In honor of the first day of spring, I decided to make cutout sugar cookies. This recipe is made with vegan butter (smart balance in this case), and a pureed banana to serve as a binder. As a result, there is a distinct banana taste to these cookies. However, I found that flavor to be a nice addition to a fairly basic sugar cookie dough. As with many vegan baking recipes, these cookies taste a lot like remade sugar cookies because they are made with vegetable fat and not butter. In the end, these are a simple, delicious sugar cookies that are easy to make and fun to decorate; the possibilities are endless. I made pink and yellow flowers and butterflies in honor of spring; you could literally make any shape you like.

½ cup vegan butter

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 Banana pureed

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

¼ cup almond meal

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for two to three minutes, until the butter is pale in color.
2. Add the pureed banana and vanilla beat for another 30 seconds until incorporated.
3. Combine the flour, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
4. With the mixer on low speed slowly add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet until a dough forms.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and form into a disc about one inch thick, chill for 30-45mins.
6. After the dough is chilled, cut a small portion and roll it on a well-floured surface until the dough is about ¹/₈ of an inch thick, cut with cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, chill the baking sheet for 15 minutes.
7. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bake the cookies for about 10-12minutes, until the edges turn golden brown.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack until fully cooled.

Frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. unsweetened almond milk

2 drops of vanilla extract

*optional: 1 drop of food coloring

1. Combine almond milk and powdered sugar and stir until all of the sugar has been incorporated.
2. Add vanilla and stir until the mixture is glossy, at this point you can color your frosting if you choose to.
   
   Inspired by: http://minimalistbaker.com/1-bowl-vegan-sugar-cook...