Backstory

About three years ago Mary and I were jonesing for something sweet. We took a quick trip up to Whole Foods and grabbed a couple of vegan double chocolate chip cookies.  They were amazing!  Every since then I have been trying to replicate that cookie.

This recipe is the work of two years of trying out different combinations of egg-replacers, flours, sugars, oils, and butters.  The final result is a cookie with a soft, fluffy center that does not fall apart when you pick it up.  It has the perfect sweetness that is balanced out by the bitterness of the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Give this one a try and you will never even know it was missing the eggs and butter.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of Earth Balance or homemade vegan butter 
¾ cup sugar
½ cup maple syrup
¼ tsp molasses
2 flax eggs (use golden flax to get the golden yellow color in the cookie)
2 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 package of semi-sweet chocolate chips (make sure they do not have any milk or butter in them!)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

Like all chocolate chip recipes, make sure your butter is softened. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl beat together the butter, flax eggs, sugar, syrup, vanilla, and molasses until it is creamy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, and salt.  Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet.  Scrape down the sides and add the chocolate chips.

Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Use a tablespoon to spoon out balls of dough onto the sheets.  Bake 12-14 cookies at a time for 10-12 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes, or burn your tongue trying them right away like I always do!

Note(s)

• You will notice that I didn’t use any brown sugar here.  I was not sure if the brown sugar in my pantry was vegan or not so I quickly substituted it with the touch of molasses and maple syrup. They did not taste like gingerbread cookies.
• If you do not have molasses and are cool with brown sugar, just leave out the syrup and replace with 3/4 cup of brown sugar.