One of the food groups where veganism is underrepresented in the supermarket is in the biscuits and cookies aisle. We all know that amazing vegan cookies aren’t so hard to bake, but not many companies in New Zealand have capitalised on this fact.
In Auckland’s supermarkets, one of the likeliest ways of finding vegan cookies is to check the gluten free or health food section. Some products designed for people with allergies end up vegan not because they’re from vegan companies, but because they’ve carefully left out any animal-based allergens. Others are dairy-free but include eggs or vice-versa: ingredients lists are often long and complicated, but packets sometimes include ‘vegan’ on the label to simplify the identification process.
One such product is Macro Wholefoods Market Double Choc Biscuits. A vegan, gluten free version of the Tim Tam, they’re a cream-filled cookie sandwich covered in chocolate. They’re fairly junky, contain palm oil from an unspecified source and aren’t especially healthy. On the other hand, they’re pleasant while not amazing, don’t taste gluten free in a bad way, and are an easy, readily available option for entertaining.
Macro Wholefoods Market is an house-brand of the Australian Woolworths supermarket chain that includes . In Auckland, you’ll find these among the gluten free products in the health food section at Countdown.
Not digging the Palm Oil content on this particular product – but yes you’re right – vegan cookies are kind of difficult to come by!
Come on world! We need more vegan cookies! We will eat them all promise! Right after we eat our vegan dinz! <3
The US has a lot of good vegan cookies, but the good kind (without too many preservatives & such) don’t travel well. We need people baking them locally!
I think my favourite in Auckland (besides home-baked?) are the Oat & Apricot cookies at Revel.
Those look great. They remind me of a British Penguin bar.
Wikipedia says the Tim Tam was based on the Penguin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_%28biscuit%29 (& these ones are pretty clearly based on the Tim Tam).