These are very flavorful, tasty gingerbread cookies. They taste especially nice with coffee.

Yield: 30-36 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (white)
• 2 teaspoons ginger, ground
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg substitute (I used No Egg by Orgran)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 tablespoon vegan margarine, melted
• 2 cups flour

Icing for the cookies:

• 8 ounces vegan cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions:

1. Mix together in a small bowl, the spices – ginger, cinnamon, allspice and the salt and baking soda.
2. In a separate, large bowl, whisk together the egg substitute, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses vegetable oil and vegan margarine.
3. Add the spice mixture to the liquid, sweet mixture.
4. Gradually stir in the flour mix to form a sticky dough.
5. Divide the dough in 2 large balls, place each on plastic wrap and slightly flatten to a large round. Place a 2nd piece of plastic wrap on top and put each of the 2 dough rounds in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour and a half.
6. After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 F / 177 C.
7. Lightly flour a work space and roll out 1 piece of dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (6 mm).
8. Using your preferred shaped cookie cutters, cut out the desired cookie shapes.
9. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to brown.
10. Remove the cookies from the oven.
11. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then carefully remove from the cookie sheet with a spatula and place on wire rack to cool.

To make the icing:

1. Mix 1 teaspoon of lemon juice with the cream cheese.
2. Add the lemon zest and powdered sugar and mix well.
3. If the cheese is too thick, add the 2nd teaspoon of lemon juice.

When the cookies have completely cooled, frost the cookies and allow the frosting to dry before placing in an airtight container.
If the cookies are too hard, placing a slice of bread in the container will soften the cookies to a chewy consistency.

Notes:

We chose stars, hearts and doggies for our cookies this year.