Vegan Butternut Squash Cookie Recipe

My friend, Sativa, left home back in mid-June and has been loving Tanzanian life since. She dropped everything for an amazing experience in Tanzania with the Peace Corps.  To know Sativa, is to know that she loves yoga – so much so that she was on the verge of going to yoga school to do it professionally. That never happened, but what brought a smile to my face was a text from her a month into her Tanzanian journey:  “Just taught yoga to my Peace Corps group today.” 

This recipe came from a frantic flurry of ideas of what to send for her “care package.” Before Sativa moved she was craving vegan pumpkin cookies, but never had a chance to make them. You see, one of our bonds was the love of cooking – particularly baking vegan cookies, or drinking wine with grapes in it, what I like to call our “makeshift-sangria”. That’s why I thought it would be a great idea to send her a little taste of home.

When I finally decided on the best thing to send her – besides toilet paper, I thought of cookies. Pumpkin vegan cookies, along with chocolate soy milk and a good book. But of course I couldn’t find pumpkin for the life of me. I normally make my own pumpkin puree from scratch, but you need pumpkins in the market to do that. Since butternut squash in my opinion is close in flavor, I reluctantly decided to use it instead of the real stuff. It totally worked, in the best way.

I sort of wish I kept them for myself because Sativa just sent me a message telling me that she received her package and the cookies were moldy – but she ate them anyway. Well, if they were good moldy, then you know they were darn good fresh. So make them.

These cookies bake up light and moist.

Plenty of nuts and chocolate chips.

Ingredients - These cookies can be made non-vegan by using butter and chocolate chips versus vegan margarine and carob chips.

1 stick (1/2 cup) of vegan margarine, or 1/2 cup of butter (for non-vegan cookies)

1 cup carob chips, or semi-sweet chocolate chips (for non-vegan cookies)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar (dark or light)

1/2 cup butternut squash puree – follow my pumpkin puree recipe, except replace with butternut squash

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure maple extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream together brown sugar, butter and beat until creamy in a medium-large bowl. Next mix in butternut squash puree and extracts until creamy and smooth.

Sift the remainder dry ingredients into a separate medium bowl:  flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.

Gradually fold in dry mixture into wet mixture (dough should become elastic-like), then fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Spoon cookie dough onto parchment lined baking pan and bake for 10 minutes. Cookies will come out soft and cake-like, and most of all, delicious.