I told you that I would be baking (and sharing) a lot from King Arthur Flour’s Early Spring edition of The Baking Sheet…and here’s another adapted recipe. Theirs is a glazed treat called Lemon Drop Cookies, but I only had one sad, slightly dessicated lemon in the fruit bin so a lemon-flavored cookie was out. I did have plenty of oranges, however, and since the baked cookie had a nice, cake-like texture, I call mine Orange Cake Cookies. My version also lacks the glaze, which looks pretty, to be sure, but since I don’t use confectioners’ sugar these days, I did without it. I don’t think the cookie needs it. It has plenty of flavorful sweetness without the added sugar rush. The dough is easy to work with and I love the thick bite of the final product.
Orange Cake Cookies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen
3 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. powdered stevia
1/2 cup maple sugar
1/4 cup vegan “butter”
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tbsp. egg replacer + 9 tbsp. water (whisk together until frothy, then set aside for a minute)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup soy milk
1/4 fresh orange juice
1 tsp. orange zest
Preheat the oven to 375F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and stevia. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the vanilla extract, soy milk, orange juice and orange zest. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the sugar, “butter” and applesauce. Add the egg replacer mixture and mix thoroughly. Begin adding the flour mixture, alternating with the soy milk mixture. Mix until smooth.
Scoop up dough by the tablespoon and roll quickly to form balls and place them on the lined baking pans. When all of the cookies are formed, use the bottom of a glass (wet) to slightly flatten the cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.
Cool slightly on the pans and then remove to cool completely on wire racks.
