Chocolate-Chip Ginger Cookies

People are going to assume I can't cook anything without ginger in it, & well, they might be right. I've yet to find anything that can't be improved by either adding ginger or cola. Anyway, I'm on a seemingly eternal search for the perfect vegan chocolate-chip cookie, & I thought well, Bo's pretty good at what he does, surely his chocolate-chip cookies are slammin! Turns out I thought right!

We added some diced crystallised ginger to the mix where Bo asks for the same amount of chopped walnuts, not having any walnuts I thought ginger would be an interesting bit of an experiment & thankfully it turned out well! The pieces aren't spicy at all & distribute nicely so you just get a little sweet gingeryness every few bites. The cookie itself is soft & chewy, exactly how I like my cookies, & may possibly be my new front-runner for the best vegan chocolate-chip cookie ever...

A quick note on the chocolate-chips; store the chips in the freezer, as frozen chips'll not only hold their shape better during baking, but they'll not start melting while you're making the dough & put ugly brown streaks in your pretty cookie dough. I feel quite strongly about the colour schemes in my food, so it matters.

Chocolate-Chop Ginger Cookies
adapted from The Professional Pastry Chef

makes 20 cookies

125g dairy free margarine
85g granulated sugar
85g light brown sugar (Tip: you can mix dark brown and granulated sugars together to substitute)
1 tablespoon flax seed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
185g bread flour (or plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g dark chocolate chips*
75g crystillised ginger, finely chopped

*Silverspoon make dark choc chips that happen to be vegan, we haven't come across any others yet! They're available in and Sainsbury's and Tesco.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 & lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. Beat the butter and sugars together in a mixing bowl until the butter is light & fluffy, a couple of minutes. Mix three tablespoons of water with the flax seed & whisk until thickened slightly, then add the flax & vanilla extract to the butter and sugar.

3. Sift the flour, bicarb of soda & salt into a separate bowl & combine. Add to the butter & sugar & mix together. Stir in the chocolate chips & ginger. Don't mix too much, once the flour is incorporated you're done!

4. Scoop tablespoon sized dollops of the dough & place them onto the baking sheet, rounding them on the sheet, making sure they're evenly sized. Leave about two inches spaces between cookies, including from the edges, you should fit six to eight on there unless you're blessed with a large oven and sheet.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just done. They should be golden brown around the edges & quite soft but they will carry on cooking on the sheet.
Leave to cool on the baking sheet for about five minutes then transfer to a cooling rack, or anything that will allow the bottoms to cool (we use a disused microwave shelf).

Let them cool to whatever you're preferred temperature may be; they're fantastic fresh from the oven but it's worth leaving some to cool fully so the choc chips harden again!