That would be me. I’ve been silent because I’m trying to come up with a tasty recipe for sugar cookies with icing that could compete with what the kids are going to be seeing everywhere from now until Christmas but which would be free of refined sugar and vegan (i.e. no butter, milk or cream). Trust me, if I could just FIND a good recipe, I would try it and post it if it was good. But it’s a funny thing. People seem to be concerned about one of the two things, and in exclusion to each other so far from my research. I’ve been reading the The Jungle Effect, and beginning that dovetailed with all the Halloween cookies popping up everywhere. The book is a meditation on how the evolving Western diet has turned out to be a hotbed for disease because of its heavy emphasis on, among other things, refined sugars that contain no nutrients. So while we don’t live in the jungle and I do very much admire and love the beauty of what Western baking has created in its finest moments (macaroons, anyone??), there’s something to be said for learning how to make the foods we love more closely resemble what we should by now be recognizing as “real” food. With regards to cookies, I’m more concerned about getting the sugar out and the substitute right because the sweetness is what makes a dessert a dessert, after all. Truthfully, the special thing in icings seems to be powdered sugar, and it’s hard to replace. But I’m trying! Taking longer than I thought or realized. But hopefully at the end of it we’ll have something good that won’t spike their sugar or fill them with tons of empty calories, but STILL be delicious and pretty. As my friend said: everything with them (and, who are we kidding, us as well) comes in through the eyes, so these have to be pretty at the end of the day…) So stay tuned for that…
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I’m so excited to see what you come up with! what a great project! I think those cakes at Kozy’s were gluten free….they might have some good substitute alternatives??xx