Dairy & Egg Free Baking: Date & White Chocolate Cookies / Biscuits

As-Salamu Alaikum Sisters / Greetings Dear Readers,

I originally eyed a version of these cookies/biscuits on The English Kitchen and was immediately drawn to them not only because they looked scrummy but the way Marie described them was oh so tempting!

I'm 95% happy with these cookies, the only thing I may do differently next time is increase the amount of vegan margarine a smidgen.

The original recipe contained 50g butter plus the fat from 1 egg and 50g white chocolate chunks which meant Marie's cookies spread due to being higher in fat than mine but hey the sugar content more than made up for any loss in fat in my version and you know what excess sugar converts to don't you? F.A.T. so I won't be saying these are the healthiest cookies in the world but again I'm working with what I have got ...... sugar! you can only imagine what emotional state this hormonal pregnant woman was in when my 4 year old knocked the tub containing my rare buy of rather expensive unrefined golden caster sugar on the floor

Date & White Chocolate Cookies / Biscuits (Dairy and Egg Free)

Makes: 19 x 1 tbsp sized cookies

Adapted from the English Kitchen

Ingredients

50g Pure Dairy Free Sunflower Spread or any other suitable vegan spread

80g unrefined golden caster sugar

few drops of pure halal vanilla extract or use vanilla golden caster sugar in place of regular golden caster sugar

1/4 tsp Orange Blossom Water optional 

1 'Egg' of your chosen egg replacer (I used 1 heaped tsp orgran No Egg made up with 2tbsp water )

70g whole, pitted dates, cut into chunks

50g Dairy Free chocolate buttons (These are halal certified)

130g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160*C/140C (Fan) /325*F/ Gas mark3. Line two baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.
2. Beat together the vegan spread and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and creamy. Add the vanilla, orange blossom if using and egg replacer, mixing it in well. Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate and the dates.
3. Drop tablespoon sized drops onto the prepared baking sheets. I did 9-10 per baking sheet
4. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until they are pale golden brown, and a bit crispy on the edges. (I move the trays around halfway through the baking time so that they bake evenly.) Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

**Please note I have not been compensated or asked to advertise any of the allergy free products displayed in this post, they are personally what I chose to use and although I can't guarantee 100% that the Pure Dairy Free Sunflower Spread or Orgran is halal, I wrote to the manufacturer of Pure Dairy Free who responded that they don't make any claims that their products are suitable for a halal diet they did say they don't use alcohol to make their spreads and that their spreads are suitable for vegans.

I haven't had chance to write to Orgran about their egg replacer but if you look here you can read the ingredients list and this product is also suitable for Vegans.