I give you my heart and a [recipe]
I had a small amount of chocolate chips remaining in the bag and decided to make a little batch of cookies to use them up. These are my basic go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I just shaped the dough into hearts before baking.
Bakery Style Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (with A Hint of Maple)
Makes about 12 large or 25 normal-sized cookies
Make these cookies BIG like those giant chocolate chip cookies you can find at bakeries. As their name suggests, these cookies have a chewy center contained within perfectly crispy edges. The maple syrup adds a little something to these, but the maple flavor is very subtle, if noticeable at all. The key to getting the chips evenly distributed and stuck in the dough is to use your hands! It makes all the difference. All in all, these cookies are ridiculously easy to make.
2/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Stir together the oil, sugar, syrup, applesauce and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl.
Add in flour, baking soda, and salt (no need to sift!). Stir in chocolate chips. If the chips don’t want to stick to the batter, use your hands! If the dough is a little dry, gradually add a small amount of soy milk, maybe a couple teaspoons, until it holds together.
Drop by large spoonfuls, 3-4 tablespoons each, onto a cookie sheet and slightly flatten. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
Seitan Beats Your Meat!
I’d just like to announce that I’ve started another blog entitled Seitan Beats Your Meat! Of course I’ll continue to write Vegan Cookies, the new blog is for everything vegan that doesn’t fit in the cookie category. Along with the blog, I’ve decided to make a few zines, the first one a little candymaking zine called Vegan Candyland. Check SBYM for updates on how to purchase!
Pink Lemonade Cookies to celebrate!
S’mores Bars and White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
The trick to these is using the broiler:
White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies are a variation of a chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
This morning I felt like baking cookies (something I haven’t done in a while!). I decided on an old favorite, Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. My baking supplies were limited. I was out of chocolate chips and brown sugar, so I made a basic peanut butter fudge, froze it, and chopped it up like chocolate chunks.
I now work in a non-vegan bakery as a cake decorator. Last week was my first week and I decorated hundreds of cupcakes and a bunch of cakes. It’s the perfect job for me because I only have to do my favorite part of making cakes-the decorating, constantly! And I get to practice my decorating skills without having a million cakes lying around my house to eat. I guess making all those sweets and not eating any of them reminded me I needed to satisfy my own sweet tooth once in a while via chocolate peanut butter cookies! Ha!
Day of Silence
These cookies did all the talking.
Making “rainbow” hypnosis cookies took 5 different doughs. I didn’t have it in me to make 7, so blue and orange unfortunately didn’t get to join the party.
Some new cookies… [and a recipe]
Hello everyone!
I’ve finished the cookie inventing and writing parts of this project, so keep checking back for updates on the book in the near future!
In the meantime, click here to look at the full collection of cookie photos.
And if you haven’t friended vegan cookies on MySpace yet, here it is!
As promised, some recent creations:
Vanilla Sandwich Cookies
Super Cute Turtle Cookies
Chocolate and Vanilla Jam Thumbprints
And a recipe! All the posts in which I include recipes are tagged with “recipe” under the “category” headline on the right of the screen. Here they all are: http://vegancookies.wordpress.com/category/recipe/
Chocolate Thumbprints
Makes 18 cookies
Aww, thumbprint cookies are so cute. With a fudgy texture and deep chocolate flavor, these are not your average thumbprint cookie. You can use any kind of jam you like. Of course they’re good with your typical strawberry or raspberry jam, but there are so many possibilities like peach or blueberry!
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 tablespoons jam, your choice
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium-sized bowl, mix the oil, sugar, soy milk, and extracts.
Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and stir until completely mixed. Add a bit more flour if the dough looks wet.
Shape into tablespoon-sized balls and place on a lightly oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet (do not flatten) and bake for 9 minutes.
Remove from oven and using your thumb, press into each cookie, making a thumbprint. Put about 1/2 teaspoon jam on each cookie. Return to the oven and bake for 3 more minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool and enjoy!
Elegance
These homemade fortune cookies and pirouettes (“flute cookies”) hold their shape while cooling by resting on a champagne glass.
It’s been a while… [recipe]
I’ve neglected the cookie blog for way too long and I apologize! I’ve been really busy with lots of recipe making (which will be done in less than a month, by the way). The next step after that will be finding a publisher and creating this book! It’s all quite overwhelming, so if anyone has advice about the endeavor of getting published, I’m all ears!
In the meantime, Happy Holidays! I’ve included the recipe for my Chocolate Peppermint Cream Bars, the perfect thing to make in the winter.
Chocolate Peppermint Cream Bars
Makes 2-3 dozen
Whoa, man! These are pure chocolate and peppermint bliss! They’re not all that difficult or time consuming either, despite having three layers. They do call for a lot of chocolate chips, but feel free to halve the recipe and make in an 8×4-inch bread pan. Don’t even wait for the holidays to make these.
Bottom Layer:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup soy milk
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 scant cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Peppermint Cream:
1/2 cup margarine
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
3-4 drops green food coloring (optional, but attractive)
2 tablespoons soy milk, plus more if needed
Chocolate Layer:
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Bottom Layer: Melt the chocolate chips either in the microwave or in a glass bowl placed in boiling water. Remove from heat and stir in the soy milk and the cocoa powder. Cream together margarine and sugar with a strong fork, then add in the chocolate/soy milk/cocoa mixture and stir until incorporated. Add the vanilla, then the flour and salt. No need to sift.
In an 8×8-inch baking pan LINED WITH PARCHMENT PAPER (I cannot stress enough the importance), press out the dough evenly. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the center is firm and the edges are done, then cool.
Peppermint Cream: Meanwhile, cream together the margarine and powdered sugar. Add in the peppermint extract and food coloring (if using). Gradually add the soy milk until the mixture kind of resembles frosting. If it’s liquid, add more powdered sugar. If it’s stiff or dry, add more soy milk. Chill in the fridge until the bottom layer is cooled.
Chocolate Layer (Make this at the last minute): Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in a glass bowl in boiling water, or over a double boiler.
Assembly: Spread the bottom layer evenly with peppermint cream, then chill in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Remove, then spread the top with the chocolate, creating a swirl pattern if you like. The chocolate will not spread out evenly due to the peppermint layer, but if you want it to be smooth, do a second layer of chocolate, halving the chocolate layer ingredients.
Let set, then cut as you like and enjoy!
(I also took a little hiatus from cookies to make a grinch gingerbread house!)
Fruity: Chewy Banana Cookies, Pumpkin Spice, Blueberry. And some PB Grahams
Chewy Banana-Banana Cookies
I’ve been trying to make chewy banana cookies, on and off, for about a year and it finally happened! They’re called banana-banana cookies, rather than banana-oatmeal or banana-nut, because the banana shines in this recipe!
Chewy Pumpkin Spice Cookies
I have a fluffy pumpkin cookie, but here is the elusive CHEWY pumpkin cookie!
Blueberry Walnut Breakfast Cookies
These are completely oil/margarine-free, but don’t taste healthy!
Peanut Butter Graham Crackers
A variation from original grahams.
