Help with vegan chocolate chip cookies?!
First, I found Earth Balance Vegan Spreadable "Butter", but will that work for baking? Once I made regular cookies with spreadable butter, and they came out terrible because it wasn't stick butter, so will the same thing happen with vegan butter? if so what are some vegan butter/ margarine sticks that I can use instead, and where can I find them at? I live in an area with NO vegan stores, so specific chain grocery stores would help.
Also, where can I find vegan chocolate chips?
Last, I can't find an egg substitute by me, but I read that using applesauce in place of eggs works fine. Is this true?
Thanks for any and all help!
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
I use earth balance for baking. Usually I use the tub, but they also sell stick "butter"...which I'm pretty sure is the same thing. "Spreadable" usually just means its whipped. Same ingredients, just more air.
Use dark chocolate chips, read the ingredients to ensure there isnt dairy. You can find dark chocolate chips in any chain store.
I usually don't include an egg substitute in my cookies and they come out fine. Applesauce works, as does banana, but both will add a fruity taste. Ground flax seeds will also do the trick.
Earth Balance absolutely works with cooking. I always use the spreadable one, because I don't live in an area where they sell the sticks.
I use Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips, usually. They're delicious, they taste like milk chocolate but they're vegan! You can get them at any grocery store, I don't know if you have Safeway where you live, but I get them there.
Applesauce will make your cookies softer, so if you're not going for crunchy cookies, applesauce will work just fine. Another substitute is to use one banana, I've never used those in cookies though, I'm not sure how strongly the banana flavor comes through.
Good luck, vegan cookies are delicious so I hope yours turn out well!
Here is a GREAT guide to vegan dessert substitutes, hope it helps. I have also added 2 other vegan substitutes guides below, these will be very helpful if you are often looking to sub non-vegan ingredients.
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/sweet-creamy-and-cruelty-free-vegan-substitutes-for-desserts/
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/miss-meat-not-a-problem-a-quick-guide-to-vegan-meat-substitutes/
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/the-essential-vegan-supplement-guide/
http://www.onegreenplanet.org
I use apple sauce in place of butter.
I heard that mashed up bananas or ground flax seed and water could replace eggs.
I googled vegan chocolates and got this: http://www.veganchocolate.com/index.htm
about.com says that you can get vegan chocolate from Trader Joe's. Ritter Sport - Chocolate Mint (the light blue ones) and Marzipan (the red one), are apparently vegan chocolate products too.
Best of luck.
School, Google, About.com.
Yes, earth balanced works with baking..it's vegetable oil. I've done it. Some chocolate is made without milk you just gotta look at the ingredients. You could try to make your own chocolate with cocopowder. I use canola oil and it works great instead of eggs. I put peanut butter in them too..I think it helps them stick together and tastes amazing! :)
USe oil, they end up nice and moist, you don't ever need butter. Or use margerine.
Get dark chocolate, a good brand, like a Dove bar and break it into chunks- it's much nicer than store bought flavorless chocolate drops.
Trador joes has some!! =)
Earth Balance works well with baking, but you can't sub it in a 1:1 ratio for butter, because margarine contains more liquid than butter. When using margarine or oil in place of butter, use 3/4 of the amount of butter called for in the recipe.
I mentioned using oil, but this doesn't usually work well with chocolate-chip cookies, because the buttery flavor of most plainer cookies is basically essential for it. Oil works well in recipes where that taste isn't super-important, like brownies.
And: I'm assuming by 'turned out terrible' you were trying to veganize a recipe and did a 1:1 ratio, which would make the cookies too liquidy, and would make them spread too much, not rise at all, and be greasy- is that what happened? Or did something else go wrong?
Trader Joe's and Whole Foods carry their own brands vegan chocolate chips. Enjoy Life, Tropical Source, and Ghirardelli Semisweet Chips are all vegan. You could also use dark chocolate if you like it.
As a last resort, you can order them online from places like Pangea or VeganEssentials.
Applesauce works only as a binder, and not a very powerful one at that (from my experience)- eggs both leaven and bind in cookie recipes. It also adds extra moistness to any baked good.
Applesauce works well as an egg replacer in denser baked goods, like banana nut bread, and is often used in combination with other egg replacers in recipes like muffins.
For cookies, I usually use 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water per egg. Mix it together in a small bowl, and let it form a sort of 'gel' before adding it to the rest of the batter.
If the cookies fall apart when you take them out of the oven (but are the right texture), add a dash of cornstarch next time for extra binding (which has happened with a few recipes for me using flaxseed).
Also- the links warn about the taste of flaxseed. I have served cookies, muffins, brownies, and breads made using flaxseed and nobody has ever said it tasted weird. Maybe buying it pre-ground lessens the taste, as its less fresh? In any case, I'd ignore that :)
If you don't bake a lot, it might be worth it to get a vegan cookie cookbook instead of trying to veganize it, which is hard until you've done it a lot. I LOVE Vegan Cookies Invade your cookie jar, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and all her other books are pretty freakin good too.
These cover egg replacers pretty well:
http://www.theppk.com/2007/10/vegan-baki…
http://www.veganbakingsecrets.com/?p=240
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7678.0
vegan who bakes too much