New and Improved Chocolate Chip Cookies

Readers may be surprised by this, but I find it absolutely impossible to follow a recipe exactly – even ones I’ve developed myself!  I always think, oh, it would be great to add a little of this, or leave out just a little of that.  The downside is that sometimes things are not quite as delicious as they could be, but the upside is that sometimes I improve on things.  So, I was baking my other Chocolate Chip Cookies, which are a bit on the thick side, and wanted them to be a little bit thinner, with tantalizingly crisp edges, and soft gooey middles.  And here it is, my new and improved chocolate chip cookie recipe:

Ingredients:

2 TBS flaxseed meal combined with 1/4 C water, and then microwaved for 30 seconds

1.75 C AP flour

1 stick Earth Balance buttery sticks

1 stick Earth Balance shortening

1 C cane sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 bag chocolate chips

1 C nuts (optional)

Instructions:

1.  Soak the flaxseed meal in warm water for at least 10 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Cream the Earth Balance sticks with the sugar.

3.  Add vanilla and flaxseed goo.

4.  Add dry ingredients in a few stages, mixing each thoroughly.

5.  Mix in chips and nuts.  Taste test!

6.  Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls.

7.  Bake at 400 degrees for 9-10 minutes.

On this day in History: Roasted Corn Salsa

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Delectable SunButter Cookies

Smiling cookie 🙂

They’re veritable kissing cousins, this sunbutter cookie and their nutty counterpart, the peanut butter cookie. The difference is the awesome nut-free goodness of SunButter. And if you use a gluten-free flour, these are gluten-free to boot! I used a 50/50 blend of buckwheat and all-purpose, so it’s possible to make these GF, just adjust the amount of flour to result in a sturdy enough consistency to resist spread during baking. They are flaky and delicate, moist and crumbly, and are perfect with a yummy cup of tea. These cookies are many things, insipid not being one of them. 😉 And is it just me..or does the cookie look like he’s laughing/smirking?

Ingredients:

8 oz (two sticks) Earth Balance Vegan Butter, room temperature
1/2 C turbinado sugar
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C mixture of almond milk and canola oil (approx a 50/50 ratio)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 C chunky (or creamy) SunButter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2.5-2.75 C buckwheat (for gluten-free) or oat flour (*start with 2 C flour & add accordingly to make the dough the right consistency so as not to flatten out during baking – if you use regular AP flour, the 2 C should be fine..but you may need to add more)

Directions:

1. Cream the Earth Balance, SunButter and sugars until light. Add the almond/canola mix (or flaxseed mix), vanilla, and almond extracts. Blend together.
2. Add the salt, baking soda, and flour. Mix until well combined.
3. Preheat to 350°F. The dough can rest in fridge or on the counter.
4. Using a well-rounded teaspoon of dough for each cookie, drop the dough onto a cookie sheet. I used a small melon-baller to just scoop and drop..scoop and drop..very easy peasy!

5. Bake 8-12 minutes, until the cookies are light golden brown. Cool on racks.

**Additionally, you could smother in some ganache for a more decadent treat..but these babies are delicious all on their own!

 

 

Happy Baking!!

On This Day In History: Golden Delight (tea)

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Vegan Samoas

You may have seen the unpaid female child labor hawking their animal-torture based cookies out in front of your grocery store.  It’s that time of year.  I can admit to enjoying a thin mint back in the day.  They’re pretty refreshing out of the fridge.  But hands down, the best creation ever conceived was a shortbread cookie topped with caramel, coconut and chocolate:  the Samoa.  My love for Samoas cannot be contained by our meager language.  I could definitely put away a box of them in one day.  In fact, they were the last non-vegan food I ate on purpose.  Five years ago.  I haven’t had a Samoa in five years.  Until now.  I can’t believe it took me this long to do it.  But here they are for you all to enjoy – Vegan Samoas.

Although this recipe seems to have many steps, each of them is pretty simple.  It takes a while from start to finish, but mostly it’s a hurry up and wait game, until the final assembly, which doesn’t take long.

Ingredients:

Cookies:

2 C flour
1/3 C confectioner’s sugar
1/3 C turbinado sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 sticks Earth Balance

Caramel:

3/4 C hemp milk
1.5 tsp cornstarch
3/4 C brown sugar
3 TBSP Earth Balance vegan butter
1.5 TBSP brown rice syrup
pinch of salt
3 tsp confectioner’s sugar

Topping:

2 TBS shredded coconut, toasted
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Instructions – cookies:

1.  Place all dry ingredients in a food processor, and give a few quick pulses to blend.

2.  Cut “butter” into pieces and add to food processor, along with vanilla.  Blend for 20-30 seconds, or until the mixture resembles course cornmeal.

