I had a small amount of chocolate chips remaining in the bag and decided to make a little batch of cookies to use them up. These are my basic go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I just shaped the dough into hearts before baking.

Bakery Style Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (with A Hint of Maple)

Makes about 12 large or 25 normal-sized cookies

Make these cookies BIG like those giant chocolate chip cookies you can find at bakeries. As their name suggests, these cookies have a chewy center contained within perfectly crispy edges. The maple syrup adds a little something to these, but the maple flavor is very subtle, if noticeable at all. The key to getting the chips evenly distributed and stuck in the dough is to use your hands! It makes all the difference. All in all, these cookies are ridiculously easy to make.

2/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Stir together the oil, sugar, syrup, applesauce and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl.

Add in flour, baking soda, and salt (no need to sift!). Stir in chocolate chips. If the chips don’t want to stick to the batter, use your hands! If the dough is a little dry, gradually add a small amount of soy milk, maybe a couple teaspoons, until it holds together.

Drop by large spoonfuls, 3-4 tablespoons each, onto a cookie sheet and slightly flatten. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

Hello everyone!
I’ve finished the cookie inventing and writing parts of this project, so keep checking back for updates on the book in the near future!

In the meantime, click here to look at the full collection of cookie photos.
And if you haven’t friended vegan cookies on MySpace yet, here it is!

As promised, some recent creations:

Vanilla Sandwich Cookies

Super Cute Turtle Cookies

Chocolate and Vanilla Jam Thumbprints

And a recipe! All the posts in which I include recipes are tagged with “recipe” under the “category” headline on the right of the screen. Here they all are: http://vegancookies.wordpress.com/category/recipe/

Chocolate Thumbprints
Makes 18 cookies

Aww, thumbprint cookies are so cute. With a fudgy texture and deep chocolate flavor, these are not your average thumbprint cookie. You can use any kind of jam you like. Of course they’re good with your typical strawberry or raspberry jam, but there are so many possibilities like peach or blueberry!

1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoons jam, your choice

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the oil, sugar, soy milk, and extracts.
Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and stir until completely mixed. Add a bit more flour if the dough looks wet.

Shape into tablespoon-sized balls and place on a lightly oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet (do not flatten) and bake for 9 minutes.

Remove from oven and using your thumb, press into each cookie, making a thumbprint. Put about 1/2 teaspoon jam on each cookie. Return to the oven and bake for 3 more minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool and enjoy!

I’ve neglected the cookie blog for way too long and I apologize! I’ve been really busy with lots of recipe making (which will be done in less than a month, by the way). The next step after that will be finding a publisher and creating this book! It’s all quite overwhelming, so if anyone has advice about the endeavor of getting published, I’m all ears!

In the meantime, Happy Holidays! I’ve included the recipe for my Chocolate Peppermint Cream Bars, the perfect thing to make in the winter.

Chocolate Peppermint Cream Bars

Makes 2-3 dozen

Whoa, man! These are pure chocolate and peppermint bliss! They’re not all that difficult or time consuming either, despite having three layers. They do call for a lot of chocolate chips, but feel free to halve the recipe and make in an 8×4-inch bread pan. Don’t even wait for the holidays to make these.

Bottom Layer:
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup soy milk
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 scant cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Peppermint Cream:
1/2 cup margarine
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
3-4 drops green food coloring (optional, but attractive)
2 tablespoons soy milk, plus more if needed

Chocolate Layer:
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bottom Layer: Melt the chocolate chips either in the microwave or in a glass bowl placed in boiling water. Remove from heat and stir in the soy milk and the cocoa powder. Cream together margarine and sugar with a strong fork, then add in the chocolate/soy milk/cocoa mixture and stir until incorporated. Add the vanilla, then the flour and salt. No need to sift.
In an 8×8-inch baking pan LINED WITH PARCHMENT PAPER (I cannot stress enough the importance), press out the dough evenly. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until the center is firm and the edges are done, then cool.

Peppermint Cream: Meanwhile, cream together the margarine and powdered sugar. Add in the peppermint extract and food coloring (if using). Gradually add the soy milk until the mixture kind of resembles frosting. If it’s liquid, add more powdered sugar. If it’s stiff or dry, add more soy milk. Chill in the fridge until the bottom layer is cooled.

