Sunday, June 26, 2011

Recipes: French Press and Chocolate Chip Cookies

My favorite breakfast lately is a strong cup of french press coffee (I buy the shade-grown, organic, fair trade beans from costco) and some vegan chocolate chip cookies. If you haven't invested in a French Press yet and love coffee, what are you waiting for? Its so worth it. The trick to chocolate chip cookies is to make all the dough, but only bake as many cookies as you want to eat. I save the rest of the dough in a tupperware and put it in the fridge so I can make fresh cookies whenever I want!

French Press:
  • coffee beans
  • grinder (tastes best when freshly ground)
  • french press
  • tea kettle (or hot water)
  • soy milk (or other dairy free milk)
  • sweetener (i use agave)

-Grind beans to a rough/large ground (I set my grinder to 5-4).
-Rinse out french press with hot water
-I like my coffee strong, so I add 1/3 of a cup of ground for every cup of water (test a few times to get the taste you prefer)
-Put the kettle on the stove for hot water (remove just before boiling rapidly)
-Put grounds into french press, add water and stir with a chopstick (or whatever's long enough to reach the bottom without burning your fingers)
-Let sit for 5-10 minutes, longer if you like your coffee stronger.
-Once the grounds settle, press the plunger down evenly and slowly.

Pour the best cup of coffee ever! I add a tiny bit of agave, and vanilla organic soy milk.

Cookies:
  • cup of earth balance (softened)
  • slightly over-full 1/2 cup of brown sugar
  • slightly over-full 1/2 cup of vegan white sugar
  • 2 EnerG egg replacements (or 1 and 1/2 large banana smashed and beaten with a fork)
  • teaspoon of vanilla
  • 2 and 1/4 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 bag of vegan chocolate chips (many semi-sweet chips are vegan, same with dark chocolate chips- but always read the package first)
  • 1 cup of chopped walnuts
  • (optional 1/2 cup of oats)

-mix together the earth balance, sugars, "eggs" and vanilla
-slowly stir in all the dry ingredients (I use a sift to make sure there's not lumps): flour, baking soda, salt.
-Add chocolate chips, walnuts, and any other ingredients you like (oats, dried cranberries etc of your choice)
-preheat oven to 350
-place cookie dough directly onto an un-greased cookie sheet (just as many as you can eat, the rest of the dough you can save for later)
-Once oven's heated, put in oven 15 minutes +/- depending on your stove (test with a fork to make sure they are done, no dough should stick to the fork).
-Let cool, and serve
-Put rest of the dough in tupperware, and put in your fridge for later.