Recipe: Vegan Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m a very odd man, and sometimes I have the desire to thumb my nose at my veganism with culinary perversions. I’m getting really sick of the weird obsession with bacon that has taken over almost everyone I know these days, and learned recently that most bacon bits (the little red things at the salad bar) are totally soy-based and completely vegan. In possibly a dehydration and sunstroke-induced hysteria, I decided a few months ago that I needed to make Vegan Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies.
This weekend, I finally go the stomach to try it, and they’re good. I did three batches: a control group with no bacon, a batch with the bacon bits mixed into the cookies, and a batch with the bits cooked on top (like sprinkles). My favorite were the ones baked in, but that’s probably because you can’t taste the bacon flavor as much, and I never really liked bacon. Both types really just ended up tasting like a chocolate chip cookie that’s a bit chewy in places, and is kinda salty.
This was actually my first attempt at baking cookies, so I went with a pretty standard recipe, that even matched the back of the Arm & Hammer baking soda box pretty closely (with the obvious vegan equivalents being the main difference). It works out pretty well; they’re damn tasty cookies, if a bit greasy and a bit hard once they’re cold.
Vegan Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 vegan butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)
- 1 1/2 cups vegan turbinado sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 eggs equivalent egg replacer (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 bag vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Vegan bacon bits (I used McCormick’s “Bac’n Pieces” because they come in “chip” sizes that fit our purposes best)
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 375
- Mix flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl
- Mix butter, sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl, and beat well
- Mix egg replacer according to its instructions
- Add egg replacer gradually to wet mixture, beating constantly, then do the same with dry mixture
- Stir in chocolate chips
- If you want the “bacon” chips in the cookies, stir it in now
- Use a tablespoon to scoop out round balls and place on a cookie sheet
- If you want the “bacon” chips on top, place them on now (you can cluster them together, and they’ll spread out when the cookies bake)
- Bake about 10 minutes, or until golden brown (they’ll seem a bit gooey still, but will firm up fast; don’t overcook them because they seem too soft)
- Let stand for a couple minutes
