Chocolate Chip Cookies Invade My Belly

Have you ever noticed that there are about as many chocolate chip cookie recipes as clouds in the sky? Seriously, it's kind of crazy. It's interesting, though. So many different ways of creating virtually the same thing. My favorite is usually a veganized version of the old school Toll House cookie recipe. It's a nice cookie that's just a bit fluffy and not too crunchy or oily and doesn't fall apart. I always add pecans with the chocolate chips. Without the pecans it's good, but just not the same if you ask me.

When a chocolate chip cookie craving set upon me a few weeks ago, I decided that I'd try a new recipe just for kicks. You never know when that new recipe might suddenly become your old favorite, right? It's always worth it to shake things up a bit here and there. Enter Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Someone suggested I make a cookie pie instead of individual cookies. My willpower was not strong that day so I opted for a smaller serving size. I was afraid I'd eat like half of the cookiepie in one sitting!

These cookies turned out great! They didn't rise quite as much as my usual recipe, but not in a bad way. These are definitely more of a crunchy cookie. But not like super crunchy, just not like eating a pillow or something if that makes any sense. Again, not in a bad way! These were super yummy.

I pretty much always have all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies on hand, so that's a score. I even had the tapioca flour. I've been baking gluten-free stuff quite a bit more often so I've been stocking up on some of the more out of the ordinary flours. If you don't have any of that and don't want to buy any, you can substitute arrowroot powder. (Or so says the internet at least! I haven't tried doing that in this particular recipe, but I can't see why it wouldn't work just fine.)

Another cool thing about this recipe is that there's no margarine in it. Great for those days when you're out of Earth Balance but you really want to make some cookies.  That's also great if you're trying to avoid soy or palm oil.

I just realized Isa and Terry put this recipe online, so yay for you! I copy/pasted it from here.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero)
Makes two dozen two inch cookies or about 16 three inch cookies

1/2 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt


3/4 cups chocolate chips
3/4 cups chopped pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.

Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important that you don’t get lazy about that step. Mix in the vanilla.

Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips and pecans. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.

For 3 inch cookies, roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 – until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

For 2 dozen two inch cookies roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches and bake for only six minutes.