By Victoria Q

Ho ho ho~ Merry Christmas~ May the holiday season fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter.

As I promised in my previous post on “Getting Ready for Christmas Holiday”, I’m going to reveal my recipe for this year handmade gifts in today’s post – The Vegan Chocolate Chips Cookies.

I love cookies so much! They’re one of my favourite things to bake, eat and… gift! There’s nothing better than expressing yourself through delicate baking and seeing the look on someone’s face enjoy eating your freshly baked batch of homemade cookies. Warm, sweet, and lovely.

I’ve decided on making my own Christmas gifts this year by baking different cookies for each person. Well, perhaps not exactly special baking for “each person” but I tried to give them the most suitable cookies based on how deeply I know about each of them.

I’m perhaps the only vegan among my family and friends. First of all, I’m not a real vegan yet, I’m still on my journey of veganism, slowly and steadily. So, I’ve been feeling inspired to create recipes that my family, friends and I can enjoy together.

Vegan baking isn’t too different from traditional baking. By swapping out a few ingredients and making some adjustments, I’ve created vegan chocolate chips cookies that are perfectly sweet but not too sweet, crispy, rich in flavour and satisfying. In fact, no one will know these cookies are actually vegan!

This recipe is easy to make, no electronic mixer required, no softened but not melted butter required, and no chilling the dough for several hours. Sometimes all a girl needs are just freshly baked cookies that can be eaten right away!

Vegan chocolate chips: There are plenty of vegan and dairy-free chocolate topping brands out there in most local grocery stores these days. You don’t have to use chocolate chips. You may also use chocolate chunks if you want. If you can’t find any vegan chocolate chips or chunks in your local grocery stores, I’m pretty sure you can find them online. Amazon sells all kinds of vegan chocolate you want.

Coconut oil vs Olive oil: Some of you might wonder what kind of oil you need to use in this recipe to make it healthier. We all know coconut oil and olive oil are both great in baking but what’s the difference between them? Well, I didn’t notice any textural differences with any of the oils, but virgin coconut oil offers a slight coconut nutty flavour. Meanwhile, extra virgin olive oil tastes just like olive oil but not too strong, especially when the cookies are still warm. Both offer a slight taste of the oil. If you enjoy the flavour of either of the oils in baking, I’m sure you’ll love how they turned the baked goods into a more flavourful result. But if you don’t and prefer to stick with the original taste of the cookies, I suggest you use neutral oil like avocado oil, safflower oil or canola oil.

Non-dairy milk: I’ve tried different non-dairy milk, and I found that coconut milk works the best. The coconut milk I use in this recipe is very thick sort of like coconut cream texture. This gives the cookies a rich and creamy texture. But if you don’t like coconut milk for its taste, almond milk and soymilk also works great in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• ½ cup canola oil
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup coconut milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare a large baking sheet with baking paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the canola oil, sugar, and vanilla extract till well-combined. Then, add coconut milk and whisk again.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk till well-combined. These are your dry ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and use a spatula to stir till all the ingredients are combined. The batter will be very thick. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop the dough into the prepared baking sheet, leaving space in between each cookie for spreading. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or till the edges are golden and the centre has set. Let them sit for 10 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack. 
7. Serve with a cup of hot tea.

Find out more of my vegan dessert recipes here:

Vegan Banana Bread

2021 Halloween: Best Breakfast Ever – Pumpkin Muffins (Vegan)

Vegan Black Bean Brownies

Date Energy Balls (Vegan)