Sneaky Vegan Chocolate Cookies

Amazing photo by Dylan of SBM Photography 

The other night our gorgeous friends brought us Indian for dinner ... and even though we all stuffed ourselves silly on palak paneer and garlic naan and pakoras, well, I still fancied something sweet and chocolatey after. So I pulled out this recipe because it's super fast and easy and amazingly good. It's also the recipe I go to when I want to bake but have no eggs or butter in the house (which, you'd be surprised ... ) I loved seeing everyone's surprise when I came back from the kitchen with a plate of warm cookies. Which were promptly devoured.

I call these cookies sneaky because - no one would ever guess they're vegan and because you can disappear into the kitchen for 15 minutes and re-emerge with cookies.

But they come with a very serious warning:
THEY ARE ADDICTIVE!
so maybe they're also sneaky because they seem to find their way out of the cookie jar ...


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Sneaky Vegan Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

Makes about 24

Ingredients
1/2 c jam*
1 c raw sugar
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil (or canola oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c + 2 Tbs raw cocoa powder
1 1/2 c unbleached plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

* I have successfully used: strawberry jam, apricot jam, ginger marmalade, sweet plum sauce, cranberry sauce (leftover from Thanksgiving), and mango jam. So, what you use is pretty much up to you!

**And try to use organic ingredients when you can.

Preheat the oven to 160C, 325F.

1. Mix the jam, sugar, oil and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until well-combined. Add all the dry ingredients and mix.

2. The texture of your cookie dough will be a little strange, but don't worry. Once it's all mixed well, pick up a Tablespoon-sized glob of dough in your hand, roll it around to make a ball, and then smush it flat between your palms.

3. Put the cookies onto a greased or baking-paper-lined tray. I like to make little forkprints in the top (like what you do in traditional American peanut butter cookies), but that's not necessary.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 min. Don't leave them too long or they'll dry out and lose their chewiness. Take them out and cool on a rack. They'll feel a bit floppy, but they'll solidify a bit as they cool.

5. Enjoy hot, cold, with icing sugar sprinkled over them, whatever your heart desires. Store them in an airtight container and they'll keep for a week or so (if you can resist)


Amazing photo by Dylan of SBM Photography 

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How much did this cost me?

I used all organic ingredients in these, and all in all 2 dozen cost me just over $3 to make. The flour was $0.66, the oil was $1.02, the sugar was $0.44 and the jam I'd made myself (or was something I needed to use up). The cocoa powder was about $1.30. And that's about it! Good stuff.

I think after all this talking about chocolate cookies I might just have to have one ...

Amanda xx

Comments

  1. These look so yummy and easy! Do you think that if you used mint jam they would taste like mint slices???

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  2. Ooh, great idea! Do you have a recipe for mint jam, or are you thinking like mint sauce?

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  3. i made these today and it was so easy and quick. i used organic strawberry jam, in fact i had everything in the house (that rarely happens here!)
    even my son ate them and that's saying something as he doesn't eat much

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  4. OMG I'm so excited to find these!! Love the photo as well. Would you mind if I repost on my blog? http://sneakyvegan.blogspot.com

    Love love love your site =)

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  5. I made these today and they quite impressed me! I made half a batch with your recipe, and altered the other half to suit my tastes better.
    Here's what I did. For one batch's worth of dough:
    - Add 1/4 cup peanut butter
    - Add 2 tbsp more cocoa
    - Sub 1/3 of the flour for whole wheat
    - Add 1/8 cup milk (any type, I used rice milk) to make the dough less dry
    These was off the hook! And it was my first time experimenting with vegan baking. My (non-vegan) friends loved the cookies too! Thanks for the recipe.

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  6. @Anonymous Thanks for contributing such an awesome comment! Cannot go wrong with choc and whole wheat ... :)

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  7. made these cookies last night- they were too good! thank you for sharing such a great recipe :-)

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Thanks for commenting! Amandaxx