Chocolate Chews

As the last installment of the chocolate trilogy, I leave you with these chocolate chews. As the name suggests, these are more than cookies. When eaten warm, they taste more like brownies with so little fat. When eaten cold, they are soft and slightly chewy. With so much chocolate, they got to taste great. It took only about 15 minutes to get ‘em into the oven. This easy, but tasty cookie is my entry to Eat Christmas Cookies, hosted by Susan of Food Blogga.

Ingredients

Semi sweet chocolate – ¾ cup
Butter – 1½ tbsp
Instant coffee – ½ tbsp
All purpose flour – ¼ cup
Brown sugar – ¼ cup
Egg – 1
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Chocolate chips – ¼ cup

Method

Preheat oven to 375F. Melt chocolate, butter and coffee together in a microwave and let it cool. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat sugar and egg together until thick. Whisk the melted chocolate into the egg mixture along with vanilla extract. Gently fold in the dry ingredients. And finally stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop heaped tablespoons of the dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 19 minutes. The cookies cracks on top when they are done. Cool on a wire rack. This recipe yields 8 good sized cookies.

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Being vegan doesn’t mean there is no indulgence. Craving for a snack one evening, I came across these cookies. They were originally shortbread, but I reduced the fat almost by half and made them into cookies. I love lemon poppy seed muffins, no wonder I loved these cookies too. Lemon in cookies is very interesting and the poppy seeds are mildly crunchy at the back of your mouth. These cookies are a keeper.

Ingredients

Unbleached all purpose flour – 1 cup
Poppy seeds – 1½ tbsp
Corn flour – 1½ tbsp
Nutmeg – 1/8 tsp
Salt – 1/8 tsp
Margarine – 5 tbsp
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Lemon zest – 1 tbsp
Vanilla – 1 tsp
Water – 3 tbsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 375F. Mix flour, poppy seeds, corn flour, nutmeg and salt together. In a separate bowl, cream margarine, sugar, lemon juice, zest and vanilla together. Add the flour mixture to the margarine mixture and mix lightly. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of water at a time and knead very lightly till the dough comes together. Don’t add water more than necessary.

Line a baking sheet with silicone sheet or spray with a nonstick spray. Pinch a tbsp of dough, form a ball and lightly press flat. Bake until the edges are lightly brown, about 18-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container. This yields about 13 cookies. Recipe adapted from Tassajara.