Make the snap count

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This article was published 11/12/2021 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For John Rush, baking is a special kind of torture.

“I, like, seriously hate baking,” says the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber and proprietor of the vegan cooking blog Rescue Dog Kitchen. “I’m too chaotic to bake; it’s very structured with exact amounts — that’s not how I live my life.”

Despite his aversion, Rush has been spending a lot of time at the oven lately for the sake of recipe diversity on his blog, which raises money for local animal shelters, and to recreate a taste of home.

“Growing up, my birthday cake that my mom always made me was an Oreo chocolate cheesecake,” he says, adding that it’s been more than a decade since he’s enjoyed a slice. “So, I’ve been trying to recreate it recently and have exploded my oven twice now.”

It’s been a messy few weeks and a good learning experience.

“You learn a lot when you fail at things and it’s similar to sports — when you get absolutely destroyed in a game, you learn a lot about where you went wrong,” Rush says. “When you go wrong in baking, like you add too much baking soda instead of baking powder, it’s very bad. So I’ve learned a lot about just taking the time to appreciate the process.”

Vegan baking has required an extra ounce of patience in order to find the right substitutions for butter and eggs — the cornerstone of most traditional recipes. Compared to when he first went vegan, Rush says there are a lot more premade alternatives, like plant-based butter and eggs, available locally.

He’s experimented with apple sauce and banana, but likes to use a binding liquid that doesn’t impart its own flavour. For that purpose, flax egg is king.

“It’s super easy,” he says. “It’s one tablespoon of warm water with one tablespoon of ground flax; you let it sit for a few minutes and it acts exactly like an egg in baking — and flax doesn’t have a taste, so it won’t change the outcome.”

Chocolate chip cookies were another childhood mainstay for Rush. In fact, it wasn’t until he started visiting friends’ houses during the holidays that he realized other cookie varieties existed.

“Realizing there was something called a gingersnap and that, oh my god, they’re amazing,” he says. “I love the holiday season so much and that’s exactly what these cookies remind me of.”

After some trial and error, Rush has managed to veganize the nostalgic holiday recipe. His version makes use of fresh chopped ginger and fancy molasses. When it comes to cooking tips, Rush recommends keeping the cookies small, because they tend to spread, and letting them cool on the baking tray before transferring them.

“They’ll be pretty gooey when they come out,” he says. “That’s pretty typical with a lot of vegan baking because when you’re not using the egg you’ve got to let it set properly.”

Visit rescuedogkitchen.com for more of Rush’s vegan recipes.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney

Vegan Gingersnaps by John Rush

5 ml (1 tsp) ginger, minced
180 g (3/4 cup) vegan margarine
200 g/250 ml (1 cup) white sugar, plus 65 g/80 ml (1/3 cup) for rolling
60 ml (1/4 cup) fancy molasses, must be of the fancy variety
15 ml (1 tbsp) ground flaxseed or flaxseed meal
15 ml (1 tbsp) warm water
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
10 ml (2 tsp) baking soda
10 ml (2 tsp) baking powder
240 g/500 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare flax egg by mixing 15 ml (1 tbsp) of warm water with 15 ml (1 tbsp) of flax and letting it sit until step 4.

Cream sugar and margarine together in stand or hand mixer on the lowest setting. Mix them in well but don’t over-cream them.

Add molasses, flax egg and minced ginger to the creamed batter. Mix in with a spatula.

Add ground cloves, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and powder, and mix in with a spatula.

Once everything is mixed, fold in flour 125 ml (1/2 cup) at a time with a spatula.

Add 80 ml (1/3 cup) sugar to a small bowl. Use a tablespoon to form dough into balls then roll in sugar and place spread out on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. *9 to a sheet max!*

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes.

Let cookies cool on the cookie pan (or remove the whole parchment paper) for at least 10 minutes before placing them on a baking rack or plate.

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.