5-Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies - Vegan MoFo #10

I recently bought some 5-Spice powder from my spice guy simply because it smelled good, but I had no idea what to do with it. I finally did a little searching online and found that it is used in a lot of Asian dishes, especially pork, duck and beef dishes. Well, since I do not eat my animal friends, I kept up the search. I found a recipe for some 5-Spice Cookies, but they weren't vegan. I'm a big fan of veganizing other folks' recipes because it's fun to try and I like to show how easy it can be to be a herbivore.

If you haven't used 5-spice before, it typically contains, uh, five spices... star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and Szechuan pepper. It varies, but sometimes uses ginger, too. It smells incredible. I'm a lot more tempted to try it in other dishes now that finally given it a shot! If you like snickerdoodle cookies, you should definitely try these. They turned out with a perfect combo of spice and sweet, as well as crispiness and chewiness. Mmm.... make them.

Altered & veganized from this recipe. Makes 18 cookies.

What you need:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (room temp, not melted)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 flax egg (1 TB ground flax mixed into 2 1/2 TB warm water)
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp 5-spice powder
• 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder for tops of cookies

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the coconut oil and the 3/4 cup sugar. 
   
3. Add the flax egg and blend again.
   
4. Now add in the flour, baking powder, salt and 5-spice powder and blend until it looks like this:
   
5. On a small plate, mix the 1/4 cup sugar and 1 1/4 tsp 5-spice powder.
   
6. Using your hands roll the dough into small 1-inch balls. Ha, balls. One at a time, smoosh the ball down onto the plate of sugar and spice. 
   
7. Then place the somewhat flattened ball on the baking sheet (spiced side up). Space the cookies 2 inches apart.
   
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, watching carefully because the edges can burn quickly. Remove from oven when the edges are just barely golden. Let set 3-5 minutes on cookie sheet, then use a spatula to remove them to a cooling rack.
   

So, there you have it. The yummy 5-Spice cookie made vegan. Dig it!