(Please note that the new 2017 gluten-free version of these cookies, in a different color box, contains egg white powder.)
Yesterday afternoon, I had just left the farmer’s market with a bag full of super-healthy produce, and needed to stop by Trader Joe’s for a few remaining items on my list. But, though, my grocery bag was looking very virtuous, I was thinking impure sugar-laden thoughts.
I prefer homemade cookies any day of the week, but I was jonesin’ pretty badly for something sweet on the fly. We had just come from a Friday night stay at the rustic-elegant Sanderling Inn in Duck, North Carolina, which serves tea and homemade cookies in the afternoon. How I would have loved some cookies with my tea after our 4-mile walk on Friday, but alas, they were off-limits. So, I came home with cookies on my mind.
Therefore, at TJ’s, I detoured down the cookie aisle in search of something sweet and vegan. I must have picked up every box on that aisle to read the list of ingredients only to be met with whey, milk powder, eggs, butter, and all the rest of it. Finally, I picked up the least likely looking box and–Eureka!–all vegan. It turns out that Trader Joe’s brand of Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s in their cheery holiday-striped box are vegan approved!
Think Oreo’s, but with a peppermint filling. So, while you probably won’t want to serve these at your next party, you might want to tuck a couple into you or your child’s lunchbox, or serve up a little quasi-guilty pleasure at a party-for-one when nobody’s looking.
November 14, 2011 at 8:39 am
I really really wish we had a TJs around here. Anytime I go on vacation, I map out the nearest TJs to hit up. Forget scenic sites, museums, history. Just find me a TJs LOL
November 14, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Heather, I’m that way about Whole Foods because we don’t have one…yet. One is being built to open in 2012 I believe. I hope both stores will stay open, though they are going to be near each other.
December 16, 2011 at 11:16 am
Well, my 5 year old had a holiday cookie party/exchange at school. She brought a box of these Trader Joes candy cane cookies for the exchange. They are festive with the candycane & I *think* they fit the bill for no nuts school policy.
December 16, 2011 at 4:20 pm
A cookie exchange for 5 year olds??? Oh my, that the same thing as a cookie exchange for the moms, no? 🙂 With all of the insanity this time of year, you were so smart to go with something “store-bought”! I’m wondering how they would be dipped, or half-dipped in vegan white chocolate???
November 20, 2017 at 11:08 pm
I was at TJ’s today. The cookies are NOT vegan. They have eggs in them.
November 21, 2017 at 5:04 am
Becky, they actually ARE vegan BUT the new gluten-free version contains egg white powder. In two articles I found online, one from 2015 and one from 2016, the latter in Veg News, the cookies are touted as vegan. And of course they were when I purchased them. So I did some more research and discovered the new gluten-free version with their egg white powder. Good info for people to know so I will make a note above.