Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and I've found there are two kinds: dense and not so dense. I think most vegan chocolate chip cookies I came across a dense cookie. I love this kind of cookie, like my chocolate, chocolate cookie recipe that is almost like a brownie. But sometimes I prefer a lighter cookie.

While going through Nana's recipes I came across the, "Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe. There was a newspaper clipping about the history of the cookie at the Toll House Inn on the east coast in the 1930's. The baker was making chocolate cookies and mistakenly used the wrong chocolate which did not melt into the cookie as it should have - it just stayed their in chunks in the vanilla batter - thus one of the most famous cookies was born.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 1/4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter (margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I used powdered Energy egg replacer)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I left these out)

Combine flour, soda, and salt.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the egg substitute and beat once more. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.


This is a fail-prove recipe.

Peanut Butter Swirls:
Since I cannot follow a recipe to save my life I did alter this recipe beyond veganizing it - I added peanut butter. I spread peanut butter across a piece of parchment paper and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it was hard. I took it out and quickly broken it up into little pieces. Since peanut butter defreezes quickly you need to work quickly to stir the little chunks into the batter before scooping the batter on the cookie sheet.
Cook as normal and enjoy the little bites of peanut butter goodness.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

My good friend Jess gave me a great book for my birthday: Martha Stewart's Cookies. This book is great because it has almost 200 cookie recipes! My favorite thing about this book is the table of contents, instead of listing all the cookies it shows a full color picture of every cookie with the name and page number under the image. This is the perfect way to search for a cookie!

I've had this goal of making one cookie a week, but since we haven't had earth balance in the house and I've been beyond busy, I haven't made much.

I did make these wonderful crackle cookies.
These are basic chocolate cookies, rolled in powered sugar, then baked as normal.
I enjoyed these cookies and I would make them again when I am trying to impress because they are just so pretty. Everyone in the office enjoyed these and I was told to tell anyone who wanted to make these not to wear black while trying to sneak eating these. The powered sugar will leave little specs on your shirt.
I should note that this recipe was not vegan, I veganized it with a powered egg replacer.
*Because I fear Martha Stewart I will not post the recipe. Sorry. Borrow the book from your local library, or just take your favorite chocolate cookie recipe and roll it in powder sugar before baking.

Clean Cookies

November was my team at work's month to clean the office - The Clean Team, if you will. At the end of the month (yes a month ago! I've been busy with work...) we threw a clean party and gave out prizes for cleanest desk, most welcoming, and most inviting.
What other way to make awards than to make cookies?!
These are the cookies I made:


These were great large hand sized cookies, but I cannot yet share the recipe.

Sugar Cookies

We had a cookie decorating party!
Mr. Bolsh and I created one of his favorite cookies - sugar cookies.
We started with the cookies, two colors of frosting and a plethora of sprinkles!

Frosting and the blank canvas:
I finally got my new camera and I had so much fun taking photos again, that I couldn't stop! There were also so many sprinkles it was hard to choose just one:

So many shapes and sizes of sprinkles:Emilie sent us these beautiful sparkles of pink and white/clear. I've admired them for so long but hadn't put them to use yet because they seem so special and fancy. I love the way they catch light:

Almond Cookies

These cookies mark my first atempt at making gluten-free cookies and the result was wonderful!

Almond Cookies:
1 1/4 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 flax eggies
two pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt

Grind the almonds into a meal, but not too much or else you'll make almond butter
Mix the almond grounds, sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Melt the coconut oil, add the flax eggs, and vanilla.
Mix together. Roll into balls, flatten, mark with an almond and bake for 13 minutes at 350F.

Alterations: Add chocolate chips (I did to half these but wasn't sure about the gluten content since I bought it in bulk, so I kept them instead of giving them away as a gift) Add chopped cherries or your favorite fruit.


It was my mother-in-law's birthday a few weeks ago so I made her some chocolate cupcakes. I like the way they came out with such little effort.

Lunch Swap

My friend had a birthday party last Sunday with an interesting theme - a lunch swap. Half the people made lunch for two and the others just showed up. All the lunches were wrapped and placed on the table. When eating time came those who didn't come with lunch drew numbers. The first person got to pick a lunch, unwrap it and wait. The second person could steal the first person's unwrapped lunch or pick a wrapped lunch on the table and unwrap it. It goes on until everyone has picked a lunch. The chef of the lunches are then exposed and you have a little picnic with them.


