Recipe Review: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not sure how I stumbled onto the best recipe for vegan double chocolate cookies, but I am so glad I did! I have not met anyone who didn't love these decadent, luscious cookies, and I love making big batches so I can give some away and make someone's day. You can really make this recipe your own by using an unrefined liquid sweetener, using different or less oil, adding dried fruit, changing the type of nut, changing the flavor of extract, and varying the amount of baking time. I've done a a lot of different things with it, and it always comes out great!


My usual way of making it is adapted as follows.

Double Chocolate Walnut Cookies
by Christina Terriquez, adapted from ehow.com

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour or white wheat flour
1/3 cup natural cocoa powder
1/3 cup dutch process (dark) cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cup sugar or 1 cup agave nectar
4 teaspoons ground flax seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
2/3 cup safflower oil, coconut oil, or a combination of both
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1--2 teaspoons almond extract
3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
3/4 cups finely chopped walnuts (or your favorite nut)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a medium sized bowl, sift the first six ingredients together.

In a bowl or large glass measuring cup, whisk together ground flax seeds and soymilk. Add oil and extracts. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and mix to combine. Fold walnuts and chocolate chips into batter.

Using a cookie scoop, or tablespoon, drop cookie dough onto a cookie sheet or parchment-covered cookie sheet and flatten each cookie with palm.

Bake cookies for approximately 10 minutes.

Allow to cool then remove from cookie sheet and devour. Try to save a few for your friends and family. Okay, one for each family member. Okay, try to restrain yourself from eating the whole damn batch.

Notes
For softer cookies, bake for a minute or two less.

For crispier cookies, bake for a minute longer.

I think these would be great as double chocolate mint cookies: omit the nuts, substitute mint extract for the almond extract.

Make sure to use small chocolate chips and chop the walnuts small, or the pieces will fall out of the cookies before you can flatten them.

Make brownie cookies by make larger, fatter cookies and letting them stay a bit soft.

When I use my cookie scoop, this recipe yields about 18-24 cookies.

If you have vegan white chocolate chips, these would be great with white chocolate instead of, or in addition to the dark chocolate chips. Try adding 3/4 cup white chips, in addition to the original 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips for Triple Chocolate Cookies. Or make White Chocolate Chip Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies by subbing the white chips for the dark chocolate chips and macadamia nuts pieces for the walnuts.