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.