With Easter on the horizon, the shops are filling up with Easter eggs, biscuits and chocolate tweets. And while these are all delicious, they typically may not be suitable for those with food allergies or those who have opted to follow a vegan diet. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy some treats this season.
Thinking about this, I decided to try my hand at making egg and dairy-free Easter cookies. Searching the internet, I found a recipe from plant-based food blogger Nourishing Amy that I used as the base for my own cookies. This recipe was quite simple to follow, although it did leave my kitchen in a bit of a state afterwards.
This easy-to-follow recipe can be adapted to make it gluten-free too, or you could even opt against making dairy-free if it’s just eggs that are a problem for you.
Mixing the ingredients together was pretty simple, as was using cookie cutters to get the desired shapes – eggs, bunnies, carrots, and chicks. But after putting the cookies in the oven and then allowing them to cool, I was hit with one issue, decorating them.
It turns out I don’t quite have the required artistic skills to be particularly good at cookie decorating. With about half the cookies decorated and my kitchen sides covered in icing and sugar, I decided to give up on finishing the job.
Nevertheless, while they weren’t all decorated, the cookies did still taste delicious – and I’ll definitely be making them again next easter.
Ingredients
- 100g vegan butter or margerine
- 100g sugar (coconut, caster or light brown – or a mixture)
- One teaspoon vanilla essence
- Two tablespoons plant-based milk (or dairy milk if not making to a vegan recipe)
- 250g plain flour (or gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- A pinch of salt
Method
Start by pre-heating your oven to 160Fan/180C and lining a baking tray with some baking paper.
Then, add the butter and sugar to a bowl and mix together until it reaches a creamy consistency. Then add in the vanilla essence, and milk and mix again.
After mixing together, add in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt and stir together to form a ball of dough. You may need to use your hands to do this rather than your mixing spoon.
Then, divide the dough into two and transfer one piece to a surface covered in flour-dusted baking paper. The roll the dough out to your desired thickness. Then, use cookie cutters to cut out your chosen shapes and place them on your baking tray. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden. And allow to cool fully on a wire rack. Then it’s time to decorate if you so wish.
Using icing sugar and food dyes (or natural colourings such as matcha and turmeric), decorate your biscuits however you wish. You can also decorate using melted chocolate (dairy-free if required).
Once decorated (or not, your choice) just store the biscuits in an airtight container. Eat within two weeks.