3.  Turn onto lightly floured surface and kneed a few times to form a dough.  Roll into a ball.

Warning!  This cookie dough tastes fantastic, and harbors no salmonella, but if you eat it all, you will have no Samoas!

4.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 1 – 24 hours.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut with cookie cutters.

6.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.  This is a very unusual case where you want the cookies to be slightly crispy.  Let cool while you prepare the caramel.

Warning!!  At this stage, the cookies are in fact already delicious, and it’s wise to find a disfigured one to perform quality control tests on, just to make sure.  But, if you eat all of them, you will end up with no Samoas!

Instructions – caramel: (based on Sara’s dulce de leche)

1. Place hemp milk, cornstarch, sugar, vegan butter, and brown rice syrup in a small stainless steel pan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

2. Cook gently for 15 minutes, stir in the pinch of salt and the confectioner’s sugar. Continue to cook gently until the mixture thickens enough so that a spoonful dropped on piece of parchment holds together, about an additional 5 to 10 minutes. You know you’re there when you can run a spoon through it and it doesn’t run back together immediately.

3.  Remove from heat and begin cookie assembly.

Instructions – assembly:

1.  After the caramel has cooled for five minutes or so, you can start the assembly line.   Drop spoonfuls of caramel on top of each cookie, and spread it to the edges.  As soon as possible, sprinkle the toasted coconut on top.  It’s great to have a helper for this, to see to the coconut, while you work on the caramel.

Warning!  A shortbread cookie with caramel and coconut on top is a wonderful idea all by itself.  However, if you eat them all at this stage, you still will not have had any Samoas!

2.  After all the cookies have the caramel and coconut, it’s time to melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  Drizzle spoonfuls of chocolate over the cookies.

3.  Place cookies in refrigerator for 10 minutes to set everything.

Warning!!  Consumption of more than 2-3 cookies will likely lead to sugar-induced coma.

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Lime Tea Cookies

I made these cookies for the Cherry Blossom Yoga Studio & Boutique Open House on May 1, 2010. They were absolutely delicious, and a big hit with the studio-warmers (all of which were non-vegans, though some were vegetarian-inclined). So use this recipe when wanting to please even the most skeptical of non-vegans 😉 I adapted & veganized this recipe from “Spring Lime Tea Cookies” at allrecipes.com.

The recipe makes about 2 dozen (or so) cookies. And the recipe doubles wonderfully if you want to host a tea party.. 🙂

Ingredients:

cookies
2 tsp lime zest (best to zest before juicing the limes)
2 tsp fresh lime juice
1/3 C hazelnut milk
1/2 C Earth Balance Vegan Buttery sticks
3/4 C vegan granulated sugar
1/4 C canola:hazelnut milk (50:50 ratio)
1.75 C all-purpose (or 2-2.25 C white whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

glaze
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
1/4 C vegan granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Make the cookies: In a large mixing bowl, either by hand or by mixer, cream together the EBVB with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the canola:hazelnut milk mixture, lime juice, and hazelnut milk. Mix to combine.
2. Combine 1.75 C flour (whichever you choose to use), baking powder, and baking soda together in a small bowl. Gently add into the creamed butter mixture. *If using white whole wheat flour, this is where you’ll adjust/add more flour if the mixture is not firm enough. You want a supple cookie dough..not to firm/crumbly, but not so soft that it’ll spread the minute you put it in the warm oven. I used King Arthur Organic White Whole Wheat and ended up using just over 2 C of flour per batch.
3. Wrap dough in wax paper or plastic wrap, and place in fridge for 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.
4. Preheat the oven to 350F. If the dough has been in the fridge a couple of days, bring it out to room temp while oven preheats. Roll the dough into little balls, or drop spoonfuls on a parchment/silpat-lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
6. Make the glaze: Stir together the 2 TBSP lime juice and 1/4 C granulated sugar. Brush onto the cooled cookies. Enjoy!

**Store in an airtight container, and the cookies will stay soft for about 3-4 days. Then they start to dry out, but then they make excellent crumbles in a Coconut Milk Ice Cream Sundae 😉

Happy Baking!

