Vegan Victuals Super Food Holiday Treat BoxesBeet Rainbow Cookies -

Looking into the jaw-dropping health benefits of the super foods I am incorporating into these treat boxes, I am filled with confusion. These foods… they’re just so magical. How is it even possible?! They actually fight cancer, fight inflammation, support brain health, improve athletic performance; they’re packed with nutrients and not packed with calories and fat! (source). So allow me to add them to one of most favorite cookie recipes: the rainbow cookies.

So apparently something happens when you use beet powder with leavening agents (baking powder and baking soda). It oxidizes to turn that bright vibrant magenta to a murky brown. I took a risk and followed the same recipe I have always used for my rainbow cookies. And the beet vibrancy did dull, but not enough for me to revamp the entire recipe and test it again. But when I have more time I’ll try… I’ll substitute the baking powder. By adding lemon juice to the milk in the recipe and a little bit of baking soda to activate and leave out the baking powder entirely. Though baking soda also oxidizes the beet powder, there’d be a lot less of it in the batter. Next time… Meanwhile, here is this first batch of beet rainbow cookies without any gel food coloring.

Beet Rainbow Cookies

Adapted from VegLife’s awesome recipe.

2 and 1/4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 and 3/4 plus 1/8 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp Salt

1 and 1/2 cups Sugar

1-1/4 cup Earth Balance

2 oz Almond Paste, grated

6 Tablespoons Silken Tofu, mixed smooth

1 and 1/8 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 cup plus 3 Tablespoon Soy Milk

3 teaspoons Beet powder, divided

1/2 cup Strawberry Jam

1.) Prepare: Bring soy milk, Earth Balance, silken tofu and almond paste to room temperature. Line three 8 inch square pans with parchment paper with overlap to easy handling. Weight your large mixing bowl in grams and note it somewhere.

2.) Preheat oven to 350.

3.) In a medium size bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

4.) In the large mixing bowl you weighed, cream Earth Balance and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

5.) Grate in the almond paste. It can be hard to break down in the batter, so grating will help. Then add silken tofu and vanilla extract and beat again until well incorporated.

6.) Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated, then add half the soy milk and beat. Add the rest of the flour and beat again, then the rest of the soy milk. Beat until well-incorporated. The batter is done!

7.) Weigh the bowl with the batter, then subtract the weight of the bowl. Then divide that by 3 and round to the nearest whole. Math!

8.) Place one of your small bowls on the scale and reset scale to zero. Scoop in batter in accordance to your math and set aside. Repeat for the next small bowl. Set both aside while scooping the remaining batter into one of your prepared baking pans. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula as the batter is a bit thick.

9.) Add two teaspoons of beet powder to the one of the separate bowls and mix well until the color is uniform. The add one teaspoon of beet powder to the second bowl. Mix well. Then fill with two remaining prepared pans with the tinted batters.

10.) Bake for 20-25 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. Set all pans aside on cooling racks and let each cool in its pan.

11.) Once the layers have cool, use an offset spatula to spread half the jam on the darkest layer. Continue with the next layer.

12.) Cover the top with parchment paper and place one of the square pans on top of all the layers. Place some heavy things in the pan to press the layers together. Place the whole thing in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight.

15.) Carefully remove cookie layers from the pan using the parchment paper. Place on a cutting board covered in parchment paper sprayed very lightly with oil.

16.) Trim the edges with a sharp knife. Then carefully cut your pieces, cleaning the knife in between strokes.