Vegan Hermits (of the cookie persuasion, not crab)

These baked up with a wonderful spicey, chocolate-chippy-chewy-on-the-inside and slightly crunchy on the outside pizazz--in a word: delish!

Okay, I'll admit, I did not wait for these to "cool" to try one--they are too tempting to wait for!

An overwhelming urge took over yesterday to bake. I try to balance out my vegan posts with sweet and savory. I think if I reviewed this matter, my sweets would edge out my savory. It's the dead of winter, so I suspect I might lean more toward sweets. Not that we aren't eating some great vegan chow for dinner--it's just that the past few evenings have been sort of slap-dash and then there was that night I was too upset to cook and Mr. Thyme had to have a can of soup. I had nothing. And yesterday, I ate very little as well. I was not hungry is all. Emotional drama can have a detrimental impact in the creative vegan cooking department. I just wanted something sweet is all. And, I have a new creative pursuit--spinning wool into yarn.


I am sore this morning from spinning wool yesterday. How can that be? I am a fit person--I run, and run strong. But clearly, I need to work on the upper body muscles. Plus, who knew an added bonus to spinning: muscle improvement. And with this new hobby, I've been thinking about how women evolve in terms of their creative passions--mostly I'm sure it's from hormone surges, but still. (Which I clearly attribute my latest "friend" issue to: hormones). One of my favorite movies is Steel Magnolias--the total chick flick movie, the absolute best female bonding film there is in my opinion. There are a hundred wonderful lines from this film. But one of my faves is when Dolly Parton says, "Honey, I'd rather walk on my lips than say something bad about somebody"--in her sassy, oh-so-southern charm. If only women could live by this creed, I think we'd be a much happier gender (personally I don't think I could, I have quite a mouth on me when my buttons are pushed--like this week. . . I'm just saying). Anyhow, on change and life pursuits. It's not that I don't have focus, I really do--I just have a mind that needs stimulation and change--and something to keep my hands working--and feet running. (I have a hard time picturing myself in an "old", "senior living" stage.) Several years ago when I quit my "office" life (why you might ask: I really like to be the boss and not the other way around)--I was set to embark on many-a-creative pursuits. I wanted to paint so I took watercolor and drawing classes at the community college. I loved painting and still do. Spent two years doing that. My teacher was amazing. Then, I wanted to do more with my jewelry--so I took lampworking classes (making glass beads with fire, then putting them in a kiln)--I hit some art shows (what a competitive and ego-centric world that can be), but then I got burnt out doing this. Plus, a lot of those women got on my nerves. (I had picked up the "making jewelry" bug like four years prior--I probably was on the tail end of this running its course.) The lampwork beads were a nice addition for the jewelry I had made. I also got into teeny-tiny jewelry beaded work--loved it, but it took forever to finish one piece--and I hated parting with them for such a low price ($50 or so--people are cheap--but you gotta price the stuff to sell otherwise, it just sits here in boxes and I don't have offspring to hand the stuff down to). Then there was metalsmithing, soldering and drilling. Wow. That is a whole other dimension--but I was lucky enough to find an amazing instructor for that, bought a dremel and anvil and all to pursue this--and I was good at clanking and banging--it was a nice stress reliever to boot. Then I stumbled into the world of basket weaving. (Not underwater. Just above ground.) Lucky for me, this was something I caught onto quickly. But again, this sort of fizzled out, too. I still have reed and can dive back into this whenever--and will do so, just not feeling the love for it at this moment. And then, there is my knitting. The long time, stays-with-me friend that I find works well most all times. I used to travel for my job and my knitting always came with me. And my gardening--or as I call it: dirt therapy. Oh and vegan cooking and baking--and you know where that has lead: Vegan Thyme! I guess I digress on this here for a moment because of the time of year we are in, my own state of mind right now (very reflective), and my hopes for the future.

So this cookie yesterday. I was thinking about cake, too. But what I may have been craving (lemon) would not have been enjoyed as much by Mr. Thyme. So I did the kind thing and baked up these treats to serve both our needs--that's how it works in marriage (most of the time--I can still be a selfish baker). I turned to my used bookstore find: Maida Heatter's Cookies. Yum. This is where my inspiration for my vegan chocolate chipper came from that I posted a few days ago. Maida said the Hermit cookie is an old staple and old fave of many home cooks. I liked knowing this, but what I liked better is that Maida makes hers into a bar--meaning you can dump the whole thing of cookie dough into a 9x13 pan and bake it up, then slice. The bars come out moist in the middle with a bit of chew on the outside with just enough spice taste to balance nicely with the addition of chocolate chips--and then my fave: a powdered sugar glaze. Baking cookies can be very time consuming and sometimes, I just don't feel like sitting next to the stove rotating cookie trays for several eight minute intervals. That's why I loved making these. My interpretation of her hermits include the addition of chocolate chips, cutting back on the pecans and the vegan-ized changes: no egg and vegan butter. In my humble opinion, after consuming three bars of these last night--I give these a stong five-star rating. But that is me. Mr. Thyme ate his share, too--he loved them. So it's all good--I'd highly recommend these Vegan Hermits! *Keep these in an airtight container at room temp.

Vegan Hermits

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon mace *if you don't have mace on hand, don't worry
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried currants *if you don't have currants, you can use raisins, but cut it to 3/4 cup
1 stick (or 1/2 cup) vegan butter
1/2 cup Florida Cystals
1/2 cup molasses
3 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 4 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 9x13 pan. Prep your Ener-G Egg Replacer and set aside. Sift all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl (including the spices) and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar. Add the Ener-G Egg Replacer to this and beat until smooth. Next, add the molasses and mix well. It might look like it's separating--don't panic. Just move on. Now, take the dry mix bowl and in thirds to the butter/sugar bowl. Mix well on low speed with your hand blender. I stopped after I added my last third and mixed the rest by hand with a wooden spoon--there was still a bit of flour sticking to the sides of the bowl and I scraped this down. Then, fold in the currants, chocolate chips and pecans. Spread this dough into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes. You don't want to overbake these. Remove from oven and while the pan is cooling, make your glaze.

For the Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vegan butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract *optional
2-3 tablespoons hot water

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until there are no lumps left. Now spread this over the tray of cooling Hermits. Slice the bars into desired piece size. Allow to cool the rest of the way and dig in!