Sarah J. Blige

I loved baking with my mom when I was a kid.  She always let me lick the beaters clean while we waited for the cookies to bake. I even had my own Company’s Coming Kids Cooking cookbook, which made me feel pretty badass. After becoming vegan, I begrudgingly said goodbye to the wonderful world of baked goods because I just assumed it wasn’t possible to make decent-tasting treats without using eggs or butter. But let me tell you: I was wrong.

After discovering the supreme yumminess of carob chips while grocery shopping at the market down the road, I decided I wanted chocolate – or carob – chip cookies, and I wanted to make them myself. I browsed dozens of vegan cookie recipes on the web and borrowed bits and pieces from several, made a few slight adjustments, and eventually came up with my very own carob chip cookie recipe. These cookies are delicious! I can’t believe I’ve been in the dark about vegan cookies for so long, so now, I’m showing you the light. Enjoy!

Vegan carob chip cookies, fresh out of the oven! Mmmmm.

Ingredients:
1 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance natural buttery spread, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup vanilla almond milk (or soy milk)
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup carob chips
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Cooking Instructions:
1.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Warm Earth Balance in the microwave for about 20 seconds. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla extract and cinnamon.

2.) In a small bowl, mix vanilla almond milk (or soy milk), applesauce and carob chips. Combine this mixture with the sugar mixture from step one.

3.) In another medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, and stir. Mix about half or two-thirds of the dry mix with the wet mix and stir well with a spoon. Pour in the rest of the dry mix and continue to stir until the two mixtures are completely blended, and then mix with your hands. (My favorite part!)

4.) Roll the dough into approximately 1 to 1 1/2-inch balls and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Squish the dough balls down a little bit so that they end up looking more like cookies than perfect spheres. Place cookies on the medium rack in the oven and cook for 35 minutes. (If you’re using two cookie sheets, you may want to switch racks halfway through the cooking time for even baking. )

5.) Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes on a baking rack (if you don’t have one, a plate works just fine).

Showing off my scrumptious carob chip creation.