Now, I'm not really a cookie person. I'm a big fan of vegan baked goods - I make great pies, cupcakes, and have even tried my hand at scones. However, every time I've tried making cookies in the past, I've ended up with badly burned crunchy pucks or under-baked blobs.
However, I love my boyfriend (and I was also craving something chocolate-y and sweet), so I started leafing through my cookbooks in search of that elusive Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie That Even April Can't Mess Up (tm). I finally decided on "Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies" from page 137 of "How It All Vegan" by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer. I was a bit dubious about using 1/2 a cup of Earth Balance and 1/2 a cup of oil, so I opted to use only 1/4 a cup of oil and use 1/4 a cup of water to make up the difference in liquids. Also, I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I used the same thing I did when I made my chocolate chip scones - two pucks of Ibarra Mexican drinking chocolate, put into a ziploc bag and smashed with a hammer. (Take that, chocolate!) After mixing everything, the batter was *really* crumbly and didn't want to hold together well. I used a couple of spoons to transfer it to the cookie sheet and smush it into vague cookie-like shapes. Even with the reduction in oil, I was worried they'd be too oily, since they were leaving quite the film on my silicone baking mat. However, after baking and cooling, the cookies developed a decent texture and tasted pretty good.
I think next time I'll replace the 1/4 cup water with non-dairy milk of some sort (coconut or almond, most likely), and perhaps add just a tiny bit more liquid overall. But hey - yay, cookies!
