*Disclaimer: There are no “after” pictures on account of everyone eating them before I had a chance to take photos
What do you get when you give someone who doesn’t drink tea, tea bags? They make cookies with them! Seriously, I’m not sure if it’s my Asian upbringing that prevented me from tossing these straight into the trash or the fact that I’m trying to live more sustainability, but either way, the end result was some pretty amazing cookies. These cookies are like having tea and cookies all in one bite. Or like a drop of summer with the infused lemon-orange flavor.
At first, I was a bit skeptical about trying to make tea infused cookies. In my previous experience, they’re hard to do, even in regular cookies, much less vegan cookies. Something always manages to go wrong, whether it’s the tea flavor being too strong, or too weak or too bitter after baking. Luckily, by using lemon-orange tea, or any other sort of fruity lying tea you might have around, the citrus flavor is balanced perfectly with the black tea, so it doesn’t taste too bitter at all.
I won’t lie, there’s a fair bit of time that goes into these cookies, mostly waiting around time, but still, time that you have to spend not having cookies in your stomach. BUT, I can promise for being vegan, these are ENTIRELY worth it. The key to this recipe is giving your tea bag of choice enough time to steep in the water and oil, otherwise you’ll end up with tasteless cookies. It took me about a million times to get the timing right, but lucky for you, it should only take one try 🙂
The vibrant color you see in the pictures are entirely natural. The lemony cream color is just from the black tea, while the more magenta colored ones are from being rolled in crushed freeze-dried raspberries before baking. Again, the Asian part of me couldn’t bear to throw away too sour freeze-dried raspberries sitting in my pantry, and they turned out to be the perfect tartness needed for these cookies.
DO NOT OVER BAKE THESE COOKIES!!!!!! SO IMPORTANT, I can’t emphasize that enough. Because there are vegan cookies, when you over bake them, instead of becoming golden brown with crunchy edges when you use butter, it ends up burning and hardening. If you’re unsure, err on the side of under baking. I mean, their vegan, so technically no raw eggs = eat all the raw cookie dough you want!
As I’m writing this, I’ve got some beet (yes, beet) bread in the oven that I’m hoping will retain a nice, bright pretty color, so send me some good thoughts if you can spare them! I know it’s been awhile since I blogged my last post, but things have been busy around here! I’m finishing up my first year of grad school, which means doomsday (aka finals) is fast approaching. Can you believe that they make people write 40 page papers? My hand is cramping up already as I think about it. After that I’ll be headed back to good ole’ MN for awhile before starting a environmental health summer internship.
What can I say? I’m excited for summer, the sunshine, and of course, more of these citrusy cookies! If you’e got a couple hours to spare, try this recipe out! Or add it to your meatless Monday dinner as dessert, I can promise no one will complain.
VEGAN LEMON ORANGE BLACK TEA COOKIES | Makes 12-16 large cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2 tsp neutral tasting oil
- 1/4 cup + 2 tsp hot water (basically as hot as you would normally make tea with)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tea bags of your choice (preferably a fruity tasting one)
- 1/4 cup crushed freeze-dried raspberries
DIRECTIONS
- Measure out water and oil into their own bowl. Add one tea bag to each bowl and let steep for 10 minutes. Take tea bags out of each liquid, making sure to squeeze tea bag thoroughly so you don’t mess up measurements.
- Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.
- Combine steeped water and oil, vanilla and white sugar and whisk until smooth.
- Add flour into sugar mixture and just combine until no flour is visible.
- Refrigerate dough for 1 hour (this is crucial as the mixture will be too soft to handle otherwise!) and up to 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 325 (F). Portion out golf-ball sized cookies and roll half in the crushed freeze-dried raspberries.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until centers of cookies start to look set/firm.
- Cookies stay fresh for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
dumplings&donuts 