Vegan Chocolate Chip cookies - so easy! Takes 30 minutes - cruelty free baked goods!

When I first chose the Vegan lifestyle, I would seek out vegan recipes- my world opened up to new flavours and methods. Humans have been perfecting using milk and eggs for thousands of years- but egg replacer and flax seed? not so much. I would follow the recipes to the dot and it was great.

Well, I have been vegan almost a year now and learnt a lot about hidden ingredients, ways to make things and easy replacers. When I ate eggs and dairy milk, I would use a banana instead of an egg in a pancake mix, little did I know that using almond milk creates the most beautiful pancake without the congele-like texture of an egg!

This week, on a whim, I wanted to try to make chocolate chip cookies. I googled a recipe (leaving out the word vegan!) and simply used alternatives that are now tried and tested for me, I used a splash of soya milk, flax seed and vitalite dairy free butter, and my favourite dark chocolate.

I love simple, tried and tested recipes that work- for these cookies, I wanted a rustic look so I took a rolling pin to a whole 100g bar of gorgeous dark, fairtrade chocolate and left big, chunky pieces!

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time 20 mins- 150C - they're ready when the edges are golden brown

Skill: Super Easy!

Makes: 16

Ingredients

1. 225g caster sugar
2. 300g plain flour
3. 200g dairy free butter (melted slowly is best)
4. 1tsp vanilla extract
5. 1tsp of baking powder
6. A pinch of salt
7. 2 tbspns of flaxseed made into an 'egg' with 6tblspn cold water (leave for 5 mins to thicken)
8. 100g bar of dark chocolate

• With a wooden spoon, add the sieved flour, caster suger, salt, vanilla extract and baking powder into a bowl.

• Slowly add the butter and mix, then add the flaxseed and mix- finally add the chocolate chips or broken up bar of vegan chocolate.
• Mix together with one hand, if it isn't sticking add a small amount of plant based milk (litrally a dribble, not too much!) and mix it in until it is a ball of slightly sticky dough.
• Spreading dairy free butter onto a try, add a small ball of dough and slightly flatter- the mixture will hopefully spread so leave room!
• Bake at 150C for approximately 20 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.