RECIPE: Chewy Vegan Snickerdoodles

When my second child was a few months old, he was sensitive to EVERYTHING- soy, dairy, eggs, you name it. Since I was nursing, that meant I had to avoid those too. But I quickly started going through junk food withdrawal, so I started adapting my favorite recipes to allergen-free (and therefore vegan) versions. Here's one of my favorites.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup palm oil shortening (such as Spectrum)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Warm water
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup flax seed egg replacer (or 1 egg)
Cinnamon sugar mixture

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together first four ingredients. Cream shortening and sugars, adding 1 tablespoon of warm water at a time until mixture is creamy and resembles creamed butter. (This may not be necessary.) Mix in applesauce and egg replacer or egg. Add flour mixture and blend until a soft dough is formed.

Drop dough by tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cookies will puff up slightly in the oven and flatten as they cool.

FLAX SEED EGG REPLACER: Boil 1 tablespoon of whole flax seeds in 2/3 cup of water for 5 minutes. Strain out flax seeds. This will produce between 1/4 to 1/3 cup of liquid, which will have the consistency of egg whites when cooled.

CINNAMON-SUGAR MIXTURE: Thoroughly mix 3 teaspoons of cinnamon with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.