The inspiration for my lunch came from my awesome, new dinosaur cookie cutters. I made Flax crackers from How it All Vegan, and a black bean "tar pit" dip. I didn't know how to continue making a meal with a dinosaur theme, so it stopped there.

The Flax crackers from How it All Vegan were great. I added some crushed, sliced almonds, and extra spices and they are great. I often skipped over this cookbook when I learned to cook, but it does have some good recipes in it. These will be made again with various spices.
For an appetizer I also included garlic stuff green olives and large capers.

Next dish was a simple potato salad. Apparently mustard and relish is not common to some peoples' experience in potato salad. Potatoes, vegenaise, mustard, chopped onions, fresh dill, fresh tarragon, vinegar, celery, salt and a tad of relish.

Tofurky Kielbasas satueed with onions and zucchini and put on skewers for easy eating. These were really easy and went over well because they can look impressive.

Fruit put on skewers. Another simple way to make fruit more fun and easy to transport by placing it in a pink glass.

Last was dessert, of course. Chocolate pear cookies with a strawberry filling.


The party was really fun but it took a lot more energy to make a full lunch/dinner for someone than making one dish I'd normally make for a potluck party. I later found out that others didn't put as much energy into their lunches.
The history from this idea came from a 50's dating and fund raising idea. Women would make lunches, men would then place auctions on the lunches. When they won the auction, they would then have lunch with the woman who made it. Very cute.

Birthday Cake!

It's birthday week at the Bolsh household. First is my partner's birthday on the 22nd and mine on the 26th.
Here's the first cake requested:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake
I used the Bake and Fill pan. Chocolate Wacky Cake for the main part, filled with chocolate chip cookie dough soy cream and bottom was a big cookie. All topped with ganache!


The birthday boy was so excited he didn't want to wait the entire cake to freeze, but I think it was better this way. So great!

Sugar Cookies

P1020999
Originally uploaded by Webly.

Last weekend my partner and I enjoyed our 8th year together. He wanted sugar cookies - like those pink frosted Grandma's cookies.
This what I came up with.

Sugar Cookies:

2 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine (i used earth balance)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon powdered egg replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla or 1 teaspoon almond extract

1. sift together flour and baking powder into a medium bowl; set aside.

2. in a large mixing bowl, cream together margarine and sugar. add egg replacer and vanilla and beat until smooth. add flour mixture and mix to form a stiff dough. (I added 2 tablespoons liquid at this point to get it all to stick together.)

3. preheat oven to 375 degrees.

4. lightly dust a work surface with flour or sifted powdered sugar. with a rolling pin, roll out dough disk to about 1/4 inch, or more thickness. don't roll too thin. I used a pint glass to cut out the dough.

5. Bake in top third of oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. remove, put on rack, allow to cool completely.

6. Frost when the cookies are cooled with your favorite frosting. I used a fluffy buttercream with extra vanilla.

These were fantastic! Perfect! and made everyone happy.

Holliday Sweets

Lemon Gingerbread Cake:
This cake was made using the Bake n Fill. The cake is gingerbread recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. In the center is lemon pudding and the icing is vanilla lemon.


Almond Lace Cookies with Soy Cream:
I don't remember where I found the recipe for the lace cookies, but it was pretty basic and simple to make and clean up. Here's an example.

These were rolled into cones while warm and later dipped into chocolate and even later filled with rocky road soy cream.
They look so fancy but it was a a very simple dessert to create. They could be filled with anything: fruit, whipped soy cream, mousse, pudding...

Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies

OH my! These are amazing - if you love mint and chocolate together. This is adapted from my favorite cookie.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dry:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Wet:
8 tablespoons margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 brown sugar (Sometimes I will mix up the sugar amounts as long as I have 1.5 cups in the end.)
2 eggs, or equalivant (I use ener-g powdered egg replacer.)
1 Tbl. soymilk (If you feel your mixture is too dry. The texture of the margarine determines if it will be too dry or not)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint flavoring
1-4 Tablespoons liquid if it's too dry (soymilk works best)

Extra:
chocolate chips or any other thing you like in your cookie.
crushed up candy canes.

- Mix the dry. Mix the wet Add together. Add chocolate chips put in the fridge for awhile. (You don't always have to put it in the fridge.)
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Place your favorite sized dough ball on a sprayed cookie sheet.
- Sprinkle the tops with broken candy cane pieces.

Bake for 12 minutes.
(They may seem a bit under done, but they are best that way.)
Enjoy!