Frida Fridays: Frida's Veganized Rum Shortbread Cookies

This week for Frida Fridays, I'm doing something a little different! Frida's step-daughter Guadalupe Rivera came out with a cookbook based on Frida's personal recipes called Frida's Fiesta's: Recipes and Reminisces of Life With Frida Kahlo. You can check it out HERE on Amazon. Of course I had to check it out immediately! I'm a vegan and, as a shock to no one, very little in the book is vegan. Challenge Accepted! I thought trying out some vegan versions of a few recipes would be an awesome way to do something completely different for Frida Fridays!

As a refresher, Frida Fridays are something Lizette and I have done for a few years while the Viva La Frida Swap takes place in order to give inspiration and encouragement to those participating in the swap. For more info on our swaps, check out the swap website HERE!

On to the cookies! The original recipe calls for:
2 pound of flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons lard
1 cup superfine sugar
1/4 rum
2 cups confectioners sugar

Vegan baking is tricky because you can't do a straight one for one replacement of a regular recipe. All baking is chemistry and something like cornstarch doesn't have quite the same properties as say lard. I did a bit of research other vegan shortbread recipes and had to do a little experimenting from there to get the right balance as I wanted to keep to Frida's recipe as close as possible.

The vegan recipe:
1 cup vegan margarine such as Earth Balance
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons spiced rum 
2 cups flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
confectioners sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
Blend together the margarine and the sugar for a few minutes until well mixed.
Add in 1/4 cup of rum and blend for few more minutes.
Sift the flour and cornstarch into a separate bowl and then add them in a little at a time. Blend until well incorporated.
At this point I removed the bowl from my mixer to do a final kneading with my hands. The dough seemed a bit too dry in some places so I added the extra 2 tablespoons of rum to help incorporate everything else.

Lay an additional sheet on parchment paper on the counter and place the dough in the center. 
Roll the dough out to approximately 1/2 inch thick
Use a cookie cutter (or in my case, the rim of a pint glass) to cut out your cookies. Transfer them to a baking sheet.
Bake for 15-17 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly and then sprinkle confectioners sugar over the top.

They are delicious and I ate 4 of them just during the time I spent trying to get good photos of them! I love a nice simple sugar or shortbread cookie and these are maybe some of my favs. I'll be sharing more recipes with the Bee Creative Swaps Patreon subscribers this weekend so be sure to subscribe for more goodies there! 

Happy crafting and happy baking!

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