Vegan Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ah, chocolate chip cookies. The cookie which seems to be on everyone’s list was never really a favorite of mine -until I went vegan, that is. A couple months into going vegan I found myself craving baked good goodness. (Say that 10 times fast!) I ended up discovering a whole section in the dairy case at WF devoted to vegan (and some gluten free) cookie dough. Every time I bought one of these little tubs of yum I had every intention on baking up all of the dough, but it never failed that every raw bit of it ended up being scooped into my mouth by the spoonful. #NoShame

Eventually I managed to drop the spoon and let the oven do it’s thing long enough to have actual chocolate chip cookies, and that’s when I began to fall in love. However, me being the ever unsatisfied, tortured-artist-esque, slightly OCD perfectionist that I am, I had to figure out a way to do one of America’s favorite cookies my way. (Which is the better way. Most of the time.)

First things first I knew that it had to be 100% vegan (obvi). I also knew that I wanted the recipe to be just like mom used to make -my mom, not yours. Then came the flash of brilliance -nuts. Pecans, to be precise. And that’s how my like-mom-used-to-make, 100% vegan, chocolate chip pecan cookies came to be. They’re simple, classic, and oh-so-good.

Whether you choose to shovel spoonfuls of raw dough in your mouth (no judgement), or manage to bake up the whole batch, is up to you. Either way, I’m sure you’ll love this recipe and I’m sure your non-vegan family and friends will love it too –mine do! Best of all, nobody would ever guess that they’re vegan (by look or taste) so if you feel the urge to drop the v-bomb on your unsuspecting audience just as they bite into your baked deliciousness you might get a, “No way!” And who doesn’t love that?

The first step is to combine the dry ingredients. Once combined, set them aside and get the wet ingredients combined.

Getting the wet ingredients combined begins with creaming the vegan butter together with the 2 sugars. I used my stand mixer for this step but you could do this by hand if you wanted to.

Once you’ve achieved creamy glory you then can add in the vanilla and the egg substitute. For most of the baking I do I prefer to use Ener-G which gets mixed with water (see below). Follow the instructions on the box for the quantity your recipe (in this case, this recipe) calls for, and don’t worry if you’ve got some clumps -the mixer will work those out for you.

After all of your wet ingredients have been combined you can then add the dry to the wet. I add it a 1/2 cup at a time while my mixer is on it’s lowest speed. After all of the dry has been added in I then turn the mixer up a notch or two for just just a few seconds to make sure the dough is smooth and well combined.

Now you can add in the chocolate chips and the pecans but be sure to fold those in together by hand so as to not overwork your dough. To transform the raw dough into cookies (should you wish to do that) I first use a 1.5″ cookie scoop to get a little dough.

Using a cookie scoop is not necessary (you could just use a spoon or two) but I highly recommend you use one. Using a cookie scoop helps to insure that all of your cookies are the same size so that they all bake up at the same time. And it’s not like cookie scoops are super expensive. And they’re fun to use. And they’re shiny. Okay, I’m done now, but seriously get yo’self one.

Plop your ball of dough out into the palm of your hand and then form it into a flattened disk.

Place the disks on 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets (aka sheet pans), fairly close together but not touching. They will spread but only ever so slightly so you can pack them in pretty good. Bake ’em off and you’re almost done.

Once you’ve taken them out of the oven you must resist the urge to grab one right away. They need to rest for a bit (3-5 minutes) on the pan so that they don’t just fall apart in your hand -unless that’s what you’re going for, I mean. You do you, boo.

Once they’ve had a good rest you can then transfer them to an airtight container, where they’ll keep for about 3 days, or simply transfer them to your mouth while they’re still a little warm and melty.