The holiday season seems to bring out my fondness for sweet stuff. Today, I’m totally infatuated with the recipe book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. In particular, their vegan peanut butter pillows.

While I’m headed to the kitchen to whip up a batch (or three), I thought I’d share the recipe…

Before you whip up your own tray, here’s a great bit of health info, courtesy of reader Dr Brett Hill: You may want to think about swapping the peanut butter for some other form of nut butter. Peanuts are prone to get infected with a carcinogenic mould (aflatoxin). This means they are either at risk of this mould or have been sprayed heavily to remove it. Either way another form of nut butter (such as almond, cashew or hazelnut) might be a better choice.

Vegan Peanut Butter Pillows

Makes 2 dozen cookies

For the Chocolate Dough

½ cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

3 tablespoons nondairy milk

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons black unsweetened cocoa powder or more regular unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling

3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or nondairy milk

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, nondairy milk, and vanilla and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa pow¬der, black cocoa powder if using, baking soda, and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.

2. Make the peanut butter filling: In another mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together peanut but¬ter, powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of the soy creamer, and vanilla to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is dry and crumbly (natural peanut butters have varying moisture contents), stir in the remaining tablespoon of nondairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment pa¬per.

Shape the Cookies

1. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into twenty-four balls (try dividing dough in half, then each part in half again and roll each portion into six balls). Scoop a generous ta¬blespoon of chocolate dough, flat¬ten into a thin disc, and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll into a smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining dough. If desired, gently flatten cookies slightly, but this is not necessary.

2. Place the dough balls on lined bak¬ing sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and let the cookies stand for 5 minutes before moving them to wire racks to com¬plete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If de¬sired, warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serv¬ing.

Morsels

If unsalted peanut butter is all you have, be sure add salt to the peanut butter mixture.

From the book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Copyright © 2009