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).

Why You Should Probably Be Using Flax Eggs (Almost) Every Time You Bake

Historically, I have never been one to sacrifice for flavor. This is part of the reason I struggle to be a full-time vegetarian (the other being my slightly hypochondriac fear of getting various nutrient deficiencies). So you may be surprised when I tell you that, for many baking applications, you should use ground flax seeds instead of eggs, even when you're baking for omnivores.

Now you may ask--why on Earth would anyone suggest such a thing? I bet flax seeds are super expensive and hard to find, you say. I don't want to go through any super complicated procedures--I just want some damn cookies, now. Plus, it probably tastes much worse. Right?

Well, you're wrong on all counts, dear reader. Allow me to explain.

The Cost

Believe it or not, when used as an egg substitute, flax seed is actually slightly cheaper than eggs. In fact, depending on where you get your eggs, it could be drastically cheaper. It should never be substantially more expensive.

According to this webpage from the American Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Grade A eggs can cost anywhere from around $1.20-$2.10, depending on the location and time of year. That means, if we assume conservatively (and for the sake of nice numbers) that eggs cost $1.20 a dozen, one egg will cost you around $0.10, at the least.

(If you live in the UK or somewhere else, I encourage you to do your own research; I may make an update of this post for the UK and/or Australia soon. If you would like to know the information for your country, you're welcome to request it in the comments or email me, and I'd be more than happy to help, although you might find the information more quickly just by googling around a little.)

I couldn't find any official government data on the price of flax seeds, but fortunately flax seeds are freely available for sale on the internet. They can cost as little as $0.22 per ounce on Amazon, in bulk, and as much as $0.51 per ounce in smaller quantities. Now, according to our handy dandy nutrition label, 2 tablespoons of ground flax weighs around 13 grams. In most applications, one flax egg (explained below) uses 1 T of flax, which should be 13/2 = 6.5g. Six and a half grams is around .23 oz. And .23 oz of flax seed, depending on where you get it, will cost anywhere between $0.05 to $.12. So, in the vast majority of cases, recalling that our estimate of $0.10 per egg was extremely conservative, flax is cheaper per use in baking than eggs are.

The Shelf Life

Now, you may be wondering: "Sure, it may technically be cheaper, Mr. Math person, but I'm never going to use flax seed. Even if it really does taste better in baked goods, (which by the way you haven't argued at all yet), I'm not going to use it for anything else. On the other hand, I typically have an omelet/frittata/5 dozen raw eggs in a glass for breakfast. If I only bake eventually, that flax seed will go bad long before I'm done with it, whereas the eggs will be gone before they've even started to get comfy in my fridge."

It may be the case, dear reader, that you don't have any other use for flax seed. You scoff at the people who put it on their yogurt or oatmeal. Why would you ruin a perfectly good breakfast with flax? I'm inclined to agree with you, but there's really no reason to worry.

Flax seed has a really long shelf life. It's probably even worth it to buy it at the wonderfully low $0.05 an egg in bulk, because, as long as you have room in your fridge or freezer, it'll last basically forever (about six months; though I've had mine for at least that time and am still using it with no issues or funny smells whatsoever.) A single bag takes up like half the space of a carton of 12 eggs and contains about 70 eggs' worth of flax. Talk about space-saving. There's practically no resource you're not saving now.

The Baking

 "Okay, smartypants," you say, laughing, "Maybe flax eggs are cheaper. And maybe they will make my life easier. I can take less last-minute trips to the grocery store and not worry about drinking all the eggs in the fridge from a cold glass for breakfast. But, honestly, are these things actually going to work?"

Well, dear reader, they actually will. Mind you, they won't work for everything: I've never tried it with pate-a-choux (which I can't even make omnivore-style, let alone egg and dairy free), cakes, or ice cream, although ice cream doesn't require eggs and there's some great cake recipes that just happen not to call for eggs anyway. But if you're like me, and the vast majority of your bakescapades involve either cookies or brownies, you're in luck.

I've tested many cookie and brownie recipes with flax eggs instead of real eggs, and, although I have yet to compare the two side-by-side, no one I've offered the treats to has been able to tell the difference. When it comes to binding--which is most of what eggs do in most cookie and brownie recipes--flax seed does a damn good job with a very neutral-tasting flavor.

And, finally, flax seed is very easy to use--just put a tablespoon of flax in 2-3 tablespoons of water, let it sit on the counter for five to ten minutes, and add it to the rest of your ingredients.

The Benefits

"Right, but, I'm not a cheapskate, I usually have eggs around anyway, and frankly, I don't want to be considered a crazy hippie. Why should I use flax seed? It only costs a few cents and a few more cubic inches of fridge space to use real eggs. And I can use them in cake, and pancakes. Really, what's the point?"

Well, dear reader, there are two: health benefits and humane and environmental benefits.

It so happens that flax seed is pretty much hands down better for you than eggs. Per 1 tablespoon (the amount in a flax egg), it has half as many calories. It also has 0mg cholesterol (compared to 65% DV in eggs, 0g saturated fat, and is rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

I'm no nutritionist. I can guess that if you're watching your waistline, that's probably all a plus, although it honestly won't make that much of a difference if you're eating a sugar-loaded cookie.

But flax eggs are monumentally better for chickens, other humans, and the environment. For a full run down on both the ethical and environmental issues surrounding egg farming (as well as meat farming), I'd suggest Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals. To sum it up: egg farming causes immediate pollution which can be a danger to surrounding humans and horribly mistreats the chickens involved (they usually have less than 88 square inches of space, less than a standard-sized sheet of paper, even when they are advertised as "cage-free"). I couldn't find definitive data on the climate impact of flax seeds, but according to this chart eggs are, while below meat, well above all featured plant products in their total life-cycle CO2 emissions per kilogram.

Plus, honestly, most of my family doesn't eat eggs, and I don't eat them very often, so it's nice to have something for baking that lasts a lot longer. If you have a similar circumstance, or live somewhere with a communal fridge from which eggs will disappear the moment you take your eyes off of them, or something else like that--it might just be more convenient to use these little ground-up seeds to make that next batch of Christmas cookies.

Questions or comments? Leave a comment in the comments section! (that's what it's there for, silly)