V.I.P. Tamarind-Coconut Cookies (Vegan)

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand. ~ Author Unknown

You must be thinking, what weirdly-shaped cookies are those? Yes they are weird-looking and for good reason. My sister, who lives in Switzerland, is currently home on holiday and she bought me this set of adorable V.I.P. cookie-cutters by Birkmann. The abbreviation stands for Very Important Plätzchen (meaning 'cookies' in German) and as far as sweet things rank for a sweet tooth like me, they are very important indeed. The special deal about these cutters is that they create cut-outs in the cookies to enable you to hang them off the edge of a glass or mug, or allow you to tidily tie a ribbon in a stack of these if you're gifting them away. Don't you simply want to hug the person who thought of this coolness?

My Very Important Plätzchen cutters

I was keen to try these cutters out, so I quickly rustled up an easy recipe the day after I got them (did I mention I was keen?). My initial thought was to pair tamarind flavor with white chocolate, but after running and tasting a batch of these, I decided that the tamarind would actually go better with coconut milk. That's the great thing about creating your own recipe, isn't it... it's yours to change whatever at whichever stage of the process. Total freedom, I'm all for it.

These two could well go down a dream, but I as matchmaker said 'No'.

Normally when I bake cookies, or anything for that matter but especially cookies, I would use butter. Chunks of it. I love the rich taste and melt-in-your-mouth texture that it imparts and not only I, but my thighs seem to love butter too (cellulite has a certain texture, correct?). Well, yes. I do feel slightly sorry for people who can't or won't take butter, but am enlightened enough to know that everyone chooses their path in this life for whatever reason they feel closest to. So yeah, mine is to bake cookies with butter...normally.

As you can probably tell, I'm far from being vegan but all those time spent cruising around to vegan bloggers' sites must've rubbed off on me. On the day I made these, I plucked up the courage to eliminate butter and create my first vegan cookie recipe.

Truthfully, the absence of butter didn't render these four-leafed clover cookies useless at all. In fact, they tasted wonderful if not exactly shortbread-like (hey, you win some, you lose some). The coconut milk added a certain sweet depth and next time, I would add more tamarind paste to accentuate its tart flavor. Out of curiosity, I dipped a few in melted white chocolate but the sweetness was overpowering so decided it was better to ditch the chocolate.

This has been a lovely experience. The truth is, though.... I can't wait to get back to butter!

Hang off the glass or tie a ribbon around the notch for gifting!

V.I.P. Tamarind-Coconut Cookies
Makes: 60 small cookies
Ingredients:
Wet mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon tamarind paste

Dry mix
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl, then mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Start pouring the wet mix into the dry mix and stir until well combined. You should get a very soft dough. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes before rolling out.

2. To cut cookies, line workspace with wax paper, roll the dough flat to about 1/2 cm thick. Dip the cookie cutter in flour and cut shapes by pressing down on the dough. Dip cutter in flour in between cuts to prevent the dough from sticking to the cutter. Remove the extra dough around the shapes with a toothpick and transfer the shaped cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with non-stick parchment paper.

3. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 170C/350F. Leave to cool on tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.