vegan chocolate chip cookies

VEGAN Chocolate Chip Cookies

modified from the Joy of Cooking

photo courtesy of Nathaniel's mad skillz

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.  or, bake on a baking stone.  Mine were baked on a Pampered Chef round baking stone.

I used a stand mixer.  My children put the following ingredients in the bowl in no particular order:
1 cup plus 2 Tbs all-purpose organic, unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) soy margarine (that was presoftened because it had been out on the counter for about 2 hours)
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup packed organic dark brown brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp egg substutute (i used ener-g powder, it's in the baking section at whole foods)
4 Tbs water (you may need more if it is too dry)
heaping 1/4 tsp salt (you may need more if it tastes flat)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

I put the bowl on our stand mixer with the hook and let it mix.  when it was pasted to the side of the bowl (not really the best way to make cookies), i mixed it by hand (which is why there is 4 tbs of water rather than 2 - the egg substitute calls for 2 tbs of water but that wasn't enough, so i added more.)

then, kendal was done with it.  holly was still involved, so she and i added a half-bag (1 cup) of vegan chocolate chips (from whole foods, though i am not sure what the difference is between regular and vegan chocolate chips but they cost the same so i got the one with the "special label").

She tried to use a spoon to drop onto the baking stone and i was using my fingers to regulate what she was plopping down (some were big, some were 1 chocolate chip and a dab of dough).  Like normal, they were about 2 inches apart and not really big to start with.  We baked them, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are just slightly colored on top which took longer than normal - like 12 or 15 minutes. Since i used dark brown sugar, they always looked golden, so it was more of a olfactor way of telling when they were done - when they smelled done and lost their shine, well, they were done.  i let them sit on the pan for about 5 minutes to cool (they were still soft) and then i used a metal spatula to move to a rack.

they were absolutely perfect.  crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside.  these are absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies i've ever eaten.

duke gardens

this past weekend, i got to visit duke gardens for my very first time.  i met an old friend and her family there for some practice picture taking!!!  we had a great time, her kids were sweet as can be.  i even got a high-five from her son when we left!  lucky for me, they are all VERY photogenic.

here are my touched-up results!  (not much touching, either!)

so many of the pictures were great.  it was hard to "settle" on just these.  However, this set of photos really grabbed me, so i put them together on one page.  isn't it adorable???

thanks for letting me practice on you guys!
and for anyone else wanting something REALLY cool to do for a birthday party (or adult ones too!) check out her website: she is the owner of lil' chef in raleigh.  i can't wait for my kids to get big enough to have a party there!!!

not a chicken cooker

i wish my camera was handy so i could take a picture of the bone-in split chicken breasts i made for dinner.

i used my little thermometer in the thickest part of the largest breast to make sure they were cooked enough.  my oven is horrible, it cooks very uneven.  the thermometer said it was done and the first one i cut (which was not the largest one) had a raw spot in the middle. so, i put them all back in there for an undetermined amount of time.  oh yea, they were quite a dark color when they came out (which they'd still probably be in there if nathaniel didn't say "do you think the chicken is done?).

it was so dry that i actually tried to get the kids to eat it by putting water on it "to put some moisture back in it" (nathaniel got a good laugh when i said that).  ha.  needless to say it took them about 5 minutes to chew one piece.  and that is all they would eat (wonder why).  nathaniel ate one piece, which looked like something worse than something willow would have brought up and LEFT, and it crunched.  he ate it over the sink "to catch the dust."


so i never claimed to be a good cook.  especially when it comes to meat.

good cookbook

i got this cookbook when kendal started eating babyfood. ifound it online, it had 5 stars... and anyway, i bought it for like $5 or something off of half-bay. i just want to declare here that it is the most used cookbook in my house, save the joy of cooking (which is really in a different league). today, i made home-made graham crackers. no hydrogenated oils, no preservatives, no nothing. all it took to make them was 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 cup of whole wheat flour (we have king arthur brand), 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 stick of butter (i had unsalted), 1/2 c. honey (i used the honey we bought last weekend at the farmers market), and 1/4 cup whole milk (of coarse, we use organic milk). you mix the powdered stuff together and cut in the butter until it is similar to grits (the texture). i got tired of using the fork, so i ended up using my hands which would have ruined it if it had been pie crust, because the goal is to keep the butter cold and not let it melt (that provides for that flaky texture). anyway, i mixed it all together, rolled it outas thin as i could on a floured pampered chef pastry mat, then i used a pizza cutter to cut it into squares. i brushed the top with milk and poked holes in it with the fork, then baked them on 400 degrees for about 12 minutes... they are delicious. kendal loves them too. i wish i could have rolled them out thinner because most of them are more cookie-like than cracker like. but.. maybe next time. so still using the cookbook... i found a recipe for meatloaf that turned out to be really easy to make (and it tasted wonderful). plus i made mashed potatoes... all these recipes have veggies hidden in them (since i don't really like veggies and kendal tends to go for the fruit and bread when he is choosing for himself...) anyway, the meatloaf had peppers (red and yellow), onions, and carrots in it, chopped very fine. the mashed potatoes (which i made in my pampered chef microwave steamer thingy - the one i told you about melissa) had in them 3 baking potatoes, 6 carrots - steamed together, then i put them in the food processor and added 1/2 stick butter, about a cup of plain yogurt, a little salt and pepper... and then some milk to make it the right consistency. YUM. i couldn't even taste the carrots in it, but they were orange colored. the book recommended making "colored mashed potatoes" for the different holidays... orange for halloween (carrots), green (asparagus) and red (peppers) for christmas, red (peppers) for valentines' day, etc. it really was tasty. so if anyone is in the market for a new cookbook, i highly recommend this one. i realize it is for kids (which may make some of you skeptical about it), BUT most of the "sweets" recipes in it are low in sugar and could easily be changed to be low fat (like the ricotta cake recipe it has, which is kinda like a creme brulee - but made with whole milk ricotta).