Tasty Tofu and Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

Across the bay, the sky is rose,
Our bowls hold tofu over rice,
Fragrant steam rises, eddies, flows.

Another dish of broccoli shows
No flesh shall mar our meal with vice.
Across the bay, the sky is rose.

Soft tofu, in its simm’ring throes--
Lo! Dinner has cooked in a thrice!
Fragrant steam rises, eddies, flows.

And though the chilly West wind blows,
We’re warmed by curry, soothed by spice,
Across the bay, the sky is rose.

Then peanut cookies, round as Os
And herbal tea that smells so nice.
Fragrant steam rises, eddies, flows.

Upon the stove, our kettle glows
It’s time to toss the Yahtzee dice.
Across the bay, the sky is rose.
Fragrant steam rises, eddies, flows.

I was intrigued by the vegan "Presidential Cookie Bake-Off" over at Walking the Vegan Line. Although I'm an Obama supporter myself, I already have a tried-and-true shortbread recipe. It was Cindy McCain's butterscotch chip cookies that really caught my eye. (Especially since I returned home from a recent trip to the East Coast with three bags of vegan butterscotch chips! Thanks, Price Chopper!)

Somehow that recipe just didn't exactly do it for me. Oatmeal butterscotch cookies are classic, sure, but were they the best vegan cookie I could make with my precious butterscotch chips? I didn't think so. This is what I came up with instead.

Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup pear puree (or applesauce)
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
egg replacer for 1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup smooth all-natural peanut butter
3/4 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Sift together both types of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, cream together the Earth Balance, pear puree, and sugar.

Beat the egg replacer, vanilla, and peanut butter in with the sugar mixture.

Stir the contents of both bowls together; then gently fold in the butterscotch chips.

Form into balls of about 1 tablespoon and place on cookie sheets.

Bake for 12 minutes. Cookies will appear squishy and underdone, but do not fear! They will firm up and be perfect.

These were delicious, and we enjoyed them inside the house after a satisfying meal on the back porch. Dinner was pretty simple--the "Silken Tofu in Spicy Red Curry Sauce" from This Can't Be Tofu!* along with jasmine rice and steamed broccoli. It was a lovely evening but it did get chilly, and on a chilly fall evening, there's just not much better than ginger tea and cookies!


*OK, so the title of this Deborah Madison (of Greens fame) cookbook is stupid. Although the recipes are good, there's no denying that tofu is the primary component. I'm not sure who would approach a bowl of this red curry tofu and be convinced it did not, in fact, contain tofu. Besides, why disguise it? Tofu's great!