The story so far: Mike is keeping a running diary of his holiday cookie efforts. Right now, he’s on a mission to create a vegan, gluten-free holiday cookie receipt that emulates his traditional receipt. Today in the cookie diaries: Vegan Batch #04.
This batch was epic…as in twists-and-turns, ups-and-downs, take-up-an-entire-page-of-notebook-paper, go-over-our-blog-post-word-limit epic. It was made with the ingredients and procedure of Vegan Batch #03, but with 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, 1+ Tablespoons crushed peppermint candies, and 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract. If this works, Mike will have a flavor combination that is close to his traditional receipt.
Mike’s notes can take it from here:
“The dough mixed well with the additional ingredients. We’ll see if I put too much peppermint in the mixture.
“(Pro Tip: Don’t crush peppermint candies with a hammer while your spouse is taking a nap.)
“I’m using the crushed peppermint candies two ways: 1 Tablespoon mixed in the batter and a pinch of the pieces on top of each cookie. Let’s hope it’s not peppermint overload.
“As it’s baking, I’m smelling more of the dark chocolate—I wonder if 1/2 cup was too much.
“Now that they’re out of the oven, I think it was too much chocolate—it basically melted all over the cookie and the cookie sheet.
“They taste almost more bitter than sweet; the dark chocolate really dominates. Good texture and chewiness, though. And they pass the ‘milk dunk test’.
“My vegan co-worker tried one and liked it—and she’s picky. Her only comment was that there was too much chocolate, and that the chocolate should be in smaller pieces.
“…And after all this, I’ve just realized that I put only 1-1/2 cups of flour in the dough, not the 1-3/4 cups the original vegan receipt calls for. So I guess Vegan Batch #05 will have the correct amount of flour, plus a reduced amount of smaller bits of dark chocolate.”
Told you it was epic.
newdeal kitchen 