Vegan Mexican Wedding Cookies

I love how many people in this country love love to celebrate or have a party. I think it just brings a lot of excitement and something to look forward to! Growing up, I never was aware of any Mexican desserts. Even now, I can only think of not even a handful of desserts: flan, torta de tres leches (tres leches cake), dessert empanadas...are the only ones that I'm aware of which was kind of sad! So in spirit of Cinco de Mayo, I'm hoping that I can learn other Mexican desserts in the near future!

So, the story behind the vegan Mexican wedding cookies is that one day, I noticed that every holiday, I see these "powdered sugar ball cookies" so one holiday season I baked some and then my friend, who is a true Latina told me that it's a Mexican Wedding Cookie which got me so excited. Now I don't have to call them "powdered sugar ball cookies"! I also read that some people call them Mexican Wedding "Cakes" instead of cookies but they're cookies. I'm sure there's deeper history behind these lovely cookies but the point is, they're absolutely delicious!

Ordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

How about a day of the ordinary?
I decided to go classic with an ordinary chocolate chip cookies recipe today :)
Chocolate chip cookies can be desserts, an after-school snack, or a friendly treat to give to your neighbors and friends! Speaking of neighbors, I've always imagined how great it would be to live in a world where you can be close with your neighbors, check up on each other, bring them cookies and have a cup of tea...etc. I always hear from my older friends that this "world" that I am imagining existed when they were growing up. I really envy that. I think right now, we live in a world where your neighbors are strangers. Or even worse, we're worried that our neighbors will do bad things to us if we get too close to them. There's a lack of compassion in our society where we're constantly fearing other people, and just simply don't have the genuine relationships with one another. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are definitely places in the world where that still exist (and good for them!) I just wish that I will have a chance to be exposed to an environment like this in the future.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Although I enjoy creating my own recipes, I also love to look at other bakers whom I admire and try to add my own "twist" to make it "No Butter Baking". I also alter some of the amount of ingredients so that it won't be too packed with sugar and oil! Today's recipe reference is Averie Cooks. I've been an active follower of Averie Cooks because her recipes are amazing and it actually works!

As many of you are aware, I'm a complete sweet tooth - especially chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite classic dessert. I've actually never heard of chocolate chip cookie cups so it's kind of a dense version of a chocolate chip cookies in a muffin form. So it's cookie + muffin = absolute heaven! 

Holiday Baking 2014 (vegan brownies, matcha sugar cookies, chewy double chocolate cookies)

Merry Christmas from No Butter Baking!
First of all, I'm sorry that it's been almost three months since I posted some of my recipes... I was reminded by a colleague that the last time that I posted recipe was in October...it's incredible how time flies by... but, this holiday season, it was a baking storm in my kitchen (you know if you follow me on Instagram :) ) So this blog post, you are in for a treat! Three recipes in one blog post!
One is my famous vegan brownies with a holiday twist, second, chewy double chocolate cookies, and lastly, holiday matcha green tea sugar cookies inspired by my childhood book called, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond with a little twist of Mei.

Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

As you can tell, I love desserts - I'm a complete sweet tooth; which is why I need to be extra careful what I eat because if it's something sweet, I can easily eat an entire batch! Going back to the topic of cookies, but when it comes to cookies, I LOVE chewy cookies; however, most of the chewy cookies contains a lot of butter. Although I am not against butter (they certainly are flavorful) but whenever I eat something that contains high amount of butter, my throat starts to itch, which is an uncomfortable feeling. Therefore, I was very very excited when I figured out a recipe that can make chewy cookies without using butter! It was quite an exciting discovery for me :)

Gluten-free Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-free series continues! As I mentioned previously, I have been trying to explore more options for NBB. I think this goes back to when I was in school but I made these gluten-free cookie dough bites using... chickpeas YES, I said it... chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) but trust me - you won't even taste the beans (;

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you heard of a children's book called If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff? Apparently we got that book (which came with a recipe book) from Scholastic when I was in elementary school. In case you need a refresher, Scholastic delivers books, magazines, and educational programs directly to school and the parents (with their children) can purchase them! Brings back good memories huh? o((*^▽^*))o It was so random that we found that and it has been so long!

