Lemon Oreos for One

Makes 4 cookies plus a straggler

The trouble with commercial Lemon Oreo cookies being vegan is that one (ahem, no names to protect the guilty) is inclined to eat all of them at a single sitting. This recipe cooks up fast and it’s just the right number of cookies for that cup of tea and a good book.

For the Cookies:

1 teaspoon ground flax seed

1 TBLSP water

Pinch baking soda

Pinch salt

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 TBLSP vegan butter, softened

2 ½ TBLSP brown sugar, packed

1 TBLSP granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1 TBLSP vegan butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons lemon juice

¾ teaspoon non-dairy milk (I like almond milk, but soy, rice, or coconut would do too)—may not be necessary

  

To Make the Cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

1. In a small bowl, combine the flax seed and water and set aside to become a glop.
2. In another small bowl, whisk together baking soda, salt, and flour. Set this aside too.
3. In a third small bowl, cream the butter and both sugars until it’s fluffy and well combined.
4. Add the flax-seed glop and vanilla to the butter and mix until it’s well combined. Then add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Using a tablespoon measure (you want the cookies to be roughly identical), make balls of the dough and place on the cookie sheet about 2-inches apart. You’ll want an even number of cookies. I got 8 regular-sized and 2 tiny ones. Flatten the little balls with the bottom of a juice glass. Keep the glass handy because you’ll be doing this again.
6. Bake for 7-8 minutes, and then take the pan out and press the little darlings flat with the bottom of a glass or a spatula—they will have puffed up a bit. Put them back into the oven for another 4 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
7. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a baking rack.

Let them cool completely before frosting. Make the filling while the cookies are in the oven to give it a chance to “set” before slathering on the cookies. If it’s a warm day, consider letting it rest in the refrigerator, too.

To Make the Filling:

1. In another small bowl (or one of those previous ones, cleaned and dried), cream the butter until it’s smooth and a little fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it’s crumbly, like rough sand.
2. Add the zest, milk and a little of the lemon juice. Mix until it’s smooth. If you need more lemon juice to make it spreadable, go slowly. You want this to be thick icing.

You might want to refrigerate it for a little while, like half an hour or so, while the cookies are cooling.

Assemble the Cookies:

1. Frost the bottoms (the flat side) of half the cookies (four or so) and sandwich the bottom of the other half on top of them.

Variations:

• It’s a very basic cookie, so you could put just about anything in there—chocolate icing (add 1 teaspoon cocoa powder and increase the amount of milk. Don’t add lemon juice), mint icing (add 1 teaspoon peppermint essence instead of lemon juice and increase the milk), strawberry jam—anything you can think of!
• You could make the cookie more lemony by adding zest to the dough.
• For a grown-up version, add a little chopped lavender to the cookie dough, the filling, or both!