What does the bowl full of jelly Santa want? Full milk with cream on the top and buttery, overly sweet, cookies, left for him on the fireplace.
What does svelte, vegan Santa want? An ice-cold glass of homemade soymilk and tasty vegan cookies made with care.
Homemade soymilk is not as elusive as it might seem. Once the simple tools for the process are assembled, making milk can easily be part of your weekly routine. It took me a bit of practicing to get it right and now I make it at least once a week for all my coffee, tea, and cooking needs. You can even control the amount of creaminess by the volume of water added to the beans.
Vegan cookies, made with the soymilk, are it’s natural pair during any part of the year. The recipe below I use to make many different types of cookies by changing the flavors. Craving double chocolate brownie cookies? Add cocoa and chocolate chips. Lemon poppy seed seem tasty? Add zest and poppy seeds to the dough and top each cookie with a dab of lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze. Got ginger snaps on the mind? Ginger (both crystallized and fresh grated), allspice, and molasses get added to the mix and the dough is rolled in sugar before baking. One recipe, so many options.
Homemade soymilk
For this recipe, you will need:
1 ½ cups whole, dry soybeans
Water
Pinch salt
¼ cup sugar or other sweetener (optional)
8 daily calcium daily vitamins (optional, I add calcium because although I eat a lot of greens, I like to enrich my milk a bit because I like my spine nice and straight)
Tools:
Large bowl
Blender
Very large pot
Wooden spoon
Mesh strainer
Mesh tea strainer (small, with a very fine mesh, fits into the top of the mason jar)
½ gallon mason jar
Ladle
Process:
1. Rinse the soybeans in water. Pour fresh water over the soybeans in the bowl and let soak overnight.
2. Drain the beans and rinse.
3. Add 8 cups water (preferably filtered if you water tastes a little funky. Water imparts a lot of flavor to soymilk) to the beans.
4. Pour into the blender and whir until very smooth.
5. Pour into the pot and cook over medium heat. Add the salt, sugar and vitamins. Watch the pot and stir often to avoid boil overs.
6. Boil for 30 minutes.
7. Strain first through the large strainer into the bowl. Compost the solids.
8. Place the tea strainer on the Mason jar.
9. Ladle the milk from the bowl and strain into the Mason jar.
10. Refrigerate for up to 7 days, shaking before each use.
Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies (modified from HonestFare)
For this recipe, you will need:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup maple or agave syrup
3 tablespoons soymilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
Tools:
Measuring utensils
Rubber spatula
Bowl
Cookie sheet
Metal spatula
Cooling rack
Process
1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. In the bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, syrup, soymilk, and vanilla extract.
3. Add the salt, flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Roll dough into balls 1 inch in diameter. Place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
5. Bake 8 minutes until they look slightly dry on the top, but are still very moist in the interior.
6. Remove from the cookie sheet with the metal spatula and cool on the cooling rack.
7. Store in an airtight container or eat immediately. I prefer the second option.
Thanks to Rachel Silverstein for the charming illustrations.
