Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I embarked on a recipe that was actually inspired by some neighbors that I no longer have. When we lived in San Antonio we had some neighbors that lived above us and they were vegan. I love to bake for my neighbors and learned a great many things while they lived above us, but the most basic recipe of all, chocolate chip cookies, I could never get quite right. Today, however, I have achieved success! Too bad I lost contact with them and cannot send them a batch of these delightfully animal friendly cookies...ooohhh they taste good too. I will make these again, even if I do occasionally have a steak. They have the traditional flavor of chocolate chip cookies, but maintain more moisture than the buttery, eggy sort.

Did I mention that I will definitely be making these again? I certainly will.

Obviously using butter is out of the question, so, as an alternative I made my own apple butter. Most brands of ready-made apple butter are extremely sweet; I wanted this to replace butter so I tried to mimic the subtle sweet and salty flavor of butter. It is not the same, but pretty good considering that it is apple sauce. You can purchase vegan margarine, but this seems healthier than using an oil product. I made mine sugar free to cut down on the calories, but you can use regular sugar.


Apple Butter

3 1/2 Cups Unsweetened Applesauce
3 Teaspoons Stevia Liquid (or 3/4 Cups Sugar or Splenda)
4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ginger (the powdery, dried sort)
1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg (I used the pre-ground stuff, but might be more excellent with fresh)

Place all ingredients together in a pan, be certain it has a lid. Bring everything to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. You will want to place the lid on top to prevent splatters, but leave it slightly ajar so that some of the water content can cook off.

Remove from heat and place into a container for storage, let cool before moving it to the refrigerator.




Now for the cookies...

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/3 Cup Apple Butter
1/4 Cup Vegan Shortening
1 3/4 Cups Evaporated Sugar Cane
1 1/2 Tablespoons Molasses
1/2 Cup Silken Tofu
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Cups Flour
1 1/2 -2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Pre heat the oven to 315F.
Cream together the Apple Butter, chortening, sugar and molasses until smooth. Mix in the vanilla and the tofu and mix unitl well incorporated, it will seemingly disappear. Sift together the salt, baking soda and flour and add to wet mixture. Stir until combined. Fold in your chips until evenly distributed.

Scoop the mixture, about 3 tablespoons at a time, onto a nonstick cookie sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and crisping on the edges.

This recipe makes 15 cookies using a #10 scoop. The cookies turn out better if they are made a little larger. If you make them using only about one tablespoon of dough expect the cookies to be a bit hard.

I loved these and felt so political and animal friendly while I ate them. I would like to commit to such a cause, but I really love steak and generally all meats, especially pork. I apologize for my un-animal friendly nature, but I cannot apologize for my love of all things pork, especially bacon.