Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies

OH the things you can do with pistachios. Lemee tell ya...

So a couple of weeks ago I was in a pretty major funk. Things on the school front were not looking well (my funding was pulled over an administrative mistake--it's back, thank god), the poet was out of town and we'd had a tiff before he left, and I was not in the mood to face life. So I reverted to my old funk tactics. I checked three 200+ page books out of the library and vowed to stay in bed (it's 90+ degrees outside, ewww) until I read them all. A book a day. But one needs sustenance when huddled in bed with the A/C on high, cats cuddled around legs. You need chocolate chip cookies. It's the only funk food that will suffice.

I riffed off the recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, which, honestly, I'm not too fond of. But it could remind me of the correct flour and sugar measurements and such. And with pitachios sitting around in my cupboard, well, you can imagine how this recipe turned out. DELICIOUS. It satisfied my craving almost as well as the original eggy chocolate chip cookie recipe I made for years. I've yet to find a vegan chocolate chip cookie that passes muster, but this wasn't too bad.

As a note, I might suggest lessening the sugar to 1/2 and 1/2 with a pinch thrown in or something like that if you use vanilla yogurt like I did. I might also lessened the vanilla a bit. I don't like my cookies super sweet, and these were a bit on the edge of too sweet for me. Other than that, I like using the yogurt as an egg replacer.

Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies

1 cup Earth Balance
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli semi-sweet--vegan!)
1 cup chopped pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla. Add the soy yogurt and mix well.

Beat in the flour, baking soda, and salt in small batches until it forms a dough. You might need to add more flour.

When it is thoroughly combined, add the chocolate chips and pistachios.

Form small balls of dough and place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the golden brown you want.

Let them cool as long as you can wait--I suggest not waiting so as to get the perfect combo of hot dough and gooey chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sometimes I just want a chocolate chip cookie. I used to make the best cookies before I was vegan. My recipe was infallible. It was better than my mother's--who was a professional baker for 20 years. And then I became a vegan. I've yet to find a recipe I like. Half of the reason is because buying vegan chocolate chips is so expensive. And the eggs really added something to the recipe, I guess.

So here's one of my experiments--with egg replacer. I don't like egg replacer, but I was out of bananas. So, well, the recipe is good, but it's not perfect. I also used 3 oz of semi-sweet baker's chocolate instead of chocolate chips because that's what I had.

Needless to say though, these cookies made my paper writing and novel reading afternoon a-ok!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c Earth Balance, at room temp.
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs' worth of egg replacer
3 oz chopped semi-sweet baker's chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix the Earth Balance, sugars, vanilla, and egg replacer.

Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the chocolate chips or baker's chocolate.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.