Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies



Finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe has been a goal for quite some time.  I could easily have gone on the internet to find one.  If you spend any time visiting baking blogs, there are a large number of sites claiming to have the “perfect” recipe.  Unfortunately, for me, most of them contain eggs.  I’m allergic to eggs.  When you remove the eggs from recipe, it usually doesn’t come out the way it was intended, therefore, not “perfect”.  

I make cookies regularly for my husband, he’s a big fan of the cookie.  “Perfect” for him is a crispy/chewy cookie, rather than a cake like one.  I used to buy a local product, Tom’s cookie dough.  It comes in an ice cream style container already formed into balls, ready to bake.  This is excellent cookie dough and easy enough for my husband to make them himself, but it’s expensive.  It also contains eggs, so I couldn’t eat them.  (that was probably a good thing)  Now that I’m unemployed, I figured it was time to make them from scratch.  They would cost less and I would make them with organic ingredients.
I’ve been tweaking my recipe a little bit each time I’ve baked them and I’ve finally gotten the right balance of crispy and chewy.  I wouldn’t call this recipe “perfect” because I had to use sugar to get that balance and I would rather have used honey or agave.  Liquid sweeteners produce a more cake like cookie, not what we were were looking for.  These are the best vegan chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made/had.
I used this little ice cream style scoop to size the cookies.  It’s 1 5/8” in diameter.  If you don’t have one of these, just roll little 1 5/8” balls, or something approximately that size, and   flatten them a little.




Make sure you leave some space around each ball on your cookie sheet, they will spread. This recipe will make about 12 cookies.  You can always double it if you have a big family.  You can freeze the dough balls if you don’t want to bake them all, just bring them to room temperature before you bake them.



Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 12 cookies - Use organic ingredients whenever possible

5 tablespoons of Earth Balance whipped non dairy buttery spread 
1/4 cup organic sugar
1/4 cup organic brown sugar (packed)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of rice milk or other non dairy milk
1/2 cup organic unbleached white flour
1/3 cup organic white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350˚  
Put the room temperature Earth Balance and sugars in a bowl.  
Using your stand mixer (or an electric hand mixer), beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes on medium speed.  
Add the rice milk and vanilla and mix until blended.  
In a separate bowl mix the flours, salt, baking powder and soda. 
Turn the speed of your mixer to the lowest setting and add the flour mixture.  
Mix until the flour is incorporated.  
Turn the mixer off and stir in the chocolate chips.  
Place scoops of cookie dough (the size of a golf ball) on a cookie sheet and bake for 14 minutes.  
Allow to cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack.

5 comments:

  1. I made these cookies yesterday and they are delicious! But they didn't spread out at all. I did flatten the top a bit but they still stayed pretty much in a ball-like lump, so that they are very dense and thick. I didn't have white whole wheat flour, only brown stone ground whole wheat flour, could that be why? They tasted great, so it's really not a big deal, but my husband said something about chocolate chip cookies should be flat! Of course, that didn't stop him from eating them!

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  2. Laura, I do think that the whole wheat flour performs differently from the King Arthur white whole wheat. Next time add another tablespoon of rice/soy milk or even a tablespoon of water and I think that should do the trick. If they still don't spread add a third. Whole wheat flour tends to absorb more liquid.

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  3. Thanks! Either way, they are still yummy!

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  4. Can I use all white flour with the same result?

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  5. Yes, but they might spread out a little more when you bake them.

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