Chocolate chip cookies . . .

[SparroWinter]

Does anyone have a recipe for good chocolate chip cookies that doesn't involve any brown sugar? I can't seem to find anything, and I'm in a cookie-baking mood tonight.

Thanks in advance!

[Xiexie11]

if you have molasses, you can mix in 1/4 cup molasses to 1 cup of white sugar as a substitute for brown sugar.  The  brown sugar holds moisture, so just replacing it with white sugar would likely make for pretty crunchy cookies.

[crazyjayblue]

Here's my recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Everyone always asks me for the recipe when they try these. They are always surprised to find out they are vegan   Yum

Ingredients:
-2 cups flour
-2 tsps baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon, I always add the full tsp)
-1 cup chocolate chips or carob chips
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
-1 tsp vanilla
-1/4 cup warm water
-1/4 to 1/2 cup chocolate soy milk (depending on moisture needed)

Directions:
This recipe works best if all ingredients are at room temperature, with the exception of the soy milk.
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon (if you choose). Add chips. Make a well in the centre and set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl mix sugar and oil. Mix well. Add vanilla and then the water and 1/4 cup of the soy milk. Mix well.
4. Add the wet to the well in the dry. Mix well but don't overwork. If it needs a little extra moisture you can add a touch more soy milk.
5. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 5 minutes, flip and/or rotate the cookie sheets and bake another 4 minutes. Keep checking them often after this point until they are done.
They are done when they feel slightly softer than you want them to be.


My favourite thing about these cookies is that they stay soft after they cool. Yum.

Enjoy.

[Xiexie11]

I forget about the oil!  That's another way to keep them soft. Is all sugar vegan?  My understanding is that refined sugar uses charcoal in the processing and sometimes has bone meal.

[SparroWinter]

O_o

Okay, the concept of having crushed bones mixed in with my sugar just kinda disturbs me . . .

[Xiexie11]

Yeah.  You're not alone.    It's not mixed in.  It's used in a filtering process. Not all sugar is refined that way.  Apparently it's supposed to be something like 50% of sugar out there is processed with bone char.

I'm not actually vegan. I've cooked for some vegans though, and I was surprised to find out that some of them wouldn't eat sugar.  A quick google search for "vegan sugar" turned up some interesting info.

[crazyjayblue]

The whole vegan sugar thing is one of those matters of opinion forever up for debate. Yes, most white sugar is refined through a bone char filter. No bone char remains in the sugar. Some vegans think it's not vegan as a result, some vegans (myself included) have no real issues with this. I'm not vegan to make myself "pure" in the eyes of the vegan police, I'm vegan to help reduce animal suffering. Sugar refined with bone char is not causing animal suffering. Bone char is used because it is cheap and readily available because of the meat industry. If it was not such an easy solution they would use something else. There are simply more important angles to "attack" than the sugar thing, and in my opinion just end up turning more people off, and hurting the cause. But hey...my opinion. Nevermind the fact that it is impossible to avoid every use of animal products. The very same filters used to process sugar are often used in water filters, even by municipal water plants, so the water coming out of your tap may not be "vegan" by those standards. Animal products are used in glue for book binding, in the processing of rubber for the tires on your bike, to the concrete you walk down the street on. You can't eliminate everything. You have to choose your battles I guess. To me there are more important ones than whitened sugar.

However, there is sugar processed through vegetable based filters, and also raw sugar (which works very well in this recipe) for those vegans who refuse to eat the white refined sugar.

Now then....that's enough blabbering on from me. 

[Xiexie11]

Ah, not trying to start a religious war or anything.  When people come to my house to eat, I just ask for a list of ingredients I should avoid.  Sugar is no different than eggplant in my opinion.  You don't want it in your dinner, I'll use something else. 

[SparroWinter]

I'm all for the reduction in animal suffering, but yeah, you have a point with the bone char thing, CrazyJayBlue. The animals would be dead for their meat anyway, so in a way, making use of the leftovers is something of a better alternative to just throwing them away. Better to use as much as possible than as little as possible, after all.

At least, those are my thoughts on it. I'm not vegan myself. Not even vegetarian (I've tried, but dammit, I enjoy the taste of meat too much to give it up so easily. Too weak willed, I freely admit). But I do make my stand against animal cruelty in some ways, albeit small ones. I buy free range eggs as opposed to cheaper 'factory' eggs. (Not much, but it's a start.) Of course, that's not all I do, but it's the first thing that comes to mind right now.

I admire the people who are vegan and vegetarian, who are doing so because they're standing up for what they believe in. Well, I admire the ones who don't try to throw it in my face that I'm different than they are. But really, so long as no one tries to tell me that I'm ignorant for not following their ways, I'm all set and content to go on admiring. :p