Also, since this is a children's book, I noticed that many of the recipes in this cook book is very simple. There's no need for preservatives, artificial colors, natural flavors, etc. I like it when the ingredients are very simple and it shows the true meaning of "natural".
Of course, this is NBB so I did make some minor changes and yes, I mentioned it in bold so that you will all recognize it immediately (;

Sugar Free Lemon Drops w/White Chocolate Chips

One time my coworker baked these amazing lemon drop cookies. And she told me that she got the recipe from the American Institute for Cancer Research, which is a great organization where they focus on researching on the link between diet and cancer and to translate the results into practical information for the public. They publish these great recipes where it is approved by Registered Dietitian and other professionals to be available to the public!

As usual, since this blog does not use butter, I utilized this recipe and change it NBB appropriate (: I also used Sucralose instead of sugar because that's how my coworker changed up the recipe for some her her diabetic friends and it actually tasted very good!

**Just an important notice: I did use white chocolate chips as the topping of the cookies. These were NOT sugar free so if you are diabetic, and need to use sugar-free chocolate chips or white chocolate chips, please do so.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Growing up, I was  never that crazy about oatmeal raisin cookies. I was a typical child who was drawn to chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies. Oatmeal raisins were cookies that were always left behind... BUT, recently (meaning while I was in school), I was reintroduced to oatmeal raisin cookies and I fell in love. I didn't realize how the sweetness of the raisins, the scent of cinnamon, and the texture of the oatmeal really drew my attention.

I've told this to many of my friends but this is by far the best oatmeal raisin cookies I've ever baked. Yes, I may be over exaggerating but I'm not (:
I have a friend who loves loves loves his oatmeal raisin cookies. He knew from the start that I wasn't that confident with my cookie baking so he has tried multiple versions of my oatmeal raisin cookies. Of course, he would say that they taste good when it doesn't taste "fantastic". But this one, he said that it tasted good! (hurray for  me!) So maybe that's my confidence level is so high.

Whole Wheat Pecan Cookies with White Chocolate Bottoms

Are you one of those people who cringe when you hear the word 'whole wheat'? Don't be scared! Whole-wheat anything can taste good - as long as you cook/bake properly (: I think whole wheat has that grainy texture and a distinct smell and I thought that adding some sort of 'nuts' will blend very well (which it did!) and who can say no to white chocolate?? This is a very simple yet yummy recipe that I hope that you all enjoy (:

Arare Cookies

When I started to work at my new job, I was introduced to this amazing thing called, "Arare" Cookies. "Aarare", is a bite sized Japanese rice cracker with a soy sauce flavor. At first, the concept of this cookie did not come across as tasty because... Arare is a salty cracker - why would you mix it with cookies? But I was completely wrong - the saltiness of the arare crackers and the sweetness of the cookies is a perfect sweet and salty combination! (OMG why did I not know about this??)

Arare Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Oatmeal Cookies (PBCCBO)

Peanut butter, chocolate, banana and oatmeal - four of my favorite combinations in one big circular sweets is like heaven to me. I don't think any of my families are crazy about these combinations but I absolutely love them. Let me just tell you about peanut butter and chocolate... This is just me, but I feel like I always have a nice conversation with someone, when my starter ice-breaker conversation revolves around peanut butter and chocolate. And I think that has to do with the fact that as humans, we LOVE to talk about what we love right? And we LOVE commonalities with others - that's just human nature. Now if you're not a peanut butter lover, I'm sure this doesn't apply to you (and I respect that), but I thought I'd mention that thought as a peanut butter and chocolate advocate for this blog post (: