Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Going NUTS

Sneaky Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
My theory about vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free (or whatever other dietary restriction) cooking is that attempting to force an alternative food to taste "just like the real thing" is ultimately a fool's errand. The best vegan recipes I have found are not the "corn dogs" or "hamburgers" that parade themselves as "healthy" alternatives to scarf down at a barbecue. Instead, it's recipes that make the most of fresh vegan-friendly ingredients for what they are - quinoa-stuffed squash, falafel, spicy hummus, and the like are all satisfying meals that don't need a bunch of overly-processed incarnations of soy and they taste better for it. My challenge here was to develop simply a good cookie . . . that happened to be vegan. Finding a fat-replacement is the easy part here, the trick was finding a suitable non-egg binder that would allow the cookies to remain moist and chewy (as chocolate chip cookies should be). I found there are a variety of easy alternatives, but for this recipe, the best choice was using cornstarch and water. Yep. It was already in my pantry. I did these as plain old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. The coconut taste, I find, is very subtle. As a basic drop-cookie dough recipe this works great! Feel free to substitute the chips for nuts or dried fruit, or for a more coconutty taste add a teaspoon of coconut extract and 1/2 c. of shredded coconut. Enjoy these cookies for what they are . . . you don't even have to tell people they are vegan (unless they ask). They won't know the difference.

Ingredients
- 1 c. plus 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/2 c. coconut oil
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 4 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 4 Tbsp. of warm water
- 1 1/2 c. vegan chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375˚ F. In a small bowl, whisk together flour with salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat together coconut oil, brown sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch/water mixture until smooth and creamy. Beat in flour mixture in two additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl in between. Mix in chocolate chips and make sure that they are well incorporated into the dough.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange tablespoon-sized cookie dough balls to bake. Bake in batches 8-9 minutes. Allow baked cookies to rest on baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Recipe should yield around 24 cookies. Yum!