On This Day In History: 4-day Springtime Detox

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Monsterrific Cookies

Here’s a cute little way to make some monsters for a Halloween party – but beware..these are packed with frosting, so they may not be for the faint of sugar 😉

1. Make Jo’s chocolate chip cookies (or your favorite cookie of choice). Make Buttercream frosting. You can either choose to color the frosting, or leave it white for the face of the monster. Separate out some frosting to color for the eyes and hair.

2. Place a large dollop of frosting on top of one cookie, going heavier on one side than the other.

3. Top with another cookie, so it sits at an angle.

4. Using a #233 Wilton tip, make two dots for eyes. Place a chocolate chip, or white chocolate chip, in the center of the dot for the eyes.. and place another one as a nose.

5. Using a #233 or #199 Wilton tip, make fun hair – wild and crazy, soft serve-esque, whatever tickles your monster fancy.

Happy Halloween!

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“Welcome to the Boneyard” Biscuits

“…We’ve got fun ‘n’ games!” Here’s a treat for the evil sidekick that helps you pull off all your sinister plans without foil. For your ever-loving pooch, some peanut butter and flax cookie/biscuits is just what Dr. Evil ordered! These are simple enough to make quickly, leaving plenty of time to plot against your nemesis…. This recipe made 11 big ones, and 12 mini’s – but I could’ve made 12 big ones if Mocha and I hadn’t nibbled on so much dough. 😉

Ingredients:

2 TBSP ground flaxseed in 4 TBSP warm water
1/2 C peanut butter – crunchy or creamy
1/4 C agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP hemp milk
1.5 C oat flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Place ground flax in the warm water, set aside. In an electric mixer, mix the peanut butter, nectar, vanilla, and hemp milk until combined.
2. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until it becomes a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, in the shape of a disc, and let chill 20 minutes.
3. Roll out on lightly floured, or plastic-wrapped, surface to about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Cut out bones with a floured cookie cutter, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in fridge to chill while oven preheats to 350°F.

4. Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes (depending on how crunchy your pooch prefers). Store in an airtight container – and they’ll last a couple weeks (I’ve had mine for at least a week now, and they are still perfectly fine).

*For human consumption, you may want to glaze them with a simple powdered sugar and milk glaze to up the sweetness factor. They taste decent (and the dough is good, approved by both me AND Mocha), but not as sweet as I would prefer for myself. However, I wouldn’t want to give Mocha too much sweet/sugar.

Happy Baking!

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PB-Omega Dog Treats

Here’s another cookie that is designed for the pooch, but I suppose a human could enjoy them as well – though I would recommend adding some nectar to them if both human and canine will be partaking.. 😉 This recipe made about 12 bones and a couple rounds from scraps. The cookie cutter I used was about maybe 2.5-3 inches long, and I rolled the dough about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Per usual cookie dough making, I did do a quality control taste-test. It wasn’t bad, not great like a cookie filled with sweet sugary/nectary goodness, but good for a cookie that only had 1 TBSP nectar.

Ingredients:

1/2 C Peanut Butter (creamy or crunchy, whatever tickles your fancy)
1 ripe banana
1 tsp vanilla flavor (if you use extract instead of ‘flavor’ then be aware that the extract contains a small amount of alcohol, whereas the ‘flavor’ does not – just FYI)
1-2 tsp hemp milk
1/2 C white whole wheat flour (*or use a GF flour)
1/4 C brown rice flour
1/4 C hemp flour
1/2 C spelt flakes or oats
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/4 C hemp seeds
*optional: 1-3 TBSP agave nectar or granulated sugar; 1 TBSP flaxseed oil (for extra omega action) though you may have to adjust for the extra moisture as well

Directions:

1. Cream the PB with the banana, vanilla, and hemp milk (including nectar & flaxseed oil if using). Add in the dry, and mix until combined. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour to overnight. *If you chill overnight, it may have to sit at room temp a minute or two to become soft enough to roll again.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes of your desire. Bake cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet 25-30 minutes, until hardened. Let cool completely before indulging your pooch! Store in an airtight container.

*Note: The hemp flour will give the dough a greenish appearance, but as you can see once they are baked they look normal.

Happy Baking!

P.S. I’ve started cataloging the dog treats on ‘The Pooch ate my Homework!‘ subpage under CoKiMo. I realize there are only two recipes at the moment, but I have a feeling there’s more to come. 😉

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Chai Spice Shortbread Cookies

We’re big on tea here at the primate, as you may know. The second best part of afternoon tea is, of course, some cookies (that’s biscuits to my British friends) to go along with it.  Sometimes you won’t be able to brew up a batch of homemade chai, so some chai spice cookies to go along with your regular tea can give you your cardamom fix.

