Although I LOVE
vegetables, I am not a vegan.
Never have been, and probably never will be.
So, why am I so insanely excited about this new vegan cookie book?
Well for one, Kelly Peloza, the author of The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur, lives
right here in 
Milwaukee. And she’s pretty fantastic. I met her at Brewed Café on Brady Street this
weekend to chat about her new book and life in Milwaukee.
Originally from Chicago, Kelly is currently a student at
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, where she’s studying fine arts
photography. “I didn’t really get into photography until I
started shooting food photos and learned my way around the camera,” she says,
“but it inspired me to change my major.”
Kelly has been baking for as long as she can remember. In
fact, she created her very first recipe for “Garden Cake”
at the age of six. And she became a
vegetarian shortly thereafter.
“Cows were my favorite animal,” she admitted, “One day I made the connection between the burgers being served at dinner and the animal,
and I decided I needed to be a vegetarian.”
Kelly made the switch to veganism in high school, which is when she began developing vegan cookie recipes for her cookbook. She soon formed the opinion that instructing bakers to use “egg replacer” or tofu in a recipe was no way to introduce vegan baking to the general population. Thereafter, she began formulating her own recipes with an emphasis on accessibility and deliciousness. Kelly’s cookbook contains over 140 recipes for delicious vegan cookies & bars – including vegan-ized remakes of popular favorites like
graham crackers, ginger snaps, snickerdoodles, and Girl Scout chocolate peppermint wafer cookies. And all of the recipes use common, easy-to-find ingredients that won’t break the bank.
Coming up with some of the recipes was a snap. “Once you learn the basic conversions, it’s
fairly easy to convert a standard cookie recipe into a vegan version,” Kelly
told me.
But, there were a few recipes that were a bit more stubborn.
“The Nutter Butters recipe was a serious challenge,” Kelly admitted, “I just couldn’t get the texture of the dough right. But, after arduous experimentation and lots of recipe testing, I finally perfected it.”
And I totally believe her. Vegan cookies should not be
mocked. Egg & dairy free, vegan cookies are the perfect solution for people who want more of the “good stuff” (like chocolate and peanut butter) in their cookies. While I haven’t had the chance to try the Double Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, I did manage to whip out a batch of Kelly’s Giant Bakery Style Double Chocolate Cookies. And they definitely lived up to the hype.
Rich and chocolatey, the cookies were not only uber-flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth gooey straight from the oven,
they were also perfectly delicious after they’d cooled down. And, for those of you who (like me) think
that the baking process takes far too long, it’s worthwhile to note that the
cookie dough tastes delicious all on its own. Best of all, there’s no risk of that pesky salmonella involved.
Want to experience The
Vegan Cookie Connoisseur yourself? If so, I’d encourage you to order your signed copy of the book directly from Kelly on her Vegan Cookie Connoisseur blog. Even better,
venture out to one of her upcoming cookie events, sample her delicious cookies,
and meet Kelly in person.
Saturday, November 13th,
2010 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. – Milwaukee’s Vegan Bake Sale at
the Urban Ecology Center, 1500 E. Park Place
Sunday, November 28th, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. – Book Signing & delicious cookie
samples at Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave.
To learn more about Kelly Peloza, follow her on Twitter or
find her on her blog, The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur.
