Pignolis

Ready for the oven...

Since going vegan, there are very few food items I have really missed. Up till now I have been able to either veganize or substitute my favorite foods. However, my heart shrunk to Grinch size when I realized I couldn't have any of my grandma's cookies. 

The cookies I am talking about are my family's cookies which are made only on Christmas (and sometimes Easter). There is a variety including "grandma's cookies" (basically just flour, butter and sugar topped with sugar icing), folded, jelly filled cookies, pizzelles, struffoli ("struffola") and pignolis. My absolute favorite are the pignolis. Each bite is filled with chewy, almond-y goodness that reminds me of sitting at my grandma's kitchen table on Christmas day. 

Imagine when I discovered there was a vegan pignoli recipe in existence! It can be found in the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by who else, but Isa & Terry from The PPK. Today was the day to take the recipe for a test run. Just unwrapping the almond paste sent me into a sugar induced squeal of delight. Maybe it's just me, but I could just sit and smell almond paste all day long. (Burt's Bees almond milk hand cream has the same exact scent as almond paste, by the way. It makes my mouth water...)

 If these last more than 5 minutes here I am hoping to save some for myself for Christmas... but I might not be able to stop myself from eating every last one today.

The recipe can be found on The PPK, here. (No, I don't own the book, yet. Ahem, Santa.)