Chocolate Chip Cookies

Making desserts I was unable to eat all day gave me a wicked craving for cookies, so I decided to put my new book to use and make ones of the chocolate chip variety.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 4 1/2 teaspoons of egg replacer plus 6 tablespoons of water

-OR-

• 1 1/2 bananas


• 1 cup vegan butter


• 3/4 cup granulated sugar


• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar(light or dark)


• 2 tsp vanilla extract


• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, or 1 1/8 each whole wheat and all-purpose


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp salt


• 1-2 cups vegan chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Whip together the egg replacer and water, or mash the bananas.


2. Cream together the butter, both sugars and the vanilla extract. Add the egg replacer or bananas and stir until combined


3. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl until combined. Beat the flour into the wet mixture. When combined, stir in the chocolate chips.


4. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until done.


5. Place on handy dandy wire cooling rack, then eat!

These cookies were amazing, and got the seal of approval from my very skeptical non-vegan boss. I had to bake them for a little longer than the recommended amount of time, so just keep checking them if they're not done after the 8 minutes. I like my cookies chewy and moist, so I didn't let them get too brown.

Whole Wheat Tortillas

Okay, so I wanted some more tortillas, but I'm not going to go grocery shopping until this weekend. The answer? Make them myself, obviously! I used the recipe found here, and they came out pretty good, although I think I'll make the dough balls larger next time to in turn make larger tortillas, because I wasn't able to shape them very well, and they came out a little bit too small for loading with rice and beans. All in all, however, I was very pleased with this first attempt to make tortillas! I think they taste better than the store bought brands, and they're extremely easy to make.

Though technically not baking, I'd lump these into the category of "things-you-never-thought-you-could-make-at-home-but-actually-can-quite-easily."

Mexican Whole-Wheat Flour Tortillas

• 1 cup all-purpose flour


• 4 cups whole-wheat flour


• 1/2 cup vegan shortening(I use Earth Balance)


• 2 teaspoons salt


• 1 1/2 cups boiling water


• flour for sprinkling and rolling

1. Put some water on to boil. While you're waiting, mix the salt, all-purpose flour, and whole-wheat flour together in a large bowl.


2. Using your hands, rub the shortening into the dry mixture. I found it easier to cut the shortening first, and then rub the pieces in individually. Make sure there are no large chunks of shortening remaining, and that it well-incorporated throughout the mixture.


3. Roll them into balls and let them sit for about an hour. The original recipe said to roll them into golf-sized balls, however I found that that size made something I would describe as "mini-tortillas." In order to get a larger tortilla, make larger balls, but make sure to roll them out until they are quite thin or else they will have trouble cooking


4. When the hour is up, put an ungreased skillet on the stove(nonstick works well) and turn the heat up to medium high. One at a time, roll out a dough ball into a tortilla shape and place it on the skillet. When a bubble appears, flip it over and cook it for another 10-30 seconds. They don't take long at all to cook, so don't walk away or your tortilla will burn! When you're done, you should have delicious tortillas to eat :)