In Pursuit of Perfection

 In March, I was able to perfectly harness the delicious flavors of Girl Scout Cookies, while reducing the fat and sugar to an acceptable level. After that experiment, I abandoned cookies for awhile to focus instead on cupcakes and muffins, and somewhere along the way I lost my touch. I made chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago, and they were not my best work. I replaced most of the oil in the recipe with applesauce and reduced the sugar quite a bit. My friend and fellow vegan, Carl, was happy to suffer through them, and I have included a picture of the failed cookies just to illustrate what a great liar he is for having eaten them with a straight face. I tried another batch the following night, using vegetable oil, applesauce, and molasses. While these were a little better, they were still kind of chewy and a little greasy. I decided that it had to be time for a different approach.
Instead of focusing on reducing the sugar and the oil, I would start with the basics: a full-fat, full-sugar vegan chocolate chip cookie. They were absolutely perfect. I brought a warm batch in to work and they were gone by 11 AM, which is a sign of a pretty damn good cookie. A few days later, I tried the same recipe, but replacing half of the oil with applesauce. Those also came out pretty good, although a little more scone-like, which is something that I am working on. They key to this cookie recipe is cinnamon, which gives it a nice hint of something special. The granola is optional, but another way to get pretty impressive. When I made them with applesauce, I substituted out some of the vegan chocolate chips for some Peruvian dark chocolate, which I bought in wafer-form and cut into thin slivers. They were probably the fanciest cookies I have ever made.



Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c. white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8th tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4th c. white vegan sugar
1/2 c. plus 2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/4 c. cold water
1 TBSP molasses
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. soy milk
1/4th a package vegan chocolate chips
1/4 c. combination of chopped nuts
2 TBSP granola

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a blender, combine the vegetable oil and sugar and blend until it is thick and white and creamy (Yes, it will look like that). Stir in the water, molasses, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Pour the sugar mixture into a bowl and add flour, 1/3rd at a time, stirring completely between each addition.
Now, the art of the soy milk. Add the soymilk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the batter becomes smooth. It should pull away from the sides of the pan and when you press the back of the spoon against it, it should appear smooth.
Stir in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts, and granola. The granola should be pearl-sized and you might have to crumble it in your fingers.