I have a sweet tooth, but it is a very picky sweet tooth. I love chocolate, but I hate candy, and I am particular about my cookies. One thing I adore is chocolate chip cookies, especially a little spoonful of dough when mixing up the batter, and with vegan cookie dough, you don’t have to worry about getting sick from eating raw egg. This is another great recipe, like last Friday’s Vegan Kid-Friendly Soup, modified from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. Of course, always use organically-grown ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Sift flour with the baking powder and salt (I sometimes skip the sifting).

• 1 cup Sucanat (or use 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup oil (or melted butter if you aren’t vegan)
• 1/4 cup water or soymilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

In a separate bowl, stir together the Sucanat (sugar) and oil (butter). Add water (soymilk) and vanilla to this “wet” mixture and blend well. Add to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

• 1 cup chocolate chips (fair trade, of course!)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Add the chocolate chips, cranberries, and walnuts to the cookie dough and mix well. Drop by teaspoon on oiled cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes.

When the cookies first come from the oven, they are very soft and will fall apart unless you let them cool completely on the cookie sheet. You may need to adjust the cooking time by a minute or two, depending upon your oven, but don’t be tricked into overcooking the cookies. These cookies are so good, and your children and friends will rave about them!

I use organic Sucanat, which stands for Sugar Cane Natural, for all my baking. Sucanat is Fair Trade certified from Costa Rica and is made by crushing sugar cane, extracting and heating the juice, then hand paddling the juice until it dries into porous granules. Unlike refined sugars, Sucanat retains many vitamins and minerals present in sugar cane, such as iron, calcium, vitamin B6, potassium, and chromium. It adds a unique flavor to your baking that complements these vegan cookies.