It is December 1st! Can you believe it? Only 24 days until Christmas so today I wanted to share with you two more Christmas cookie recipes that I have baked in the past week.

And this little cutie pie!

I love healthy cookies and I love soft cookies. Usually that combination is difficult to find or come up with in a healthy cookie recipe. After making these cookies last night, I have to say that these are definitely top 3 on my list of favorite cookies that I have ever made. And that’s saying A LOT.

Soft and Sweet Tahini Cranberry Cookies

These cookies are soft and chewy with a tahini flavor and a speckling of dried cranberries.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup creamy tahini
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, sea salt and the dried cranberries.
3. In a separate smaller mixing bowl, whisk together the tahini, maple syrup, lemon juice and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl and mix until combined.
5. Roll the dough into teaspoon-sized balls, place on the cookie sheet and press down slightly. Make sure to leave about a 1-inch space between the cookies.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I guess that tahini (sesame seed butter) is kind of an acquired taste. I don’t normally care for it too much and use just a bit in some of my recipes, like hummus or creamy cheese sauce, but I like the soft spelt peanut butter cookies so much that I thought I would try tahini in place of peanut butter and add some dried cranberries to make a holiday tahini cranberry cookie. I am glad that I did too! 🙂

This next recipe is one for the kids.

My kids love these cookies and I figured that at Christmas I would allow them a little sugar since I normally bake with only healthy ingredients. These are made with white flour and icing sugar and topped with crushed candy cane pieces, quite a contrast from my normal whole wheat or spelt cookies sweetened with pure maple syrup. These cookies are a nice sugary Christmas treat.

Candy Cane Sprinkled Sugar Cookies

A melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookie, sprinkled with crunchy candy cane pieces.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup vegan margarine, softened
• 1 cup organic icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 organic candy canes (flavors of your choice), crushed into little pieces*

*We used two mint candy canes for one dozen of these cookies and two cherry candy canes for the second dozen. We crushed them by putting them into a ziploc bag and rolling over them with a rolling pin.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream together the margarine and icing sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Add the vanilla and milk and mix until smooth.
4. Finally add the flour 1 cup at a time and mix until combined.
5. Roll the dough into teaspoon-sized balls, place on the cookie sheet and flatten down slightly with the palm of your hand.
6. Sprinkle the crushed candy cane pieces on top and press them down slightly into the cookie so that they stay.
7. Repeat to make 24 cookies.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, watching carefully that they do not brown.
9. Allow to cool completely before removing from the pan.

So there you have it, two more vegan cookie recipes for your collection! If you think that we are cookie-crazy around here, you are right. There is honestly never a time when we are without a cookie or some other baked good in the house (as you could probably tell by now). If we were, I do not know what we would do. 😮