Earl Grey Sugar Cookies!

This post represents the figurative ribbon-cutting for our new recipe blog. To get things rolling, I'm going to post my newest invention: vegan Earl Grey sugar cookies. These totally delicious but, alas, slightly weird-looking. Since they are, after all, Earl Grey cookies, maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised that they turned out so...well...gray. After some initial trepidation vis-a-vis their stone-like appearance, however, my roommate couldn't stop scarfing these up. We agreed that they look like rocks because they rock.

Vegan Earl Grey Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance or Willow Run)
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup soft silken-style tofu
zest of one lemon
zest of one small, smooth-skinned orange (I used a Temple orange)
a splash of soy milk (vanilla or plain)
4 tablespoons loose-leaf Earl Grey tea
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Extra sugar to roll the cookies in (1/2 cup or so)


Directions:
Put the lemon and orange zests in a food processor with a splash of soymilk. Process till the zest has been reduced to tiny bits. Add the tofu and vanilla extract and process till relatively smooth (you'll still see little pieces of zest).

In a large bowl, cream together room-temperature margarine and sugar. Add the tofu mixture and mix till incorporated.

Place 4 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea into a (well-cleaned!) coffee grinder and process till very finely ground. In a separate bowl, combine ground tea, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and roll into balls, using about one teaspoon of dough per ball. Roll the balls in sugar till coated and press them lightly onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between them. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly on cookie sheet. Remove carefully from cookie sheet with a spatula and transfer to wire rack.

These cookies will keep cooking as they cool, so don't worry if you eat one right off the baking sheet and it seems a little undercooked in the center. Once cool, these will be delicious, floral, perfumey, and elegantly gray and rock-like. All in all, a very sophisticated, grown-up cookie.


If you try these, let me know what you think. To come: finished-product pictures, my recipes for lemon-thyme and orange-cardamom cookies, plus more baking experiments involving lavender, rosewater, matcha powder...and maybe some weird extracts from this rad site! I definitely want the bergamot, but the question remains: will I be seduced by the jasmine, rose and lavender? Tune in next time for the resolution of this cliffhanger...