Recipe: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies (Veganised)

This is an original recipe, adapted from my mother’s own recipe, but veganised. Even omnivores agree that they’re an amazing, good old-fashioned choc-chip cookie.

Classic Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 185g vegan margarine/butter (I use Nuttlex)
• 2 tsps vanilla essence
• 1/4C raw caster sugar
• 1/3C brown sugar, firmly packed
• Egg replacer for one egg, mixed (I use Organ’s No Egg)
• 1 1/2C self-raising flour (works equally well with gluten free, brown rice, etc.)
• 1C dark chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 celsius (fan-forced oven: 190 for non-fan).
2. Beat butter, vanilla essence and sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Add flour and chocolate chips to butter/sugar mixture.
4. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm.
5. Roll heaped teaspoons of dough into balls (flattened to around 1.5cms thick), and place on lightly greased oven trays approximately 4cms apart.
6. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
7. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Notes:
Yields approximately 2 dozen cookies, depending on size.

Photo: Life on the Ward

This is one of many, many photographs I have taken at the abandoned psychiatric hospital not far from where I live. It’s an amazing and beautiful place to explore, and constantly offers new photographic opportunities.

As a bonus, here is an additional photograph taken on the same locked ward, entitled “Waiting”:

Thoughts, comments, criticisms? Feel free to share!

Food pr0n: the Vegan Baking Extravaganza (Part 4)

It’s been a while since I updated, but I assure you, life hasn’t stopped in any way. If anything, it’s all been a bit too “real”, hence the delay in posting. I’ve been baking a storm fairly regularly over the past few months, and now I’ve finally gotten around to editing the photo’s of the fruits of my labour. So, without further ado, I give you:

Clockwise from left: Triple chocolate cookies, peanut butter swirl cookies, and classic choc-chip cookies (an original recipe, which somehow I STILL haven’t posted here – soon, I swear!).

Banana choc-chip muffins, one of my favourite recipes from the fantastic Vegan Baking Classics. I found these fantastic silicon bug moulds at K-Mart for $5!

Caramel cookie cup – I’m quite proud of this fairly original recipe. Basically, you line muffin cups (preferably silicon) with cookie dough, and bake as normal. Once they’ve cooled, use a brush to line the insides with melted chocolate. Then use vegan condensed milk and golden syrup to make caramel – once it’s cooled, pour into cups, and put in fridge to set for 3-4 hours. Amazing.

Food pr0n: the Vegan Baking Extravaganza (Part 3)

Dark chocolate peanut butter cups (amaaaaaaazing), I used silicon muffin cups for the moulds.

Maple syrup sugar-coated cashews, in progress.

Finished cashews!

And some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for Halloween. Stay tuned for part 4 of the Vegan Baking Extravaganza!

Apologies!

Sorry to one and all that I’ve once again been so slack with updating. I’ve just gotten over a cough that lasted several months and culminated in fractured ribs! So I’ve been in a lot of pain and rather out of commission for the duration.

But I’m on the mend now, and have been baking up a storm, so watch this space!

Vegan Bento #51

Top tier L-R: sultanas, snowpea snaps, dry-roasted chickpeas, homemade sugar cookies (in green cup).

Bottom tier: baked potatoes and carrots, with a mixture of nutritional yeast, vegetable salt and Cajun seasoning (in the rabbit box). Amaaaaazing.

Food Pr0n: the Vegan Baking Extravaganza! (Part 2)

Welcome back! I present to you part 2 of 3 (yep, I’ve been busy!) of my weekend vegan baking extravaganza(s). Once again, everything pastry-ish is made with a combination of brown rice flour and rice bran. What can I say, I’m in love with the amazing texture it provides!

Lemon and poppyseed cookies, from the VCC (and, hey, look: it’s a decent photograph taken in decent light!);

Peppermint slice, also from the VCC;

Here’s my attempt to create my own “cookies and cream” chocolate, by melting white chocolate and stirring through crushed Oreo biscuits. They’re dinosaurs, and not very photogenic, but man they were delicious!

And finally, here’s some incriminating evidence of my intense love of sprinkles. Seriously, I fucking *love* sprinkles! *Ahem* As you can probably tell:

(Yes, there are cookies hiding under there… treat it like a magic eye image! Hint: sailboat.*)

*It’s not a sailboat.

Stay tuned for the next part of the vegan baking extravaganza!

Food Pr0n: the Vegan Baking Extravaganza! (Part 1)

I’ve been baking a lot lately, and branching out more. Everything you see here is vegan (of course!) and made with a combination of brown rice flour and rice bran; 100% gluten free. This post is part 1 of 2.

Caramel slice (from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur).

“Milks’ Favourite Cookie”, also from the VCC. But I adapted it a bit, and they turned out more like cakey things, with chocolate or orange butter cream icing filling.

In progress:

Finished:

And finally, I think I’ve perfected my “classic” choc chip cookie recipe! Here are the results:

Watch this space, I’ll be posting the recipe for these delicious goodies in the next few days!

Also, dear readers, give me some insight; would reviews of cookbooks be a welcome addition to this site? Let me know in the comments!”

Vegan Bento #50

Top tier L-R: baby carrots, dry-roasted garlic chickpeas, homemade mini-sugar cookies, snowpea pods (with a panda!).

Bottom tier: leftover maze gohan (Japanese pilaf) with soy sauce in the elephant bottle.

Woo! Vegan bento post number 50, can you believe it? Unfortunately it’s a bit blurry, so here’s a bonus*:

*Bizarre picture courtesy of a graphics tablet and a bottle of gin.

Vegan Bento #49

Top tier L-R: dark chocolate coated mini rice cakes (yellow cup), sultanas, dry roasted chickpeas, snowpea pods (pink cup).

Bottom tier: leftover leek and mushroom risotto.

This one wasn’t visually brilliant, but a delicious and balanced meal, nonetheless!