Choc Chip Cookies

I've mentioned them before but it just occurred to me, as I went to find the recipe on this blog (as the cookbook it comes out of is somewhere in a box on a boat on a very large ocean), that I've never posted the recipe on here. So here it is: the yummiest choc chip cookies I've ever tasted.
 

Choc Chip Cookies 

  

adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking

2 1/4 cups plain flour*

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of vegan butter**

3/4 cup of white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 tsp vanilla extract

egg replacer for 3 eggs (inc water)***

1 cup semi sweet choc chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)**** 
 

Preheat oven to 190C. Whip the egg replacer until thick and creamy in a small bowl. Whip together sugars and butter in another bowl with vanilla extract. Add egg replacer mixture. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in another bowl and then add to the wet mixture. Once it is combined and nicely moist add the choc chips and nuts (if using). Spoon onto lightly greased baking trays and cook for about 10 minutes.
 

Notes: 

• Be careful once you take them out of the oven to cool and are transferring them to a wire rack: the melted chocolate can be quite hot.
• The dough is quite tough to handle, especially once you've put the chips and nuts in. At the moment I'm making do but once my mix master gets here it will be doing this heavy work.
• The cooking time really depends on your oven. My old oven use to take 20 minutes and this one takes 10.  The cookies don't go too golden so don't be deceived but they should develop some colour.
• Everytime I've cooked these they have come out a different shape. Depending on what type of butter I use normally determines if the cookies will spread a lot or not (Nuttelex = spreading!). Also, if your oven is too hot they will spread and if it is not hot enough they won't.
• Practise makes perfect: use your normal oven with the ingredients you typically use and practise, practise, practise!

* Wholemeal (wholewheat) flour also works well and is much better for you I am sure! 

** Yeah, this is a lot of butter. Don't eat all of the cookies and blame me for weight gain! Also, see notes above about effects of different butter.

*** I'm just using flaxseed now (1 egg = 1 tablespoon flax seed with 3 tablespoons water). In Australia I was using Orgran No Egg and I think in the US Ener-G Egg Replacer is the popular option. See the boxes for equivalence. Just be careful because the flaxseed uses more water than the others so you might need to add a tiny bit more flour to compensate. The dough should be quite wet and sticky but you don't want it too sloppy.

**** I use walnuts although have used peanuts successfully with this recipe in the past.