My Best Ever Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie

You'll never know they're vegan!

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Hello, Happy Thursday!

It is time for another cookie! Yes, I am not done just yet. And this week I am showing you a spin on everyone's favourite, the chocolate chip cookie. The spin being they are vegan.

My niece has been off travelling and is finally back in the country today, so I thought it would be nice to meet her at the station with a batch of cookies so that she could enjoy some home comforts, some home-made cookies. I chose these vegan cookies partly because I had everything in the house, partly because everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie, but also because I wanted to share the recipe with all of you.

I know you’re thinking, why vegan? Im not vegan; my niece isn’t vegan; these cookies just happen to be damn delicious and also happen to be vegan. Plus, I think it is absolutely worth having a great vegan cookie recipe in your back pocket. Im sure you have friends and family that are vegan, and don't you want to make them happy with absolutely delicious cookies? Of course you do!

This recipe makes just six cookies, and the vegan tweaks are incredibly simple. In a regular cookie dough, there are normally just two non-vegan ingredients: butter and eggs. The butter you can replace simply with a vegan alternative, and the eggs can be replaced with a whole manner of things. When I was testing recipes for the book, I knew I wanted a handful of vegan recipes, but I didn't want them to be made with any hard-to-find egg replacements. If the idea was to make these recipes as accessible as possible, going out to buy a vegan egg replacement you might only use a few times didn't seem like a user-friendly option. In the end, I found that in most cookies, the egg could actually be replaced in something far simpler, non-dairy milk. These two ingredients are available from all supermarkets these days, so they’re just as easy to make as any non-vegan cookie. The one thing to note when shopping for vegan baking ingredients is that the butter substitute should be sold as a block, not as a tub; this spreadable fat is less appropriate for baking. I tested all the vegan recipes with the two most widely available vegan butters, Flora Plant-Based Butter and Naturli Vegan Butter; both work perfectly.

New Merch

You may remember that last year I launched my first ever merch, a collaboration with Novel Mart, and of course it was ‘Butter’ themed. What else? And because butter is truly my life (ironic considering today's post), when it came to doing a second round of merch, I couldn’t let go of the butter theme, so instead we doubled down! The previous design was based around the design of old-school sticks of American butter, and for this round we went a bit more literal, using an almost cartoonish interpretation of the butter packaging design. To say I am OBSESSED is an understatement; keeping these a secret has been close to impossible. Some of you may have even spotted the merchandise in a video or two when I forgot to take it off!

The cap, hoodie, and sweatshirt all have the butter design embroidered on them, but the t-shirt is screen printed. Why? Because we doubled the design. On the t-shirt, the butter illustration is on the front of the t-shirt but also on the back in a BIG way!

Novel Mart works on a made-to-order system, so there is no stock held to reduce wastage, and because of this, they work with partners in a number of countries, meaning you can order the merch anywhere in the world and don’t have to pay extortionate delivery fees.

Small Batch Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 6

100g vegan ‘block style’ butter, diced and at room temperature

165g light brown sugar

3 tbsp soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

100g plain flour

100g strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer), cream together the vegan butter and sugar, beating for about 2-3 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the soy milk and vanilla and mix until fully combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix, on low speed, just until a uniform dough is formed. Add the chocolate and mix in briefly, just until evenly distributed. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight, until firm. Chilling the cookie dough allows the flour to hydrate, giving the perfect end texture.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and roll each one into a ball. Place on the prepared baking tray and sprinkle a little flaked sea salt onto each one. You can also press a little extra chocolate onto the outside of the cookie dough balls at this stage if you like; it will give a bakery-quality look to the cookies, as they will have lots of melted chocolate showing on the outside of the cookie.

Bake for about 16 minutes, or until the cookies are golden around the edges and still a little pale in the centres. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

If stored in a sealed container, these cookies will keep for 2-3 days.