I went to my food blogger bestie Kimberly from the little plantations house last month and we made these vegan cookies. I wanted them to be really Christmassy so we decided on adding some roasted chestnuts. Kimberly wanted them to have pink icing, so I suggested using the juice from some pomegranate seeds because the juice makes such a lovely colour. we had so much fun baking and styling them. I love going to stay at Kimberly’s house as we always great some really tasty recipes together. And she always cooks amazing meals for me last time her husband made a amazing chickpea in tomato sauce dish with rice and quinoa that I haven’t stopped thinking about since. we adapted one of aimee from wallflower kitchen’s recipes to make these as she is a vegan baking genius. be prepared for a tonne of photos as when me and Kimberly get together we take a billion photos if you want to get right to the important stuff then scroll down the recipe.
Roasting Time: 25-30min
Cooling Time: 10 minutes + 10 minutes
Baking Time: >>>
Makes: 32 cookies
a good handful of chestnuts (8-10)
200g 3/4 cup vegan butter (we used this one)
100g / ½ cup soft brown or cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla power
300g / 2½ cups spelt flour + extra for dusting the work surface
2tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp all spiceIngredients for the glaze and toppings (optional):
a good handful of pomegranate seeds
about 3/4 cup of icing sugar
freeze dried raspberries and/or edible flowers to decorate (optional)
Pre-heat the oven 200C/425F. take the chestnuts and with a sharp knife cut a + shape into them. Then place the chestnuts on a baking tray and roast for 25-30 minutes. Be careful not to burn them. You know that they are ready when they start folding open where you made the + incision (see picture above). Take them out of the oven, bring the oven down to 180C/350F and let the chestnuts cool for about 10 minutes. When they have cooled, peel about 8 of the chestnuts and crumble the content into small bits. Chop up with a knife into smaller chunks if you prefer.
With a hand-held, or preferably an electric (hand-held) mixer, combine and cream the vegan butter, sugar and vanilla for about 5 minutes. Then add the spelt flour, broken up chestnut pieces as well as the spices and mix gently until just combined.
Prepare your kitchen surface with a dusting of flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Get your cookie cutter and cut the dough ( as shown), line 2 baking trays with grease proof baking paper and place the cookies onto the trays. Bake the cookies for 10 to 15 minutes.
Whilst the cookies are baking prepare your pomegranate glaze by taking the pomegranate seeds and squeezing out the juice with a muslin cloth (as shown). Combine the collected juice with icing sugar. Please note that the measurements above for the glaze or VERY approximate. It depends on how many pomegranate seeds you use. Just remember the glaze needs to be runny enough to spread but firm enough to be able to set.
Once cookies are baked then dip one side into the glaze, place on a drying rack and decorate as desired.
I also wanted to take a moment to show this beautiful soap company. these bottles are so pretty aren’t they?. I think they would make a great Christmas present. they are from yope. I have found some shops in the uk that sell it here and here and here I am using the vanilla one at the moment and it smells wonderful. the best thing is that they are natural and they are such a great price. (not sponsored just love)
Ohhh wauhhh…
What a tasty X-mas treat! We love chestnuts. Im going to make it and serve it during X-mas.
Thanks for all the inspiring recipes in 2016.
Iam a real fan:)
Wonderful X-mas Aimee.
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Thankyou so much I’m so glad you like them ?
They sound great to have over the Christmas/New Year. I miss buying Chestnuts from the street sellers. Not many stores sell them here in New Zealand. Hopefully we will return to The UK.Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You and your Team.
thankyou merry Christmas xxx
Loooovvveee the shots so much! Always fab working with you and can’t wait to get back into the kitchen with you in January.
Thankyou Kimberly me too can’t wait xxx
Love the pretty cookies with simple recipe Aimee. The soap labels….so cute. Thanks for the recipe, lovely.
thankyou Ingrid xxx