Without a doubt, one of life’s simple pleasures has to be freshly baked cookies along with a glass of fresh, cold milk, and the good news is that vegetarians don’t have to forgo this simple treat!

I’ve already compared substitutions for dairy milk (for drinking and baking) in an earlier blog, so this time I thought I’d share a basic vegan cookie recipe that you can use to make cookies of any kind.

I use this basic cookie recipe to make my cookies and then add anything I fancy to the mixture.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to cookie making; you can add nuts, spices, carob or chocolate chips, fruit, dried fruit, veg, oatmeal, grains, nut butters or seeds in any combination. It’s entirely up to you!

Delicious cookie combinations I’m enjoying at the moment include spiced oatmeal with cranberries, cornflakes with cashew nuts and lemon with poppy seeds.

Basic cookie recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup flour (plain white, wholemeal or wholegrain)

½ cup vegan sugar

½ cup vegan butter or spread

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

To make:

1. Blend the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light in texture using an electric whisk, or by hand using a spatula.
2. Add the vanilla extract, flour and baking powder and blend to form the cookie dough.
3. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour (I sometimes leave it overnight).
4. Before making your cookies, pre-heat your oven to 175c/345f.
5. Break off bits of cookie dough and shape into small balls. Place the balls onto a lined baking sheet, making sure you leave plenty of space between each ball so that when the cookies spread, they don’t blend together.
6. Bake the cookies for 10 – 20 minutes; the exact length of time will depend on your oven.
7. Remove cookies from the baking sheet and leave to cool on a wire rack.

If you’re looking for some more cookie inspiration, then check out this link and please feel free to share your ideas for cookie recipes with me here.