Chocolate chips cookie vegan style

After a very wet trip to Kāpiti island today it was onto baking up a storm for week two of my Infant Massage course and enjoy the warmth of the oven as soon as we got back.  I traditionally make chocolate chip cookies for our morning tea kai this week, if there are no allergies in the group that is.  However as the first batch came out of the oven and herself (the official tester of all things non-vegan) had a taste we realised that I had used dark chocolate that was a bit too dark; that is too bitter for the sweet cookies I was aiming for.

Kaka checking us out over on Kāpiti Island

So ……  I thought I would make a batch of another delicious chocolate chip cookies we have the recipe for and best of all himself and I could give them the taste test!  I found this little gem of a recipe thanks to Jordan Rondel and her post in a magazine within the NZ Herald.  I have only changed a few things from the original recipe due to my usual reasons; lack of ingredients, buslife, ease of baking and most importantly  …… pleasing all the different eating styles on this here bus. 🙂

Warm out of the oven

Aside from pre-steaming of the pumpkin for mashing, then allowing it to cool, this is a really quick and easy recipe.  Those of you with pumpkin puree on your supermarket shelves may have an even quicker time of it 🙂  With himself being refined sugar free most of the time I also replaced the regular dark chocolate with some sugar free chocolate that we can get easily. It doesn’t really change the taste and of course you can always put in your favourite kind.  One of the things I really love about this recipe though is the fact that you can eat it raw or cooked. Hope it becomes one of your healthy (well mostly healthy) favourites too.

Vegan style chocolate chip cookies

• 110gm of mashed pumpkin (I just steam some then mash)
• 250gm ground almonds
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 75 gm maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 80 gm broken up dark chocolate (I use Well Naturally so that himself can eat it)

-Mash the pumpkin and allow it to cool fully.

-Mix in all other ingredients except the chocolate.

-Add chocolate bits and mix well.

-Roll into small balls and place on a baking tray then flatten slightly with a fork (you may need to dip the fork in some GF flour to stop the sticking.

-Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden at 160C

-Enjoy!

Hope this find you warm and dry, enjoying the little comforts of life.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz

All things sweet

So the recipe this week is surely the furthest I can get from becoming healthy, being vegan, gluten free or sugar free!  Out of the five weeks of baking I do for the parents at Infant Massage this recipe is the most sugar laden … and probably the most irresistible of them all.  Herself also loves it when I make these because it is the one week she doesn’t have a little (vegan) brother competing for the left overs … just her father at the end of the day 🙂

Drying the covers for the upcoming class.

So as the covers (from the duvet that everyone sits/lies on) have been washed and are getting blown dry on the line ready for Wednesday’s class I thought I would share what I made last week for everyone. They are in hot demand and so in between guarding cookies from certain wee hands, offering them at Infant massage and letting herself and her father enjoy the leftovers I only just remembered about a photo as the last few were about to be devoured  ……. herself did suggest that I make more so you could all see a full batch, fresh and warm, though I have declined that offer 🙂

Even this photo was hard to get with little hands trying to nab them!

It is actually thanks to herself that we have this recipe as she found it many years ago when researching how the chocolate chip came into existence ….. Thanks Ruth Wakefield …. so I guess it is only fair that she gets the spoils.  It has been a rare treat ever since and having two vegans on the bus has made it even rarer and it has been over a year now since these beauties were fragrancing -yes, it is a real word – our wee bus.

Though it is sugar laden you can reduce some of this by using 90% chocolate or reducing the sugar if you are so inclined.  You can also add in some nuts to replace some of the chocolate.  Another version I have tried was with white chocolate, which I bought by mistake, which everyone loved.  I’ll leave it to you to play with and enjoy though I’d love to hear about any good variations you find.

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

This is half the original recipe and still makes around 45 biscuits.

1 1/8 Cup Flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

125 gm softened butter (1/2 Cup)

3/4 Cup raw/brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 large egg

1 Cup of broken up dark chocolate (the darker the better and the less sugar). One block is more than enough.

• Pre-heat oven to 190 C
• Melt the butter and beat with the sugar until blended
• Add the egg and vanilla essence, mixing well.
• Mix in the flour and baking soda.
• Add chocolate in and stir well into the dough
• Drop teaspoon sized balls of dough onto a lined tray (baking paper is good).  They will flatten and expand on baking so leave room for this
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies begin to flatten and brown.
• Cool on a wire rack …. if you can wait that long!!

Hope this finds you enjoying life’s sweet treats, happy, healthy and content.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz/

The Easter Crash

Well we made it! … Through Easter and the chocolate feasting that seems to come with it I mean.  It is almost unavoidable these days and even though during the rest of the year themselves eat more consciously (reading labels together and avoiding palm oil products where possible and things with heaps of sugar in it) at Easter this all goes out the window!  The bright wrappers, cheap and cheerful chocolate along with offered eggs from all manner of sources (shops, family, friends, guide group and businesses) win out every time …. it is irresistible it seems even for the grown ups in the family 😉

Some of the Easter stash.

What is Easter after all without a chocolate gorge and feeling sick?!!  Well of course there are other things but when you’re little I’m pretty sure the chocolate aspect of Easter takes precedence.  As parents we have turned and blind eye and vowed to start a fresh after the feeding frenzy has finished.  It is funny though watching their eating habits, and sometimes not so funny when you see your own habits mimicked, watching the saver and the scoffer, the giver and the taker.  Chocolate can surely bring out the best and the worse in people and sometimes both!  To be fair though there has been a lot of sharing with others, thankfully, as they have been playing with new made friends over Easter.

I confess I haven’t helped much either as I have been preparing morning tea snacks for my Infant Massage Course.  This week I decided to make chocolate chips cookies and not that much is left over for themselves to sample it will mark the beginning of weening off chocolate for a while for everyone in this here bus!  These cookies are from a recipe herself found while researching the inventor of chocolate chips (Ruth Wakefield) and we have been using it as a special treat ever since.  Hardly becoming healthy I know … but I’ll share anyway 🙂

Herself’s poster from 2 years ago about the invention of chocolate cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

This is half the original recipe and makes around 45 biscuits.

1 1/8 Cup Flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

125 gm softened butter (1/2 Cup)

3/8 Cup raw sugar

3/8 Cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 large egg

1 Cup of broken up dark chocolate (the darker the better and the less sugar). One block is more than enough.

• Pre-heat oven to 190 C
• Melt the butter and beat with the sugar until blended
• Add the egg and vanilla essence, mixing well.
• Mix in the flour and baking soda.
• Add chocolate in and stir well into the dough
• Drop teaspoon sized balls of dough onto a lined tray (baking paper is good)
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies begin to flatten a little and brown.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Hope this finds you healthier than we are at the moment, enjoying life and family.

Arohanui

Y

www.becominghealthy.co.nz