Ingredients:

2 C flour

1/3 C confectioner’s sugar

1/3 C turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/8 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp vanilla

2 sticks Earth Balance

few spoonfuls of cinnamon sugar

Instructions:

1.  Place all dry ingredients in a food processor, and give a few quick pulses to blend.

2.  Cut “butter” into pieces and add to food processor, along with vanilla.  Blend for 20-30 seconds, or until the mixture resembles course cornmeal.

3.  Turn onto lightly floured surface and kneed a few times to form a dough.  Roll into a ball.

4.  Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 1 – 24 hours.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut with cookie cutters.

6.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

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“Drive ’em Nutty” Dog Treats

This may seem like a strange recipe to have here at the Primate, since we always do human food… but any regular reader will know how much we love our pooches. And like any good mother, you want to bake healthy and wholesome, yet delicious treats occasionally for your babies. I’ve posted a canid-human duel treat – the Copper Top Pupcakes – but here’s a treat solely for those of the Canis familiaris variety. I suppose, technically you could add a little nectar to sweeten it, and then enjoy them yourselves…but I can’t vouch for that variation. Kirsche has been gobbling these bad boys up, and apparently they were also a hit for Kirsche’s dog park buddies. This recipe makes quite a bit, I didn’t count, but perhaps 4 dozen 1-1.5 inch rounds, then maybe a dozen 2-2.5 inch rounds. Of course, you could cut them into any shape you like – or like me, whatever kind of cookie cutter you have around. This recipe was inspired by my gnome-girl, Nikki from VeganVerve, from a recipe she had sent me for dog treats – but I had to improvise since Jo’s kitchen wasn’t fully stocked on all the original ingredients! 😉

Ingredients:

 

1.5 C spelt flour

1/2 C oat flour

1 C yellow cornmeal

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 C peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

2 TBSP canola oil

1/2 C each walnuts and cashews – or 1 C total of any nuts you have around

1 C water

 

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix together all flours, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a plastic baggie, place nuts, and hammer until crushed but not completely turned to nutmeal. (Alternatively, you could pulse them in a food processor..but that’s less fun). Add crushed nuts to dry mix.

2. Add in peanut butter, canola oil, and water. Stir to blend. Roll out on a floured counter, and cut into shape of choice. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.

3. Bake at 375°F for 30-45 minutes, depending on how crunchy you want them for your furry companion (Check at 30 min and go from there). Store them in a cookie jar/canister or other container.

Additions: You could add in some some ground flaxseed, oats, nutritional yeast, pepitas, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds…just about anything you can think of to toss in!

Happy Baking!

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Blueberry Jam Thumbprints

I decided to make a cookie for Jo to take to her buds at work…and since Jo has this wonderful Blueberry-Lime Jam, I thought I’d do thumbprints! The cookie itself is very butter cookie/sugar cookie-esque. It’s got the flakiness of the butter cookie, but all the goodness of a sugar cookie. This recipe, for me, made about 20 cookies (+1 scout cookie), plus a little dough for quality control (naturally). Feel free to double the recipe if you’re looking to serve more peeps.

Ingredients:

1 C all-purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 stick (4 oz) Earth Balance Vegan Butter, softened if mixing by hand

1/4 C sugar

1 TBSP canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Jam of choice (blueberry, raspberry, cherry, etc)

Optional add-ins: poppy seeds, finely chopped almonds or

other nut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream the butter with the sugar, until just incorporated – either by hand or with a mixer. Add 1 TBSP canola oil and vanilla extract, stir to mix in.

2. Add in dry ingredients (flour and salt), and stir until just combined.

 

3. Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place 2 inches apart (they will spread a little). Using your pinky finger, or the handle side of a wooden/plastic spoon (the one you used to mix the dough will work fine), make indentions in the rounds. Dip your pinky or handle into flour if it becomes to sticky. Make the indention deep, but don’t poke through the bottom. 😉

4. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (depending on how liz-lovely you like your cookies). Remove and repoke the centers (for this you’ll definitely want to use a handle – too hot for little pinkies). Fill the centers with jam – do not overfill, you won’t use much..maybe about 1/8-1/4 tsp per cookie.

5. Return cookies to oven and bake an additional 3-5 minutes, until the edges golden. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy with a cup of Ceylon or other beverage of choice!

*Note: Store in an airtight container, and these babies will keep for up to 2 weeks – though I don’t think you could resist them for that long.

Happy Baking!

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