Vegan chocolate chip cookies

These 'slice and bake' vegan chocolate chip cookies from 'The Homemade Vegan Pantry' by Miyoko Schinner have a hint of coffee.

Students must be inventive sometimes. We might not have an electric mixer, but we have Tupperware. Insert some heavy cream, shake it up, and et voilà: whipped cream. The whipped cream she intended to add to freshly brewed coffee, as everyone knows that homemade cookies and coffee are a delightful team. Add whipped cream to coffee and you have a special kind of latte.

This ingenuity came in handy recently when I had announced that I wanted to bake a new kind of cookie that called for coconut and coffee.

Even more adventurous, the recipe was completely vegan. "The Homemade Vegan Pantry," a new cookbook by Miyoko Schinner, promises deliciously homemade goods. I have been curious about vegan baking for a while and wondered if vegan brownies and cakes could be as moist and gooey as those made with butter, milk, and eggs.

Another friend of mine appeared in the door: “I’ll make the coffee!” We had all we needed, cookies in the oven and fresh home-made latté.

So here we were in the kitchen, steadily getting warmer and smelling like home, waiting for the cookies that brought us together. Clearly, cookies have magic about them. Fresh-baked cookies pull people together (I would not be surprised if a batch of these cookies could pause a war) just as easily as they sweeten up those moments spent in solitude.

Undoubtedly, these cookies possess that same magic. Soft, caramelly, not too sweet but sweet enough to make you smile after the first bite. The coconut sugar enchants with a malty aftertaste, while the coffee flavor plays with the sweetness. Finally, one has a cookie reminding of the classical chocolate chip cookie while some surprising ingredients flatter the curious tongue. Once you make them, you will make them again. Not to mention, they are vegan as well, so no regrets (almost, at least).

Several people I have baked these delights for, told me, utterly unbiased, the cookie dough was the best they've ever had. Is that beatable?

We ate the cookies fresh out of the oven – gooey and warm – and they were gone in an instance. Inspired by the sweet ending, we composed a spontaneous haiku in the kitchen:

The cookie melts down
coffee and chocolate combined
enjoy it slowly

If you want to eat cookies that inspire your tongue to poetic verses, here is a simple and easy recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies.

Slice and bake chocolate chip cookies
From The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner 

Makes about 40 cookies and takes around 15 minutes to make

1 cup of vegan butter*
1 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup organic sugar
3 tablespoons nondairy yogurt (I used coconut yogurt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely ground coffee
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/4 cups chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)

*The book calls for "Glorious Butterless Butter" as from a recipe from its own pages

1. Cream together butter, sugars, nondairy yogurt, and vanilla. Use electric mixer or wooden spoon

2. Sift together flour, coffee, and baking soda, then mix together with the butter mixture and stir in the chocolate chips or chunks

3. Take the dough and form one or two logs by rolling it back and forth in parchment paper. You can either put it into the freezer or fridge (it stays good for up to 5 weeks) or cut a slice off and bake them.

4. If you bake them right away (how could you not?) preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and then bake the sliced of pieces for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

Reprinted with permission from "The Homemade Vegan Pantry" Copyright © 2015 by Miyoko Schinner.