Vegan orange shortbread with all the winter spices. These shortbread cutouts are made with spelt flour and coconut sugar for a healthier Christmas cookie.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Vegan
Prep Time 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 10 minutesminutes
Cooling Time 30 minutesminutes
Total Time 20 minutesminutes
Servings 24cookies
Ingredients
½cupcoconut sugar
¼cupcoconut oilmelted
¼cuporange juice*
Zest of an orange
1cup+ 2 tablespoons light spelt flour
2teaspoonsarrowroot powder
1teaspooncinnamon
¼teaspoonfresh grated nutmeg**
½vanilla powder
1cardamom seedcrushed***
¼teaspoonallspice
¼teaspoonbaking soda
¼teaspoonsea salt
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, juice, and zest until the sugar is completely incorporated and no visible grains remain (fully hydrated). Sift in the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Stir until combined.
Shape the dough into a disc (it will be quite wet), and place onto a piece of parchment paper. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. It should be just stiff enough to roll but not so hard that it can't be indented when pressed with a finger.
Generously flour a countertop and rolling pin. Place the chilled dough onto the counter and hit it a couple of times with the rolling pin, then roll, turning occasionally, to a 5mm (1/4 inch) thickness. Dip your cookie cutters in flour then cut the dough into your desired shapes. Gather the scraps, press them together, and roll again. Repeat until all the dough has been cut.
Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets and freeze for 10 minutes. Remove from the freezer and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly golden but still soft to the touch. Remove and cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a rack.
To ice the cookies, melt a white chocolate bar with a teaspoon of coconut oil. Use a piping bag (or syringe) to pipe designs onto the cooled cookies. Place the cookies in the refrigerator to set the chocolate, then store in a sealed container for up to three days.
Notes
• The dough can be refrigerated longer, like overnight. If you want to make the dough ahead of time, make sure you wrap it very well before refrigerating and place it on the counter for half an hour to warm up a bit before trying to roll it out. • The raw dough can be successfully frozen. Double wrap it before freezing, thaw it in the fridge, then follow the steps in the above tip when you're ready to bake. • After three days, the cookies become quite soft. Keep them in the fridge or freeze them in a well-sealed container to preserve crispiness. • You can wrap the dough in plastic wrap, but it's not necessary. It won't dry out in 15 minutes and you don't need the plastic. * This was one orange for me. You can use bottled juice but you need orange zest in any case, so it might as well be fresh juice. ** If you use ground nutmeg, increase it to 1/2 teaspoon. *** For ground cardamom, use 1/4 teaspoon.