Go Dairy Free | Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies - Dairy-Free and Vegan

Alisa Fleming ~ Since its my birthday, I've decided to break the birthday cake rules, and bake cookies! I've never been a big fan of cake (aside from the frosting of course), but cookies hold a special place in my heart (baking) and appetite (eating).

My favorite cookies are still the chocolate chip cookies in Go Dairy Free. It's just hard to beat the traditional desserts. But, for a birthday cookie, I felt like I needed to bake something extra special, something that was a little Super Natural, if you will.

With a bag of fresh mesquite flour in hand, I've adapted Heidi Swanson's famed recipe to be dairy-free and egg-free (see notes below if you prefer eggs in your cookies)! And no, I didn't simply add an egg replacer and margarine. I recrafted the original to be delicious in its own right, made with healthier ingredients (whole wheat even!), and completely margarine- and butter-free. Trust me, these cookies are amazing! I had a hard time keeping my husband from eating that very last cookie pictured at left. So enjoy the recipe below, and for more photos and some birthday tidbits, feel free to visit the original recipe and post here on my personal blog, Alisa Cooks.

Recipe: Super Natural Mesquite Chocolate Chips Cookies

Summary: This recipe is reprinted from my personal blog, Alisa Cooks, where I adapted it from David Lebowitz, who adapted it from Heidi Swanson, author of Super Natural Cooking and famed blogger at 101 Cookbooks. I made quite a few modifications so that it would be dairy-free and egg-free (a vegan version!), and just a touch sweeter. Everyone loved these!

Mesquite flour has the taste and texture of what I would describe as a malted cocoa powder. It's mellower, yet deep and rich. I definitely recommend giving it a trial for something new and flavorful. David Lebowitz states that buckwheat flour might be an optional subtitute if you don't have any mesquite flour on hand. I think you could also sub cocoa powder, carob powder, or a combination of the two, but the resultant flavor would definitely be different from the original.

These really are amazing as is, so I see no reason personally to test them with eggs. But, if are a die hard egg fan, feel free to sub two eggs for the flax / milk mixture in these cookies. It should work well.

Ingredients

4 Teaspoons Flaxseeds
6 Tablespoons Milk Alternative (I used unsweetened hemp milk, but any type will do)
1-1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 Cup Mesquite Flour
1 Cup Quick Oats (not instant, can sub rolled oats if desired, but I prefer the quick oats in these)
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Grapeseed Oil
2 Tablespoons Honey, Agave Nectar, or Maple Syrup
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2/3 Cup Dairy-Free Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Whiz the flaxseeds into a powder in your spice/cofee grinder (about 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed).
Whisk together the ground flax and milk alternative in a mixing bowl, and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the two flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Returning to the flax mixture (which should have thickened a bit), blend in the sugar, oil, liquid sweetener, and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and stir until well incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be quite thick, so you may need to press some of the chocolate chips into the dough.
Roll the dough into balls roughly the size of ping pong balls, and flatten them to about 1/2-inch thick on the baking sheet. They will spread a bit while baking, but not much.
Press any chocolate chips stragglers into the cookies.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. You want to underbaked these if anything. They will just be beginning to set.
Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Diet tags: Vegan, Dairy free, Egg free, Nut free, Peanut free, and optionally Soy free

Article, recipe, and photos by Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree.org and author of Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living. Alisa is also a freelance writer for several publications, with an emphasis on creating recipes for various types of special diets.