Olivia's "To-Die-For" Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies! FINALLY the perfect cookie!!
Category: Desserts - Cookies

Suitable for a: vegan diet


Ingredients:
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2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup Smart Balance Light (or regular Earth Balance will work fine too)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 heaping Tbsp. flax meal
1 heaping Tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer powder
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups vegan chocolate chips (Guittard is my favorite)


Instructions:
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1.) Preheat oven to 375 F.

2.) In a small bowl, mix soy milk VERY WELL (until creamy) with Ener-G egg replacer and flax meal using an electric mixer or hand (immersion) blender. Set aside.

3.) In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Set Aside.

4.) In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil, Smart Balance and sugars. Add soy/flax mixture and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer until smooth.

5.) Gradually add flour mixture to liquids. Stir in chocolate chips.

6.) Drop by well rounded teaspoonfulls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 min. until lightly golden. (Can also be made into bar cookies in 9 X 12 pan)


Additional comments:
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My 12-year-old adjusted this recipe from an old family favorite one day when she was home alone and wanted to suprise me with some vegan cookies.
We didn't exactly have "enough" of several crucial ingredients so she substituted - played around with the recipe and the end result was the most wonderful cookies EVER!!

Her friends at school have PAID her to make these cookies for them - and they don't even know they're vegan!

You can add nuts, raisins, coconut, whatever... but we like them just as they are!

These sound perfect! The recipe is very close to the one I use and I love mine. I was going to make some this morning for work, so I think I will try this recipe instead of my old standby!

Cool! Let me know how they turn out...

Total hit. I didn't have coconut oil, but I had an opened can of cream of coconut, so I threw in a little of that. Gave it an awesome flavor and didn't hurt the texture any.

Cool, Karen. Just so you know, the coconut oil is actually a substitute for shortening and does not really impart much of a flavoring in itself. Coconut oil is excellent in place of shortening for pie crusts and cookies.

I'll have to try these myself. :)

^^^ What Froggy said re: the coconut oil.

It works like (and is better for you than) shortning like 'Crisco' or similar products...

(I'm betting the coconut milk added a good taste though! I love coconut milk! :lick: )

I'm normally not a fan of plain chocolate chip cookies, so I added dried cherries to some of the batch and walnuts for my dad. The cherry chip cookies were REALLY good. I didn't have any Ener-G, so I used extra flax. Next time I'll use applesauce because I could really taste the flax in the batter, but it wasn't nearly as strong in the baked cookies.

What's Earth Balance? Is it vegan margarine?

Ren:
Earth Balance/Smart Balance are margerines. Earth Balance and Smart Balance LIGHT are vegan products.

Traditionally "light" margerines do not make good cookies because of the air and water whipped into them, but for some reason these cookies bake up better with the Smart Balance Light.

Any margerine should probably work OK, I just hate to mess with a recipe that I know "works" exactly as is...

Ren:
Earth Balance/Smart Balance are margerines. Earth Balance and Smart Balance LIGHT are vegan products.

Traditionally "light" margerines do not make good cookies because of the air and water whipped into them, but for some reason these cookies bake up better with the Smart Balance Light.

Any margerine should probably work OK, I just hate to mess with a recipe that I know "works" exactly as is...

Thanks TNS. I don't think we have Earth Balance in Australia so I'd have to subsitute. But I'll be in Canada soon so I'll be able to use all these things you all keep talking about! :)

Additional comments:
------------------------------------------------------

My 12-year-old adjusted this recipe from an old family favorite one day when she was home alone and wanted to suprise me with some vegan cookies.
We didn't exactly have "enough" of several crucial ingredients so she substituted - played around with the recipe and the end result was the most wonderful cookies EVER!!

Her friends at school have PAID her to make these cookies for them - and they don't even know they're vegan!

This is my favorite part of the recipe! I'm trying to lay off the sweets, but I sort of want to make these, just to try them out.

BPS, they are amazing, (and I'm sure substitutes could be made for the sugar, fat, whatever) .... but I won't adjust the recipe is because it's from my kid... I was so touched that she made them just for me - and PROUD of her creativity!! (Plus the fact that they turn out SO good!).

(Good to see you around the boards, by the way)

Cool, Karen. Just so you know, the coconut oil is actually a substitute for shortening and does not really impart much of a flavoring in itself. Coconut oil is excellent in place of shortening for pie crusts and cookies.

I'll have to try these myself. :)
wow, im new here and all these new ides are great:help:

Just to let you know, my daughter entered these in a local 4-H bake-off against 35 other recipes and won first place.

None of the other recipes were vegan.

Woo! Let's hear it for yummy vegan cooking and creative kids!

Note: She's changed the recipe slightly in the last month or so (less fat - yay) but still the same yummy cookies - I edited the recipe to reflect that change.

You can probably substitute arrowroot flour or tapioca flour or starch, or potato starch or corn starch, for the EnerG egg replacer -- which is basicly just starch plus some baking soda or powder. Sounds like a good recipe.

I just made these cookies.. and they are sooo good! I used earth balance instead of smart balance.. but everything else was exactly as posted.

they didnt spread out as much as i'm used to cookies doing, but still they are amazing!! thank you for this recipe!

Since I first found this recipe, I have made it many times(and have it memorized now!) and everyone has LOVED them.. even my dad secretly told me that they are better than my mothers and requests them everytime I come home! Best recipe ever!!

Thank You! I know what you mean... even people at my work who say they "aren't big cookie fans" are asking for these!

Ahh, I need a little help. I have no egg replacer, and I'm afraid the extra flax will mes up the cookies (I have picky tasters in this house :() What would hold well in a cookie? I don't think apple sauce or a banana... ehhh.


Nevah mind, I couldn't wait. They're baking now but for some reason I'm convinced they're going to melt! They're just so... squishy. :o

How did they turn out??

Aaah they didn't melt! They're so pretty and they smell amazing. I'm afraid I didn't bake them long enough (10 minutes) because they still look a little ploopy but a toothpick comes out clean. Hmmm. I'll take them out and let them cool.

I used a little extra flax and ground it up with some water to replace the egg part. I dunno how well that worked.

Ok, I'm such a pig. It's burning my mouth but it tastes so good. I used Grain Sweetened chocolate though and I'm not used to it, but I can get there! They are holding together a little less than they probably should, but they're not falling apart or anything... I love these cookies. Thanks so much for the recipe, thumbs up!

Re-edit: They're perfect when they're cooled. Perfect I tell you!

Heehee - I am SO GLAD they turned out for you! I am surprised they didn't "melt" at least a little - but if they turned out OK, then it's all good...

I made a second batch a few days later and instead of EB I used a stick soy marg... While the first batch didn't "melt", the cookies got very very flat. The cookies I used the margarine in stayed in the same shape I put them in when I stuck them on the tray! Was it the margarine? I might have messed up the flax meal too...

And not that it's dire I know now, because I'm going to do it anyway, but is it okay to replace soy milk with rice milk? Hmmm....

(I love these cookies)

Rice milk is fine instead of soy - the thicker (soy)milk just works a little better for some reason but it's not significant. I'm wondering if your baking powder/soda is active? Sometimes it can get "old"...

These cookies don't spread much when we make them - so usually we make them on the small "bite-size" side. (Well, we also make them small so they last longer... that's my theory anyway.)
It's hard to know how much they would spread if I made them big...

:drool: These cookies were really, really, really good! I used applesauce instead of flax, and coconut milk. I also threw in some cocoa powder, just for some extra chocolately goodness. I'm kind of depressed, so I'm just sitting here eating the cookies (and the dough.)

Anyways, thanks for the recipe, it rocks!