SFoodie Advent Calendar, Day 2: Vegan Joe-Joes

By Laura Beck Thu., Dec. 2 2010 at 9:00 AM

Categories: Holidays

Filled with the holiday spirit? Yep. Vegan? That, too.

The SFoodie Advent Calendar counts down the days before Christmas/Nondenominationalwinterholiday, one holiday treat at a time.

For a vegan like me, Candy Cane Joe-Joes are nature's perfect food. I don't exaggerate when I say that I wait all year for these little treats to grace the shelves of my local Trader Joe's.

CCJJs are chocolate sandwich cookies taken to the next level by the addition of candy cane bits, and I need these things like John Boehner needs orange spray tan. The contrast of the cream filling with the crunchy, cool peppermint is transcendent. I swear, while eating ~~a box~~ a few, I've seen visions of a more perfect Christmas, one in which my entire family can stand being in the same room at the same time. I know, such dreams are impossible, but they're almost touchable under the influence of the Candy Cane Joe-Joe.

So when the season comes around, I buy box upon box, hoarding them in cabinets, in dark corners of my closets, and under couches. Where there was once an end table, there is now just a stack of CCJJ boxes. That way, I'm kept in cookies until their May expiration date, when I'm forced to employ such tactics as baking them into cupcakes, brownies, and this ungodly thing I call "Candy Cane Joe Joe Bourguignon." Not so good ... but you know, desperate times.

Previous Days:
Dec. 1: Fruitcake from Schubert's Bakery

Laura Beck is a founding editor of Vegansaurus and tweets at @mrpenguino.
Follow SFoodie at @sfoodie.