July 31, 2008
I have promised this recipe to a couple of people, but after a lovely evening last night with Carolyn, Dave and the cookies, I'm finally getting around to posting it. First, though, I have to explain how the recipe came about.
In February, at the time share in New Zealand, I made four or five batches of these cookies. They all tasted quite good, but the consistency wasn't perfect until the end, because I was changing the recipe from using 3/4 cup Crisco to, ultimately, 1/3 cup canola oil. With David's genetic heart problems and the fact that no one needs to be eating Crisco, the change to a "good" fat seemed the way to go. And then, because vegan baking is even healthier, not to mention I was making a batch for Taylor and Megan when they came over for Fourth of July, I decided to substitute rice milk for the milk, and half a banana for the egg. I love that substitution! It's ingenious. You can taste a little banana in the cookies, which I don't think is a problem, but if you do, feel free to use an egg instead. Either way be careful, though: they're really yummy and disappear quickly.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
| 1 1/4 c | brown sugar |
| 3 Tbs | rice or soy milk |
| 1 Tbs | vanilla extract |
| 1/3 c | canola oil |
| 1/2 | ripe banana |
| 2 c | flour |
| 1 tsp | salt |
| 1 tsp | baking powder |
| 1-2 handfuls | chocolate chips (Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips passes the vegan test, if you're not strictly vegan, but for real vegan chips look at your local co-op or Whole Foods/Trader Joe's to see what they have.) |
Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix dry ingredients together in smallish bowl. In larger bowl, stir sugar, milk and vanilla together until moist. Add oil and stir thoroughly. And banana in small pieces, smashing against side of bowl with a fork, then stir in thoroughly. (The banana will still be slightly chunky, which is fine.) Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. Add chocolate chips and stir till mixed in. Drop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until slightly brown on top. Remove from oven and leave on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to finish cooling. Makes 16-24 cookies, depending on how big you like them.
NB: Mama and Papa's new oven is a little "cool" so you might not need to bake the cookies as long as I do. Unless, of course, you live with people who like them a little crispier.
