Okay vegan peeps. No word of a lie, but this is the easiest vegan thumbprint cookie recipe that you’ll ever find. Actually, scratch that, this is the easiest vegan cookie recipe I think you’ll find. In fact, if you take away the thumbprint part of this vegan cookie recipe then what you’ve got is a pretty good vegan shortbread cookie recipe in fact. Give it a go and call me a liar.
Now I don’t really want this blog of mine to become just about vegan recipes and vegan food porn, in fact if you’ve read around a bit this site is about vegan valor and being so named it is about no holds barred vegan living and lifestyle. Being a vegan abolitionist my first and foremost concern is in eradicating animal suffering. But sometimes that is best done by giving folks vegan food to enjoy.
And besides, you don’t want to hear me ranting and raving about vegan issues all the time or animal suffering and abuse. Sometimes we just wanna have a vegan party. So let’s do it.
Now the great thing about this simple vegan thumbprint cookie recipe is that you don’t need any fancy kitchen equipment. The only things you’ll need you most likely already have around the house. No need for an expensive kitchen mixer. You’ve got 2 mixers at the end of those vegan arms of yours, your vegan hands!
Okay, here’s what you need for the best vegan thumbprint cookie recipe:
1 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
Some jam of choice
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take a bowl and add your 1 cup vegan margarine and 1/2 cup sugar and the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Cream this mixture with a spoon, fork or whisk until light and airy and creamy.
Add 1 cup of the flour. Just ONE cup at first and mix with a wooden spoon. At this stage, the mixture is pretty well formed and somewhat wet. From here on out you’re gonna use your vegan fingers and hands, fingers and toes… okay, maybe not your toes. But you’ll use your hands to mix the dough mixture together as you add about 1/4 cup of flour at a time. Mix each 1/4 cup of flour into the mixture thoroughly until adding the next 1/4 cup flour.
You should be able to add the full 2 cups of flour to the mixture, but you might need a little more or a little less depending on where you live, how vegan you are (I joke, I joke), humidity in your area etc. What you want to end up with is a dry mixture that clumps together when you take pieces of it to form into a ball, but you don’t want the dough to be wet.
So take clumps of our vegan cookie dough and roll and squeeze into balls about an inch and a half across. You can make them as big or small as you like. Place these balls of dough onto a cookie sheet, piece of aluminum foil and then push down in the center with your thumb. This is how these vegan cookies get their vegan thumbprint name. What you’ll have will look like a squat volcano. A cookie with a dent in the middle.
Place all your vegan cookie dough balls onto the cookie sheet and give them all a thumbs down, but not in a mean way. You should have anywhere from around 18 to 24 vegan thumbprint jam cookies at this stage when you’re done. Now add a dollop of your favorite jam or even small squares of dark vegan chocolate into the dents of your cookies.
Bake at 350 for around 12 to 18 minutes. Check them at around 12 minutes, but mine usually require the better part of 15 minutes or more. You want to take a peak at the bottom of your vegan cookies and when they are a soft golden brown like the color of very milky coffee then you’re done.
Let them cool for around 10 to 15 minutes and enjoy. That my friends is the bestest and easiest vegan thumbprint cookies you’ll ever make, bake and eradicate!