Another Round of Fair Trade Chocolate Chips

For the past three Tasty Tuesdays, this one included, I have been making chocolate chip cookies with fair trade chocolate chips.  We thought this would be fun for two reasons: we would get to taste test several different fair trade chocolate chips and we would get to share recipes from some of our favorite food bloggers.  I’ve really enjoyed trying the different recipes and recommend all of them to you (click here for the first week and here for the second week, the third recipe is below).

FairTradeChocolateChips1

The Chocolate Chips from Weeks 1 & 3

The most surprising thing I found from these past several Tasty Tuesday posts was the difficulty in finding three different fair trade chocolate chips.  I went to three different stores, which all carry a large amount of fair trade items and wasn’t able to find a third type of fair trade chocolate chips.  I have heard in the past that fair trade chocolate is particularly expensive to purchase so there is less of it on the market.  I find this discouraging!

fair trade chocolate chips_guittard_pic

The Chocolate Chips from Week 2

But there’s good news!!! The fair trade chocolate chips that I used were very good.  I would say if I had to choose one over the other I am a bigger fan of the Guittard chocolate chips; they really are delicious.

Now for this week’s recipe from Oh She Glows:

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

vegan chocolate chip cookies

Photo: Oh She Glows

print this recipe!

Yield: 12-14 large cookies

Ingredients:

  • 7 tbsp Earth Balance + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or 1/2 cup Earth Balance- see note)
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup cane sugar (or use white)
  • 1 flax egg: (1 tbsp ground flaxed mixed with 3 tbsp water)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the flax egg and set aside.

2. With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the Earth Balance until fluffy. Add the brown sugar and cane sugar and beat for 1-2 minutes until creamy. Beat in the flax egg.

3. Beat in the remaining ingredients and fold in the chocolate chips.

4. Shape balls of dough and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes (or up to 14 min. on a Silpat mat). Allow to cool for 5 min. on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.

Note 1) For a crispier cookie edge, use 7 tbsp Earth Balance and 1 tbsp olive oil. I preferred cooking them this way. They also spread out a bit more. Alternatively, for a softer cookie, use 1/2 cup Earth Balance and no oil.

Note 2) To retain the crispy factor of the cookies place them in the freezer after cooling in a container or baggie. It was the only method I tried that kept the crispiness of the cookies! Simply thaw on the counter top.

Read more: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/09/08/vegan-chocolate-chip-cookies/#ixzz2Ruy71u9E

My cookies weren’t entirely vegan because I used chips with at least some traces of milk but dark chocolate chips are definitely out there for you  to use in a vegan recipe.  And I used applesauce instead of flax seed (1/4 cup applesauce = 1 egg). Also, a little shout out for Earth Balance, my family eats this on toast all the time and it really is a tasty alternative to butter. Finally, I always use the whole bag of chocolate chips in any cookies that I make!!

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