Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

For this holiday season, I bought 'Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie jar' cookbook on Amazon. For the couple of days I was leafing through the book breaking my head to decide what to make first. My son came home from school yesterday and asked me if he could have a gingerbread cookie because he made a  paper gingerbread boy in school and was wondering how it would actually taste. I knew right away that Gingerbread cookies would be first cookie to be made from my new cookbook. Luckily I had all the ingredients on hand. My son helped me with reading the ingredients and the instructions. After I was done making the dough and set it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour, he pestered me a million times if it was time to bake. Oh these kids and their restlessness :-)
These cookies can be made with whole-wheat pastry flour, but I used 1 cup each of ww pastry flour and all-purpose flour. I toned down the spices a little bit because personally I'm not a big fan of dry ginger and I wasn't sure if my son would like it either, so I used a little less than 1tsp dry ginger. Ingredients: Oil - 1/3cup
Sugar - ¾cup
Molasses - ¼cup
Unsweetened Soy milk - ¼cup Whole-wheat pastry flour or All purpose flour - 2cups (use a combination) Baking soda - ¾tsp
Salt - ½tsp
Spice Blend:
Ground Cinnamon - ½tsp
Ground Cloves - ½tsp
Ground Nutmeg - ½tsp
Dry ginger - 1½tsp
Method:

• Combine the spices for the spice blend in a small bowl.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine oil and sugar. Using a whisk, beat for 3 minutes until light. Add molasses and soy milk. Beat until well combined.
• Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spice blend into the wet ingredients. Mix until a stiff dough forms.
• Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 3 days.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
• Take the cookie dough out of the fridge and if it has been in the fridge for more than an hour, then set it aside for 10 minutes.
• Then roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into less than ¼" thick  rectangle. Using a cutter, cut the shapes out. Using a thin spatula carefully lift the dough and place them on the prepared baking sheets. 
• Bake for 8 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Icing: Ingredients: Confectioners Sugar - 1cup Soy Milk - 1~2tbsp
Method:

• Add just enough milk to confectioners sugar to make a thick icing.
• Place the icing in a ziplock bag. Snip just a little bit off the corner and proceed with icing cooled cookies.

Linking the cookies to Bake-a-thon 2013.