Vegan Piggy Cookies ビーガンブーちゃんクッキー [Recipes Sweets スウィーツレシピ]
日本語のレシピは ビーガン情報誌と”Hachidory" をご覧ください。
Happy Lunar New Year !
In many Asian countries, the new year is celebrated according to the lunar calendar.
Japan also used to celebrate it during this season until early Meiji Era which is not so long ago.
It is the season that early spring is starting, and the plum blossoms are blooming.
But I had never thought why we celebrate the new year on January 1of the modern calendar until I was asked by some of my friends while I lived in Singapore why Japanese people do not celebrate the Lunar New Year.
In Singapore the biggest new year is Lunar New Year which is also called Chinese New Year. (Singapore is a multi-racial country, so there are several new years to be celebrated.)
It was a kind of surprising and interesting fact for me that people there preserve each race’s tradition as I got the impression that the country and people there were more westernized and progressive than Japan and Japanese people.
At that time, I was a young Japanese language teacher.
“The language is deeply related with its culture, and without knowing, understanding and being able to explain it, one cannot really teach the language well to the foreign students. “
That is what I found after I started teaching Japanese to foreign people in a foreign country.
“Why do Japanese people celebrate the new year on January 1st of the modern calendar, not the lunar calendar?”
My search had started.
My favorite lunar calendar that I pusrchase and use each year
It was unfolded that many of the traditional events I had been celebrating since my childhood are not following the actual dates, which means they are celebrated irrelevant to the seasons and do not make any sense. May be obon/the day to honor the ancestors, and otsukimi/moon viewing day are the only two events that Japanese people are still following the lunar calendar.
I think very few Japanese people are paying attention to these facts and most of the people are using unsuitable words to express the natural phenomena of the seasons and practicing unmatching seasonal events.
The words we often use for the new year such as
“迎春/geishun/welcoming spring”,
“干支/zodiac”,
“七草粥/shichikusagayu/porridge with seven kinds of wild spring plants”
are effective only when they are used during the new year of the lunar calendar.
Spring is too far away from January 1st, zodiac is the concept that was born from the lunar calendar, those seven kinds of wild plants are not showing their faces yet in January of the modern calendar, so the farmers have to grow them artificially in the green houses using unnecessary fossil fuel to meet the demand of people to make the porridge on the 7th of January.
I mentioned in previous post that the year of pig had started.
Esther who was born as a farmed animal but is now living happily as a family member
When I said it, I was following the current custom that general Japanese people are practicing.
But, in fact the year of pig has just started.
Ironically, Japan is now on full alert of the outbreak of classical swine fever/hog cholera, and 16000 piggies have been culled so far.
It is normal that those farmed animals are treated as mere commodities, therefore no medical attentions are given and they just have to endure their pains and sufferings.
All the media is reporting how big the damages are and sympathizing with the farmers and business owners.
What about piggies?
They are the ones suffering the most.
They are a living creature who feels pain and fear just like us.
My heart sinks whenever I hear the reports and opinions with no regretting words towards them.
Visit these sites to learn more about pigs.
How did you find ?
Aren't they adoreble ?
O.K, let me share the recipe of vegan piggy cookies now to be compassionate to them.
After making, may be you can also share them with somebody and start your conversation about piggies and pass those information that you gained from those sites.
Anyway those cookies look so kawaii and taste yummy, no one could resist eating them.
( or some might think too cute to eat them ! )
Here you go !
Vegan Piggy Cookies
It is no problem to make the variety kinds of vegan cookies of different flavors and textures without using eggs nor butter.
Gluten free cookies, no problem!
Even oil free cookies, possible! (I’ve been experimenting it as it is not so easy to shape.)
The one I am sharing with you today is the simplest method using normal wheat flour, some sweetener and oil.
The gluten-free version was added on 2002Jan at the end of this post.
Ingredients
120g wheat flour - sift
35g syrup – beet, maple, agave, coconut etc., but the one non-GMO and produced from your region is recommended
15g soy milk
35g oil – canola, olive, coconut, non-GMO, no chemically processed oil is recommended.
Lemon zest from 1/2 lemon – grate only the outer yellow part, do not grate the whitish part as it tastes bitter
1/8 tsp salt
Utensils required
2 Bowls, Sifter, Spatula, Baking Sheets, Rolling Pin, Cookie Cutter, thin and flat Spatula to transfer the cookies, Toothpick, Oven, Cooling Rack
Procedure
1. Mix syrup, soy milk, oil, lemon zest and salt in a bowl till emulsified.
2. Add sifted flour and combine using spatula. Do not over mix.
3. Form a mass with your hands and place it on a baking sheet.
4. Cover the dough with another baking sheet and press down with your hands.
5. Roll to about 4mm thickness using the rolling pin.
l Try to roll to even thickness so that all the cookies can be baked in same duration of time.
6. Rest in the fridge for one hour if time allows, as it is easier to handle at the next stage. Recommended especially during summer or when the room temperature is high.
7. Remove the top baking sheet and shape the dough into piggies using the cookie cutter.
8. Collect the remaining dough, kneed gently, spread with a rolling pin and shape the piggies. Repeat this until used up all th dough.
9. Transfer onto the oven tray lined with a baking sheet.
l If the edge of the shaped dough is not sharp, remove the lump with a toothpick.
l Handle gently as the dough is fragile.
l Try to place the cookies in the same intervals so that they’ll be baked evenly.
9. Bake for 12~15 minutes.
10. Transfer to the cooling rack to cool down.
I used the roasted brown rice powder for these piggies, so they turned out a bit browny color.
l The baked cookies are also fragile so be careful not to drop them.
If such thing happens, both the cookies and your heart will be broken. ( ；∀；)
Other variation of animal cookies
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The color of the cookies is more ore less like this if you follow the formula of this recipe above.
Replacing same amount of wheat flour with 10g of cocoa powder and shaped to the horses.
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I stamped "VEGAN" on the cow, felt a bit umcomfortabe afterwards.
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Common, everyone !
Gluten-free version (Added 2022 Jan24)
60g Rice flour for cake making （製菓用米粉）
20g potato starch
20g almond flour
30g syrup
30g vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt
1. Combine rice flour, potato starch and almond flour.
2. Combine syrup, vegetable oil and salt.
3. Combine 1 and 2
4. Add soy milk if the dough is too dry.
5. Follow the same procedure of 3~10 of above recipe. But you may need to lower the oven temperature to 170℃ for baking.
Happy Cooking !
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