Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Vegan with a Vengeance

Let me preface this by apologizing for this picture. I took it with my phone around 11PM on Christmas Eve, at which point I had absolutely no desire to retrieve my camera.

Moving on.

Christmas is easily my favorite holiday, and little else encompasses the pure deliciousness of the season quite like cookies, particularly of the chocolate chip variety. In my pre-vegan days, my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies were my favorite, and seeing them make an appearance on my dinner plate was not unusual.

Until this year, the holiday seasons of my vegan days have always coincided with the insanity of the end of the semester and working full-time to try to make up for an entire semester's worth of being the typical poor college kid. This year, however, I had a week off before Christmas and decided to make a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies. I'm glad I had a week before Christmas to master this seemingly simple recipe, because my first two attempts failed. To call them a complete failure would be unfair, because the flavor was divine. The consistency of the dough, however, left a bit to be desired and me feeling like an idiot. Instead of having the normal texture and consistency of cookie dough, I had a crumbly mixture that refused to hold its shape. I managed to salvage the cookies by putting it all on a cookie sheet and making cookie bars.

In hindsight, I realize the problem was the Earth Balance - it didn't reach a warm enough room temperature, and for this I blame my frigid kitchen, where the average temperature during the winter months rivals that of the North Pole. The third time was the charm - I set out the Earth Balance in my living room for a good two hours prior to mixing up the dough. The cookies came out so yummy and perfect. I wrapped up some of them and gave them to my best friend, who, upon realizing they were vegan, said, "They are pretty good, I have to admit I'm impressed." Omnivore seal of approval: check.

And the fact that they were bite sized forced me to consume five or six at a time. I wish I were kidding.