I brought these cookies to an event last night where, as far as I know, there was only one vegan person. And yet, halfway through the night, non-vegan folks were talking about wanting a second one and how they felt bad cause, really, they should leave them for the people who wouldn’t eat the “regular” baked goods. Did they leave them? No, definitely not.
And as I watched two of my non-vegan friends kindly split the last cookie with each other, I knew this recipe was worthy of a write-up.
Aside from missing the caramelized buttery flavor (which, TBH, I do miss) these cookies are fan-friggin-tastic. They are the perfect cookie texture, with huge chunks of chocolate and that amazing dusting of sea salt on top for balance.
Happy Baking!
MAKES 14 Cookies
Adapted from Eat Boutique
INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES
250g AP Flour (2 cups)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
7 ounces vegan chocolate chips* - mix two kinds if you can (1 cup + a little)
100g sugar** (1/2 cup)
100g light brown sugar (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon grapeseed oil***
1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon water
2 teaspoons vanilla
flaky sea salt for garnish (not optional!)
Medium/large mixing bowl
Hand whisk
Stand mixer with whisk and beater attachments
Spatula
2 large cookie sheets & parchment
food scale or cookie scoop (optional)
*My favorite brand of vegan chocolate chips is Guittard. For these cookies, I like using a combination of their Extra Dark Chocolate - which are regular chocolate chip sized - and their Semisweet "Super Cookie Chips" - which are a bit flatter and double the size.
**The original recipe calls for maple sugar, which I didn't have and is expensive. I happened to have some caramelized sugar on hand so I used half that and half regular - I'm not sure it made much of a difference?
***You can use any kind of flavorless oil. I always prefer grapeseed, but you could use safflower, or even vegetable oil if that's all you have.
DIRECTIONS
In your mixing bowl, whisk together your 250g AP (2c), 1tsp baking powder, 3/4tsp baking soda, and 1/2tsp fine sea salt. Then add your 7oz chocolate chip mix (a little more than 1c of two different kinds) and stir to coat them.
Make sure your light brown sugar is super soft with no clumps. If it's clumpy, run it through a food processor first to make it fine.
In your stand mixer bowl, whisk 100g sugar (1/2c) and 100g light brown sugar (1/2c) with 1/2c+1TB grapeseed oil, 1/4c+1tsp water, and 2tsp vanilla. Whisk on high for 3 minutes.
Switch to your beater attachment, add the flour/chocolate chip mixture to your mixer bowl, and mix on low and then medium until just barely combined with no traces of flour left.
**Cover with plastic wrap, pressed onto the dough, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, up to 24.*
When ready to bake, heat your oven to 350F.
In order to make the cookies look uniform, you need to scoop the batter either with a cookie scoop or by weight - I use a 2” cookie scoop.
Scoop your cookie dough, sprinkle each with a little bit of seat salt, and then freeze the dough balls for 10 minutes before baking (it's okay to keep the second/third batch of dough balls in the freezer longer while you're baking the first tray).
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges are turning brown. Don’t overbake! You want the cookies to be nicely browned on the outside/edges, but still chewy in the middle. Or…at least, I do.
Cool the cookies 10 minutes on their baking sheets, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
**At this point if you want to save the dough for baking later, you could scoop it and freeze the dough balls like I do with most other cookie recipes. BUT - I haven't done that myself with this recipe so I can't actually say whether they'll turn out as perfect. If/when I try it, I'll update!