Sugar cookies

In our family, sugar cookies are relegated to the Christmas season. It IS July and the heat index has been hovering round about 105 degrees. Now you are probably asking yourself, "what is she doing, baking Christmas cookies in this heat?" My friends, I was celebrating Christmas in July with my two stir crazed offspring. On went the oven. Down plunged the lever on the air conditioning unit. As we watched the Wiggles jiggle through their Yuletide DVD, we rolled, cut, sprinkled, and burned our fingers through several dozen of these tasty little bites. I made the dough the night before to allow for the ingredients to cool properly.

1/4 cup Nasoya Soft Tofu

2 T SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 t almond extract

1 t vanilla

1/8-1/4 t salt (according to your taste)

1 t baking powder

2/3 cup Crisco Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening

2 cups flour

Whip the tofu, coconut milk, sugar, almond and vanilla extracts together until smooth.

Mix salt and baking powder into the creamed mixture until even distributed.

Cut and stir in the flour until a stiff dough is formed.

Chill for several hours. The more chilled the dough is, the easier it is to handle when rolling it out and cutting it.

Roll out on floured surface and cut into desired shapes.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes on un-greased cookie sheets.

Feather-light pancakes

Yes, yes....I know that pancakes are technically not dessert. But fluffy, tender, feather-light pancakes, drizzled with real maple syrup, rival the best desserts. With that in mind, meet the vegan pancake. My first attempts resulted in flat, tough, bitter-tasting chewiness. In the past I had whipped egg whites to fold in gently. When the eggs had to go, I used homemade whipped cream or fresh buttermilk to give my pancakes the lift and lightness that are the earmarks the best of pancakes. Suddenly, I was dairy-less as well. It was during this time I perfected my ability to hit a garbage can across the kitchen with a deft flip of a spatula. The following recipe can be tweaked. I found coconut milk gave the richest taste with the lightest texture. I didn't care for the soy milk results and found the rice milk to be a little lacking in fullness of flavor. I also started with a baking mix, primarily for convenience sake.

1 cup Heart Smart Bisquick mix

2/3 cup SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

a dash of salt

1/2 cup fruit (I used blackberries) - I add the fruit to the pancake once it has been poured in the pan

Preheat a non-stick skillet in a low heat setting (I used "3" on my electric range). Add 1 tsp of earth balance soy free natural buttery spread to the skillet. When the pan is hot enough to make water droplets spatter, you are ready to begin.

Mix the Bisquick, Coconut Milk, applesauce, salt, and vanilla.

Pour batter into the hot skillet.

Press fruit into the top of the pancake immediately after pouring the batter.

Wait until the pancake begins to bubble and the edges of the pancake begin to look solid.

Flip.

Some things I discovered through trial and error....if the pancake is burning before the edges are becoming firm, the heat is too high. Cooking the pancake slowly allows both sides to brown nicely, ensures the middle is cooked, and permit the maximum opportunity for the pancake to rise. Rushing it causes flat, tough, bitter pancakes. Mixing the fruit in with the batter can cause a huge mess and result in clumps of uncooked fruit. Once the pancake has been flipped, gently tap on the center with a finger to feel and hear if the pancake is cooked through.

Why vegan?

My journey for tasty vegan desserts began, not with an attack of conscience, but an allergy diagnosis. Two years ago, I sat in my doctor's office sipping one of those luscious, dairy laden iced coffee drinks. The doctor strode in and, with a smile said, "You might not want to finish that". I am allergic to casein, the protein which composes all that is dairy and delicious. I went home and wept. I am a 34 year old mom of two little ones, with a passion for baking and a fetish for gourmet cheeses that would keep Whole Foods in business. I have a fairly severe allergy to eggs but had managed to tweak my recipes to exclude them. Subtracting milk products from the equation, led to an entirely different set of problems. My hope is, that by sharing solutions as I find them, greater awareness will be created for alternative diets, be they diets of choice and conscience, or diets of necessity.