There are very few experiences in life that give me more familial happiness than baking with my children. When my girls were really young it was fun to engage their minds in something different and getting them excited about eating food, as they are getting a bit bigger I use the opportunity to talk to them about healthy choices and challenging their palettes with more complex flavours. It’s also a good opportunity to review fractions/reading a recipe and following directions/measuring in a fun way. Research shows that a child who has experienced cooking with a family member is more likely to be interested in cooking and making whole food rather than fast food choices when they are adults.

 

As these are vegan cookies, they are a little bit flatter that a regular cookie – there is no egg or egg replacer in this recipe to give it that lift. That also means you have to be very careful with cooking time. When you take these cookies out of the oven they will be set, but still soft and wobbly. They will dry out and harden when you take them out of the oven so if you leave them to bake too long, it will result in extremely crunchy cookies – even if they are not burnt. Other than that this is an enjoyable recipe to make – no fancy gadetry required. I used chopped vegan chocolate to make the chips but if you can find vegan choc chips then go right ahead.

Enjoy and happy cooking! xx

Ingredients

1 cup vegan butter (I use Golden Canola Lite or Nuttelex)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 white sugar
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Flax Seed Oil (available at most supermarkets)
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tablespoon warm water
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
150 g vegan chocolate, chopped

1. Combine the softened vegan butter and the sugars in a mixing bowl and cream together

2. In a separate bowl, combine the flax seed oil, vanilla and water. Whisk together. The texture will be gooey and egg-like. Add this to the butter mixture

3. Add the flour, salt and baking soda to the mixture and mix well until combined and homogenous

4. Chop up the vegan chocolate and fold into the mixture.( I use a mezzaluna to do this)

5. Put heaped teaspoons of the cookie dough a centimeter apart on a tray covered with baking paper

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. When you take the cookies out of the oven they will still be soft. Leave them to cool for a few minutes in the tray then transfer to a wire rack. If any of them have stuck together during baking, use a thin knife to separate them while they are soft and pliable.

7. ENJOY!