VEGAN DUNK’AROOS
These little treats are so nostalgic for me. If you don’t know what Dunk’aroos are, you probably don’t live in Canada and for that, I feel bad for you. That being said, you should still make these and pretend you’re back in the second grade eating these out of a blue single-use plastic container with a small divider built-in for the icing. The funfetti variety is classic but you can get creative and make these into whatever you want! I’ll give some variations at the end of this post.
Not only did I want to make a homemade version of the original, but I also wanted to make it vegan. To do so, I looked up the ingredients of the originals online. To my surprise, I couldn’t even go off the ingredients list to figure out what the base was (icing, yogurt, whip cream, etc), because the ingredients list was FULL of chemicals. I went to the store and grabbed some coconut yogurt and knew that I could make a vegan icing base at home if I needed to. The experimenting began.
Ingredients for cookies:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1/ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ¼ cup vegan butter (I used Melt Organics)
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 vegan egg (I use Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
Ingredients for icing:
• ¼ cup vegan butter (I used Melt Organics)
• ¼ cup icing sugar
• 1 cup funfetti cake batter mix (I used Betty Crocker)
• ½ cup vegan coconut yogurt (I used Maison Riviera – Plain)
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Directions for icing:
• Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft then add icing sugar and cake batter mixture until smooth.
• Add in the vanilla and coconut yogurt and stir until mixed.
• If you want the icing to be a little bit sweeter or thicker then add more icing sugar a little bit at a time.
• See variations below for coloring ideas.
Directions for cookies:
• In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt.
• In a separate bowl, cream the vegan butter and sugar together with an electric beater until fluffy.
• Add in the vegan egg and vanilla and stir until mixed.
• Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture until the dough is formed. Try not to overmix.
• Form a flat disk of dough and wrap it in some reusable saran wrap or between parchment paper with an elastic (I used Abeego beeswax wraps). Set in fridge to chill for 20 minutes to an hour.
• ** (SEE TIP BELOW) Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface if not using my tip. Roll the dough out as thin as possible (about 1/8 of an inch thick).
• Using a small cookie cutter of your choice, punch out shapes and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.
• This next step isn’t mandatory but if you have an intricate shape or you want the cookies to hold their form then place them in the fridge for 20minutes to an hour before baking.
• Preheat oven to 350 C and bake the cookies for 5-8 minutes or until the bottoms start to get golden brown. Always start with the lowest recommended time and check frequently each minute after that.
• Remove from baking sheet and transfer to a cooling rack so they can get crispy.
• Serve and enjoy!
St. Patricks Day Shamrock’aroos
• Pick up some fun green sprinkles (make sure they are vegan if you want this recipe to be completely vegan) and stir them into the icing.
• If you want to naturally turn your icing green, then you can add spirulina or chlorella powder a pinch full at a time.
• To make the icing taste like shamrock (vanilla and mint), add 1-2 drops of mint extract and add an extra ¼ tsp of vanilla extract.
Pink Easter Dunk’aroos
• I naturally colored this icing with beetroot powder but even a few drops of beet juice would do the trick without compromising the flavour at all.
Cookies and Cream Dunk’aroos
• Omit cinnamon from the cookie recipe and replace with ½ tsp cocoa powder.
• Add Oreo cookie crumbs to the icing until you have your desired consistency.
I can’t wait to experiment with some more flavour combinations of these Vegan treats and I will keep this post updated when I do! Happy baking! If you try this recipe, please tag me on Instagram @KaitlynDickie. I can’t wait to see how they turn out for you!