Everyday I'm shuffelin'

I have a confession to make.  Every show I work on I have a really hard time saying that I'm fully one hundred percent vegan.  The reason for this is because... of the dessert.  This is why I say I'm 90-95% vegan.  I follow a completely vegan diet when it comes to my cooking and baking (as well as when I eat food elsewhere, other than desserts).  I just can't resist a delicious looking white cake, or red velvet cupcakes (which were /cough delivered from FedEx by Sprinkles bakery in Los Angeles... yes I definitely ate my fair share of them too, even though by the time we got them it looked like they'd been ran over by a tractor, and eaten by a mob of crazies).

The past couple days I have been very good though, and it is all thanks to me being able to shut off my brain to things when I set rules for myself; i.e. only eat desserts that you've made that are vegan.  Perfect, well this week my treats were these delicious chunky chocolate peanut butter cookies.  I may not be a huge fan of chocolate, and thought that these cookies were far too chocolatey, and I may not be a huge fan of peanuts when they are kept in their original form i.e. I hate chunky peanut butter for that reason, but these cookies, were definitely sinful.

I gobbled them down, and certainly enjoyed them, as did the people I shared them with.  When I eventually told them they were vegan (after one of the people had three cookies and asked for another) she thought I was lying, but nope.  This was a perfect batch, it gave me seventeen medium sized cookies, they are just a touch too-chocolatey for me, so next time I would reduce the cocoa powder and add it in the flour, or even just cut out all cocoa powder and keep the chocolate chunks, mmmm that sounds great to me.

Note: these cookies are incredibly greasy, I was debating adding some extra flour because the amount of wetness from the canola oil/maple syrup was... like washing your hands with oil, but they turned out magnificently.  They did not spread out much more than their original shape, they were not greasy when finished baking, they were such as a non-vegan cookie (i.e. butter not oil).  I shouldn't of been so skeptical as I've made numerous upon numerous vegan cookies that have been so insanely oily and I'd never been hesitant before and they turned out god-like.  I really liked these, and will certainly make them again!

Vegan Chunky Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe slightly adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1 cup spelt flour
• 1/8 cup cane sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tbsp homemade peanut butter
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together your spelt flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add sugar and stir to combine. It’s important you sift when you use spelt flour because it’s a bit denser than other flours and you don’t want rock-cookies.

In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, canola oil and peanut butter. Pour into dry ingredients and add the peanuts and chocolate chips.

Scoop into small balls and place on a lined cookie sheet, pressing down gently. Bake for 10-12 minutes then cool on the baking sheet for 10 more minutes.

 

What are some of your favourite vegan cookies to whip up?