Chocolate Layer (Make this at the last minute): Melt the chocolate chips and shortening in a glass bowl in boiling water, or over a double boiler.

Assembly: Spread the bottom layer evenly with peppermint cream, then chill in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Remove, then spread the top with the chocolate, creating a swirl pattern if you like. The chocolate will not spread out evenly due to the peppermint layer, but if you want it to be smooth, do a second layer of chocolate, halving the chocolate layer ingredients.
Let set, then cut as you like and enjoy!

(I also took a little hiatus from cookies to make a grinch gingerbread house!)

Jammy Dodgers

This classic British cookie has gone vegan!

English Toffee Squares

These are veganized from an old family recipe!

English Toffee Squares

Makes 25 squares

1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour

1 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, or a mixture)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream together the margarine and brown sugar with electric beaters. Add the vanilla.
Gradually sift in the flour and stir until incorporated.

Press dough into an 8×8-inch* nonstick (or lined with parchment) baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes until firm and golden. Don’t take them out too early or they won’t get crispy and toffee-like.

Remove from oven and uniformly sprinkle the chocolate chips in the pan. Return to the oven for about 30 seconds so the chocolate is melty and spreadable. Using a knife, spread the chocolate evenly over the cookie layer. Sprinkle with the nuts, then let cool (the fridge or freezer helps with this if you’re in a hurry) so the chocolate firms up. Cut into 25 squares and transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

*This recipe can be halved and baked in a 8×4-inch loaf pan.

I’ve been really super busy lately (it’s finals week!) and haven’t been able to blog too much. Still, I’ve managed to come up with a few new recipes in the past couple weeks.

Here is a link to a post I made on the PPK forums with recipes for Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Autumn Clouds Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, PBJ Thumbprints, and Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. All have gone through the testing process and the testers have adored these recipes (thank you, testers! <3).

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=855703#p855703

Enjoy!

Giant Bakery Style Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are pure chocolate bliss. Rich chewy chocolate cookies scattered throughout with warm, gooey chocolate chips. Probably one of my favorites, ever.

Autumn Clouds Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

In my quest for a chewy, spicy pumpkin cookie, I created these fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin cookies. While they’re not what I had intended to make, I’m glad they turned out this way because they are delicious cookies! You don’t have to make them in autumn because pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are wonderful any time of the year! The day I made them for the first time was for a party in the summer and they were devoured within minutes! The best way to make these is BIG.

Recipe (makes about 16-24, depending on size)

1 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (you could replace these with raisins, nuts, or other dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sugar, molasses, maple syrup, and oil. Sift together the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt and add to the wet ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by huge (scone-sized) or normal-sized spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until firm. Transfer to a cooling rack and enjoy! These taste amazing warm out of the oven and the flavors are really brought out overnight or a few hours later.

*Reminder: My oven bakes very quickly, so you may have to bake these longer. If you make them, let me know how long it took. <3

Cinnamon…sugar…snickerdoodles!

These lovely cookies were made by Garrick from the PPK. Photo courtesy of Garrick.

As requested, I’m going to share this recipe. I’ll be sharing some cookie recipes from time to time, so let me know how they were if you make them!

Snickerdoodles
Makes about 3-4 dozen

3/4 cup margarine
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup soy milk
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Cream together the margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla, soy milk, and cornstarch and mix until incorporated.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Stir. If the dough is too dry and crumbly, add a splash of soy milk. It shouldn’t be sticky though.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Form the dough into 1 1/2″ balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake for about 12 minutes until golden around the edges, but still soft on top, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy!

Edit: I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on my blog yet, but my oven bakes everything freakishly quick (even from cookbooks, etc), so baking times on recipes I share definitely aren’t set in stone. Accurate/average baking times will be established when recipe testing starts and the cookie recipes get baked in a variety of kitchens with different ovens since some ovens bake slooowly and some quick.
So, if you try out a recipe and the cookies are definitely not done after the specified time that worked in my oven, just bake them longer and let me know how long they took.