I have a major sweet tooth. It's the only thing that at times causes me to be slightly less than 100% vegan. When out at a coffee shop -- most still have no vegan baked sweet options -- I sometimes get a regular sweet despite getting soy with my coffee or tea. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but baked sweets are the only things leading me to eat something that isn't vegan.
At home, however, when I'm desperate for something sweet to eat, and there's nothing sweet in the house, I'll sometimes whip up a quick batch of what I call 'desperate man's chocolate', a chocolatey concoction of raw sugar, vanilla, cocoa, soy milk and peanut butter. But when I have the strength to hold my sweet tooth back long enough to whip up a batch of cookies, I'll do that instead. And it doesn't take long either. An hour, tops.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup unbleached white flour or whole wheat pastry flour (I used whole wheat recently and got good reviews at a vegan bbq potluck)
- 1/3 cup gluten flour or rice flour (only add if using whole wheat flour, to offset the graininess a bit)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract (also works well with rose or orange water)
- 1/3 cup vegan margarine
- 1 cup natural chunky peanut butter
- 10-12 tsp cocoa
- just enough soy (or almond milk) to make into a stiff batter
- equivalent of 3 eggs (I used ground flax and water)
Preparation:
- Put dry ingredients in bowl.
- Cut in vanilla extract, margarine and peanut butter with a fork.
- Add a little soy to bind into a stiff batter, followed by egg replacer. Mix well.
- Put in fridge for about 10 minutes while oven heats up.
- Take a tablespoon of batter at a time, roll it into a smooth ball between your palms, flatten it a bit, place on cookie sheet with wax paper, then make criss-cross fork indentations.
- Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 13 minutes.
Enjoy!
