The Cookie Log: Choco-Peanut and Maple Cookies

Vegan Chocolate-Peanut Cookie

• 1 Tbsp flax
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup unsalted peanut butter (crunchy if you want delicious peanuty bits in your cookies, smooth if you don't)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 oz flour (I used spelt plus a little whole wheat; AP will do just fine, if not better)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder (I used dutched)
• ~1/2 tsp salt (to taste--since there's no eggs, you can eat it straight from the bowl actually, don't: apparently even flour can have E. coli hanging out on it)

I put 2.5 T of water in the bottom of a bowl with the flax and let it sit for around 5 minutes. Then I added the canola, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla extract and mixed it up till it was all brown and batter-y (fully combined, they would say). Then I slowly incorporated the flour with the soda, powder, and salt. I would have added chocolate chips, but I didn't have any vegan ones on hand. (You'd be surprised to know that vegan chocolate chips are not radically expensive, and that, worse comes to worse, you can always chop up a dark chocolate bar, many of which are dairy-free anyway at higher percentages). Baked for around 9 minutes at 350F (I did more on the first round by mistake, and they were way too dry and dense).

Vegan Maple-Oat Semi-Snaps

• 1 Tbsp flax
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup brown sugar + around 3-1/2 Tbsp
• 1-1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 oz flour (a mix of whole wheat and AP)
• around 1 oz ground toasted oats (do 'em on a stove in the skillet or buy 'em pre-toasted)
• some toasted oats, unground
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• ~3/4 tsp salt (not really sure how much, but certainly to taste again; it's still egg--free)

I did essentially the same thing as with the other cookies: 2.5 T of water with the flax, let it sit, add the wets, slowly incorporate the dries. (actually, in both batches I mixed the common wet ingredients, separated them, and then added the unique ingredients + dry ingredients in half portions to each, but who's counting?). 350F for 9 minutes, as with the chocolates.

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Yesterday, I began work in earnest on developing a good vegan cookie recipe.

See, chocolate chip cookies are great, but they're awesomeness comes mainly from butter. And while you can certainly replicate many of butter's textural and chemical properties, it's very hard to get the flavor right. Butter flavored Crisco comes close, but it's just not the same, IMHO (although if you've always made cookies with Crisco anyway, kudos to you; to make them vegan just use flax eggs instead of normal eggs and, if applicable, your favorite non-dairy milk).

But what if we can make something else, something different, something which takes advantage of the creative restrictions created by veganism? I was reading a recipe for double chocolate vegan cookies the other day. I even made them, although I changed the recipe up a little. I used much less nut butter, because I didn't have much on hand. But I wondered: what if I added peanut butter? Would I create the Reese's Cup of vegan cookies? How cool would that be?

I looked online and developed the recipe above from this recipe. I thought they were a little dry and dense, but maybe that's just me. My mother said they weren't bad. I'm considering omitting the flax next time to make them spread a little more and be a little more airy--I like my cookies chewy, but this felt like it had the density of rubber.

The other batch I made (using the same base recipe) was maple flavored. I added oatmeal because a quick search yielded only oatmeal-accompanied maple cookie recipes (I should have searched for "maple cookies" instead of "vegan maple cookies), and I thought a breakfast theme would be amusing. I almost added cranberries, but I decided the dough didn't taste very good with them.

Sadly, I only had a little maple syrup on hand, so I didn't quite get the effect I wanted, but my mom really liked them, though I thought they were certainly nothing special, and that the texture was a little off, somehow--like a gingersnap, but not quite snappy enough.

That was all for the day. I'll post the next iteration of the recipe in the next few days, and eventually, I'll have a final version which, hopefully, tastes awesome.

If you have a question or concern, need a recipe for your vegan grandmother's birthday cake or some cookies for your gluten and lactose free son, or something along those lines, or something I've written is wrong, mistaken, or offensive, or you just want to chat, feel free to post a reply in the comments or email me at my user at google mail (sorry, bots).