Vegan Victuals Valentine Inspirations 💘Valentine Rainbow Cookies -

Behold the gorgeous rainbow cookie all dressed up for Day 5 of my seven day series, Vegan Victuals Valentine Inspirations. This is another offering that takes a bit of effort… but with a spectacular pay-off. There isn’t much more delicious and pretty. The white chocolate layer, which is optional, makes it a bit next level. You’ll also need three of the same pans, a scale, some Silken tofu and almond paste along with more typical baking staples. But once you master the recipe, you’ll have an impressive treat for many holidays in your repertoire. So get going! 💋

Valentine’s Day (or Any Day) 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

Gel food color: red and pink (Or to your preference)

1/2 cup Strawberry Jam

For White Chocolate Layer (adapted from here):

4 ounces raw cacao butter

4 Tablespoons vegetable shortening

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup coconut milk powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

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 some 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!

It really is the most delicious batter. Like dangerously delicious.

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 your desired colors to the two separate bowls and mix well until the color is uniform. 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.) Meanwhile, prepare jam. Slightly heat and mix well to try to minimize lumps. If it’s a seeded fruit jam, you can push through a sieve. Set aside until layers have cooled completely.

12.) Once the layers have cool, use an offset spatula to spread half the jam on the red layer.

13.) Carefully release the pink layer and place on top of the jelly layer. After, cover the top of the pink layer with the remaining jam.

14.) Release the white layer and place on top of the jam. 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.) Once the cookie layers have been pressed for at least 4 hours, begin to make the white chocolate for the top layer. Using a double-boiler, heat the cacao butter and shortening over medium heat, stirring often until all melted. It should look like olive oil.

16.) Remove from heat and place on a hot plate securely on the counter. Add the powdered sugar, powdered coconut milk, vanilla extract and salt, whisking until smooth, about 2 minutes.

17.) Carefully transfer the mixture to a high speed blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth and transfer back to the bowl. Allow to set a bit in the refrigerator. Once it coats the back of a spoon, you can proceed.

18.) Carefully remove cookie layers from the pan using the parchment paper. Place on a cutting board covered in parchment paper. (I didn’t use parchment on my board below and the bottom cookie layer stuck to it. Layers are very moist!)

19.) Spoon the white chocolate onto the top red layer, pushing it gently with the back of a spoon to coat evenly. No worries about run-off. You will be trimming edges.