Get romantic this Valentine's weekend with some vegan heart shaped cookies

The age old saying ‘the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach’ rings very true with these heart shaped strawberry cookies.

This week the Gibraltar Vegan shows us how to get romantic while in the kitchen with this dairy-free alternative to cookies.

The traditional cream is swapped with coconut cream and the butter is dairy-free. That’s about it for the changes proving it is easy to make a vegan treat with a couple of alternatives at hand.

The extra step of cutting the strawberries into a simple heart-shape takes these cookies up a notch.

Enjoy a fun Valentine’s weekend making these cookies with your loved one or as a special surprise for the apple of your eye.

The Gibraltar Vegan

How to make the Gibraltar Vegan’s heart-shaped cookies

Love is in the air, well let’s be honest here on the Rock it is in the air most days. But, at this time of the year, we make an extra special effort to express our love to the main people in our lives, normally it is seen to be your wife, husband, fiancé, fiancée, boyfriend, girlfriend. However, no one ever says no to cookies, do they?

The Gibraltar Vegan

This makes 14 cookies
Ingredients
125g diary and palm oil free butter
60g caster sugar
50g light soft brown sugar
150g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence (I use ndali as it only contains vanilla beans and alcohol)
1tsp golden syrup (make it a generous teaspoon)
¼ tsp salt
160g can coconut cream (put this in the fridge as it needs to be solid)
7 strawberries
1 heart shaped cookie cutter

Method
1. Place the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar, vanilla essence and golden syrup into your food mixer and mix until well blended
2. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. I find it best to blend these ingredients in by hand, to avoid flour redecorating your kitchen walls and cabinets, before using the food mixer. Mix until well combined
3. Using a baking sheet, or grease proof paper if you do not have a sheet, place your heart shaped cookie cutter on it and with a tablespoon scoop a kumquat size amount of mixture into the cutter and spread it out. Top up if need be, you don’t want the cookie to be too thin or too thick
4. Pop in the oven for 12 minutes at 180 degrees
5. Once the cookies are baked, remove from the oven and leave them to cool down
6. Remove the can of coconut cream from the fridge and scoop out the cream, do not mix it with the coconut water. Using an electric whisk, beat the cream until it is softer and easier to spread. On a side note if you are looking for a vegan whipped cream recipe, use this and just beat the coconut cream for longer
7. Assemble the cookie stack, placing a cookie, coconut cream and strawberries layer upon layer

Recipe and pics by The Gibraltar Vegan