Make it dōlicious, make it vegan & gluten free!

Holidays are coming up quick and if you’re anything like us, you’re already thinking of that perfect holiday dessert that you just HAVE to make. Kristen began the shop wanting everyone, no matter the dietary restrictions or sensitivities, to fall in love with cookie dough. So we’re giving our secrets as to how you can make your holiday dessert gluten free or vegan without skimping on the flavor! 

Flour 

There’s an abundance of gluten-free flours now, that you can find just about anywhere; almond, rice, coconut, even chickpea flour! (No judgement here! You can actually find a recipe using chickpeas in the cookbook!) However, for baking none of these flours can truly substitute for all-purpose flour. The key is using a blend of the gluten-free flours. Some brands Kristen recommends are Cup4Cup's™ Multipurpose Flour and King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour.

We have lots of tips to make mostly every recipe gluten-free in the cookbook, but also some that are just so good they began gluten-free! If you have the cookbook already, check out the Paleo People Deserve Cookie Dough Too (pg 184), Chickpeanut Butter Chip (pg 178) or a shop staple, Peanut Butter Snickerdoodle (pg 180). Or you can purchase a signed copy of the cookbook here!  

Butter & Eggs

Let’s be honest with each other, we go crazy over butter and eggs and probably think you can’t live without it. We have a couple flavors that might change your mind with how good they are!! We have two vegan flavors at the shop, our vegan signature chocolate chip and vegan (and gluten-free) pb snickeroodle. 

Even though butter and eggs are usually crucial ingredients in baking, we have a few tips to substitute these in your own recipes too. The key is to re-create the liquid and binding properties of the egg. To do this we recommend mixing any dairy-free milk with cornstarch. If you were to make cookie dough, you would simply swap out the pasteurized egg measurement with dairy-free milk (we use soy milk at the shop, but any will work!). For every ¼ cup of dairy-free milk, add 2 TBS of cornstarch. It’s that easy! 

Now for the butter! There’s some great vegan butter replacements out there, to replace in baking, we like Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks along with coconut oil. For every stick of butter called for in the original recipe, use 5 TBS of vegan butter and 3 TBS of coconut oil, both at room temperature. This will give you the structure and binding necessary for most desserts. 

We hope you’re able to use these substitutes in your own creations this holiday season and share with those loved ones who may not typically be able to indulge like the rest! Don’t forget to tag us in all your pictures, we love seeing them! @cookiedonyc