Vegan Devil's Food Perched Cookies

♫ Listening to: Lime Habit by Poliça ♫

These chocolate cookies can have an even darker chocolate flavor by adding a bit of black cocoa powder like I did in my stained glass window sprinkle rattle cookies.

Devil’s Food Cookie Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached or whole wheat pastry flour
• ½ cup dutch cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoons organic cornstarch* or arrowroot powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon non-aluminum baking powder
• ½ cup vegan butter or margarine (if you avoid soy, buy the soy-free earth balance; otherwise buy the organic whipped earth balance)*
• ½ cup organic spectrum palm shortening*
• 1 cup organic or raw sugar*
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ cup nondairy milk

Devil’s Food Cookie Directions

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl: 2 cups flour, ½ cup dutch cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder or cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder. If you bought dutch cocoa powder just for this recipe and you have some left, try making my oreo cheesecake brownies.

Mix the ½ cup vegan butter, ½ cup vegan shortening, and 1 cup sugar together on a fast speed using a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer for like 5 minutes. Turn to low.

Add the ¼ cup nondairy milk and 2 teaspoons vanilla while mixing.

Sift in half of the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Sift and mix in the rest.

Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap to chill for 3-4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350° once the dough is done chilling.

Line two baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and remove one dough ball from fridge.

Place the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to roll it out.

Roll as thinly as possible. Remove the top piece of parchment paper and cut out as many shapes as you can, dipping your heart shaped perched cookie cutter into dutch cocoa powder when needed to keep it from sticking.

Trade the dough remnants with the ball that’s in the fridge. Keep cutting until the cookie sheets are full of cut outs.

Bake for 8 minutes.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to cooling rack.

I thought the star cutters left too big of a gap for an average cup. When I was little, my sister made some cups in pottery class that these would have fit perfectly on. Oh, those indestructible pottery cups.

The heart shaped perched cookie cutter had the perfect sized gap. If you don’t have a perched heart cookie cutter, you can just use any cookie cutter you have and use a butter knife to cut out the gap from each one before baking.

If you’re feeling fun, you can spread buttercream frosting on one and stick another cookie on top to make a cookie sandwich.

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* I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to buy only organic ingredients. So, I only specify organic on the ingredients that matter: when buying the organic (or non-GMO) version is the only way to ensure that an item is vegan.

This post links to items I used when I made this recipe. If you click on the purple Buy Now button on a product page, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the same product I used. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy the ingredients to create these recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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