This year I decided to give myself a culinary challenge! Converting all of my favorite holiday cookie recipes into healthy, vegan, organic versions, while keeping them delicious!! The first one I converted, Italian Soft Cookies, is a favorite family recipe. Everyone LOVED them!! AND they loved the fact they are healthy, organic, and vegan. Even though they are a holiday cookie, they can be made ANY TIME of the year!! Enjoy!!

Organic Vegan Italian Soft Cookies

1 cup vegan butter, softened, room temperature

1 cup organic sugar

4 flax “eggs”*

1 cup organic coconut milk, unsweetened

1 tsp. organic vanilla extract

1 tsp. organic almond extract or organic lemon extract or orange extract

6 heaping tsp. organic baking powder

4-5 cups flour – A mixture of organic brown rice flour, organic quinoa flour and organic unbleached white flour. (You can experiment with different rations and flours.)

Flax “egg” = 1 tbsp. organic ground flax meal + 3 tbsp. water, mix until well blended.

Cream together sugar, eggs, and butter in a large mixing bowl. Add milk and extracts. Mix until blended. Add the baking powder. The mixture will rise and bubble creating foam on the top of the mixture. Then add the flour until a moist cookie dough consistency is created. Refrigerate dough over night.

To Bake: Preheat oven to 350°. Use a melon ball scoop to scoop the dough and roll into a ball. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the rolled dough pieces approximately 2 inches apart. Bake until glossy on top and slightly brown around the edges. Remove from oven. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Frosting: Combine 1/2 cup softened vegan butter, 2 1/2 cups organic powdered sugar, 1 tsp. organic vanilla extract, 2 – 3 tbsp coconut milk to create a frosting consistency. Frost completely cooled cookies and store in a single layer in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Unfrosted cookies can be stored up to 3 months in the freezer.

Original Italian Soft Cookie Recipe Ingredients

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon or almond extract

6 heaping tsp. baking powder

4-5 cups flour

Prepare, bake, and store same as instructions above.

Debi Cristiano owns and operates Evolving Wellness located in SW Florida. She is a modern day BodyMindSpirit Holistic Practitioner, a nationally certified fitness, health and wellness professional, a creative social media consultant, and a creative cookie & snack diva with her own brand of original recipe organic cookies and snacks distributed under the name of Three Tree Treats. Find Evolving Wellness on Facebook and Twitter @evolvewell.  Read Debi’s inspiring articles here.

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