Heart-Shaped Cookies for Valentine’s Day (vegan, dairy free)

Recipe from: Eat Figs, Not Pigs

Ingredients:

Icing:

• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon vanilla almond milk
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pink and red food coloring

Cookies:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) vegan butter, at room temperature
• 1 ½ cup white granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salted caramel extract (*you can use whatever flavor extract you like here! Almond extract is also a great substitute)
• 3 tsp egg replacer or flax egg
• ½ cup water
• 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Directions:

*To make the icing:

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together sugar and vanilla almond milk until thoroughly combined
2. Add corn syrup and vanilla extract and mix again until the icing is completely smooth
3. Divide icing into bowls and add desired food colorings
4. Set colored icings in a piping bag or Ziploc

Set icing aside until you’re ready to frost/decorate your cookies.

*Note: If you want enough icing to decorate every single cookie, you will need to double or triple the icing recipe.

*To make the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. In a large mixing bowl or Kitchen Aid, mix butter on medium-low speed until it is somewhat of a “whipped” consistency, about 3-5 minutes
3. Add white sugar and ¼ tsp Pink Himalayan Salt to the whipped butter and begin mixing or ‘creaming’ on medium-low, another 3-5 minutes
4. While you’re butter/sugar mix is creaming, make your egg replacer
5. In a separate bowl, make egg replacer with ½ water and set aside
6. In another large mixing bowl, add flour and baking powder. Stir thoroughly to combine
7. Add salted caramel extract and egg replacer to your butter/sugar mixture and mix on medium-low until all the ingredients are well incorporated, scraping the sides if needed, about 2-3 minutes
8. Add flour mixture ½ cup at a time to the butter/sugar mixture and mix on medium-low until a dough ball forms and all the flour is gone
9. Set dough ball in a large mixing bowl, cover, and set aside in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes
10. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough and cut with heart cookie cutter
11. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes
12. When cookies are cooled, using a piping bag, fill in each cookie with pink and red icing.
13. Set aside and let the icing dry at least one hour
14. Once icing is set, you can begin writing your sayings on the cookies with white icing.