up being the lower point of the cookies.



Overall, these cookies were so good. It was my first experience of baking without eggs (with one exception of some brownies), and I was quite impressed. I definitely recommend these if you want a small batch of thick and chewy cookies.



Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 1 dozen large cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate or butterscotch chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; lightly grease two cookies sheets. Stir together the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, peanut butter, sugars, soy milk, and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Stir in chips, if using. The dough should be extremely difficult and moist. Pack a 1/3-cup measuring cup with dough, pop out and roll into a firm ball. Flatten just barely on a prepared cookie sheet, spacing the dough balls well apart.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies have puffed a bit and are lightly-browned. Allow to cool for at least two minutes before moving off the cookie sheet.

Milk-Free Birthday

I have always wanted to make milk-free icing for my boyfriend, but I don't usually make him frosted cakes and thus have never had a chance to do so. However, today is gb's 20th birthday and to celebrate, I made him a yellow cake with Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. Unfortunately, the original recipe was...somewhat off. It called for 1/8 cup of soy milk right off the bat and I just measured it out without questioning it; anyway, it turned out to be way too much and the frosting was much too wet; plus, I was afraid to add more powdered sugar because it was already extremely sweet. Even though the frosting was runny, gb loved it anyway and told everyone about the "awesome birthday cake" that I had made him.



Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Makes enough to frost two-layer cake

1 cup soy margarine, softened
1 to 3 tablespoons or more soy milk, rice milk, or other non-dairy milk of choice
6 cups Veganized Powdered Sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla

Using an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer, place the soy margarine and soy milk, and cream them together. Add half of the sugar, and beat well to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to beat the mixture until light and fluffy.