I personally am not vegan. But as more of my friends dabble in veganism, I have been getting more requests to do some vegan friendly recipes. I’m honestly finding vegan baking to be relatively easy; most of the substitute ingredients are already in my pantry!
I received a bag of One Degree Organics Sprouted Spelt Flour along with some vegan baking recipes that sounded really tasty! I have never made a vegan cookie before so I appreciated the nudge towards trying and decided to make some Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies.
Sprouted Spelt Flour works generally like normal flour, you just need to adjust your dry-to-wet ingredient ratio (less dry ingredients or more wet ingredients). Sprouted Spelt Flour contains more fiber, vitamins, and essential fatty acids than regular flour so it seems like a generally good switch to make. (I’m not giving up eating cookies, but hey, at least I’ve increased my fiber!) 🙂
One Degree Organics prides itself on using only organic foods grown using natural veganic methods for its grains used in its cereal, bread, and flours. The company also does not add any synthetic ingredients and practices sustainable growing methods. One Degree Organics actually includes a QR code and alphanumeric code on each package so that you can learn about where that specific product came from and the family of farmers behind it. Pretty cool right?
So I was really excited to use their Sprouted Spelt Flour in this recipe! Because this is my first time baking vegan cookies, I kept the recipe mostly intact. I did add some walnuts for a bit of crunch which resulted in these Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies!
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cup One Degree Organic Sprouted Spelt Flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Palm Sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla powder or extract
- ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup walnut pieces
So let’s go over some of these ingredients because some need explaining and some may just be unfamiliar:
- Coconut Palm Sugar is similar to brown sugar but is made from the nectar of the coconut palm tree flower. It is lower on the glycemic index than most sweeteners, so it actually keeps you from having blood sugar spikes/crashes like sugar can.
- You should use 100% maple syrup in this recipe (it should be the only ingredient listed on the container). This is different than the stuff you put on your pancakes that contains corn syrup, artificial flavors, and other junk instead of maple syrup.
- I used Nielsen-Massey Madagascan Bourbon Pure Vanilla Powder for this recipe because I had it on hand. You can absolutely use vanilla extract, teaspoon for teaspoon, in this recipe.
- The reason I am using melted coconut oil and not normal coconut oil is because I left it in my car and, well, it was still liquid when I went to make this. Oops. You can use it normally, but just for measurement purposes I wanted to point out that I measured with melted coconut oil.
- Be sure the chocolate chips are actually vegan. It is surprising how many times I will look at the ingredients of dark chocolate and it will have milk in it. Sigh. So just look for the “V” on the package. I used chocolate chunks because who doesn’t love a big bite of chocolate in their cookie?
Now, on to baking!
To make your Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, silicone baking mats, or just spray with cooking spray.
Mix together your dry ingredients: Sprouted Spelt Flour, Coconut Palm Sugar, Baking Powder, Sea Salt, and Powdered Vanilla if you are using it.
In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients: Maple Syrup, the Coconut Oil, and the Vanilla Extract if using.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Fold in the walnuts and the vegan chocolate chips.
Form the cookie dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared cooking sheets. The dough will be very moist and break apart kind of easily.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly golden. (I baked mine for 12 minutes and they were just a touch overcooked… 11 minutes would have been perfect in my oven).
So this recipe was supposed to make 10-12 cookies but I ended up with about 16. So I guess I made them too small!
The Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies were really good! I am happy I used chocolate chunks instead of traditional chocolate chips because I loved the big bites of chocolate. The cookies were slightly dry (because I over baked them) but still were moist enough to really enjoy. Grab a cup of almond milk and dig in!
I also want to take a minute to mention the measuring spoons and measuring cups I used to make these Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. They are (of course) from OXO. OXO has teamed up with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer to help bring awareness to the organization and help raise donations. During the month of September, every time a blog dedicates at least one post to the campaign, OXO will donate $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.
OXO also has a bunch of baking products specially marked with this sticker:
For every specially marked item sold, OXO is donating 25 cents in support of pediatric cancer research as a part of its $100,000 pledge to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. The 6 Piece Measuring Cup Set and the 6 Piece Measuring Cup set are just two of the many products with this sticker. (Another tool helpful for making these cookies is the Red Cookie Spatula.) So if you were planning on picking up baking tools, look for the green sticker when buying! I will feature a bunch of the other baking tools in future posts so that you can see a bunch of the products, so keep an eye out!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup One Degree Organic Sprouted Spelt Flour
- ¼ cup Coconut Palm Sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla powder or extract
- ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- ½ cup vegan chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup walnut pieces
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, silicone baking mats, or just spray with cooking spray.
- Mix together your dry ingredients: Sprouted Spelt Flour, Coconut Palm Sugar, Baking Powder, Sea Salt, and Powdered Vanilla if you are using it.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients: Maple Syrup, the Coconut Oil, and the Vanilla Extract if using.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Fold in the walnuts and the vegan chocolate chips.
- Form the cookie dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared cooking sheets. The dough will be very moist and break apart kind of easily.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly golden.
