I am not the baker of the FWTS duo. I prefer braising over baking. I don’t often work from a recipe. I can follow a recipe but I prefer to pull together ingredients that I think will taste good together and then cook them in a way I enjoy. This is not possible with baking. Baking is a science and I am terrible at science. One thing that I feel a little comfortable with baking are drop cookies so if I offer any post on baked goods, they will most likely be for drop cookies.
A week or so ago a coworker brought in some chocolate chip cookies for the birthday’s of our two NE’s* in the department. These cookies were incredible. They were crunchy on the outside but then super soft on the inside. Also the chocolate chip/cookie ratio was perfect. I was even more awestruck that these cookies were in fact….VEGAN! I have nothing against vegans, some of my very favorite people are vegan. I am just always amazed when I tasted delicious baked goods without precious butter. I will no longer be surprised though by delicious vegan baked goods because I am believer in them because of this cookie. I luckily own the cookbook from which the cookie came from so I can share it with you.
Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup margarine, at room temp
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or vegan carob chips)
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cream the margarine and sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy. Add the molasses and vanilla and incorporate. Add the dry ingredients to this mixture and mix until a dough forms. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls or drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until mildly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Then transfer to cooling racks.
I had one little problem with this recipe. I used my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and the dough came out really crumbly. So crumbly that I was unable to roll them into balls. I panicked for a little but then just added a little bit of water and that did the trick. I later asked the coworker, who had made them before, why this was and she said I needed to mix it by hand. Now I know.
*We have two people in our department with the initials NE and their birthdays are a day or so apart.
this is actually the first vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that i ever tried! soooo good. i like to chill the dough overnight too.
but margarine is the devil!
So I used Earth Balance which doesn’t label itself as margarine. But I agree with you, I prefer to use butter.
i am going to make these when i get home!
now i can woo all the vegan chicago boys that overtake my life. thanks, babe. i owe you.
this beard is sure vegan!!! This sweet goodness has been saved!
Quick and easy holiday treat « // Dec 18, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] I have mentioned before, I am not much of a baker so this kind of thing is right up my alley. This is something I made last [...]
These are excellent. I made up a batch and added walnuts and flax seeds to kick the fiber up a enough that I could consider it a “healthy” snack. Thanks for the recipe!