Kat’s Vegan Chocolate Cookies

In true Oxford style term is getting insanely intense and stressful; I have this toxic habit of over-committing myself and yet still being surprised when I suddenly hit a wall of stress a few weeks later! On the plus side I’m having a blast and loving every second, but as there’re no signs of anything quieting down in the near future I’m gonna have to keep relying on snacks to keep me going. One of my main go-to mood boosters are cookies because they’re so easy to snack on during rehearsals and they give a much needed sugar kick. I have this one friend who’s obsessed with cookies in a way worryingly similar to that of a crack addict – which I guess just goes to show how perfect they can be for stressful times! – and whilst I’m not quite that bad I’ll still never say no to a decent cookie.

This recipe was given to me by my friend (and fellow vegan for 1 week) Kat (hence Kat’s vegan cookies). I’ve never really used coconut oil before as it’s a bit on the pricey side to be a student staple, but it gives these a really gorgeous moistness and a slight coconut creamy overtone that works beautifully with the chocolate. Another wonder of pretty much any biscuit mix is that you can freeze the dough so you can bake however many you need whenever you need them. I find freezing batches of this cookie dough in large ice cube trays is perfect, because then you can just pop out however many blobs of dough you need as and when you need them.

Recipe

Makes 18

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 112g Coconut oil
• 70g Brown sugar
• 70g White sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 125g Plain flour
• 80g Cocoa powder
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Dairy free milk (e.g soy or almond)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Then line two trays with baking paper.
2. Cream the coconut oil with the sugars, using a wooden spoon in a large bowl until pale and creamy. Then Add the vanilla and mix it in.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and then mix everything together until a soft crumbly dough forms.
4. Add the dairy free milk and then mix again until the dough forms a smooth ball.
5. Roll the dough into balls and place them on your lined baking trays, making sure they’re well spaced so they don’t spread into each other.
6. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until they’ve spread an are starting to crisp at the corners. They’ll firm up as they cool so you want the middle to still be a little squidgy.
7. Take out the oven, leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
Emma x