No Half Measures

26 Nov 2020

These cookies were given to us as part of a Thanksgiving cookie tray, in 2019. It took that long to wheedle the recipe out of the cookie-tray-giver, but it was worth it! I’m sure there’s a non-vegan version somewhere, but these ones happen to be vegan. I didn’t know what to call them, and “pregnant cookies” made sense at the time - of course they have an actual name, but who remembers that in comparison?

These cookies are delightful. They are fudgy on the outside, creamy and delicious peanut butter on the inside. I’m sure you could use crunchy if you were so inclined. The process, however, is involved. I think because the dough is vegan, it appears to be much more sticky than other cookie doughs I have worked with. Thus to form the cookies, I developed a process: I knew I’d get 48 cookies from a double batch, so I divided both the centers and the outsides first. This lets you assemble the cookies one at a time while ensuring you won’t run out of either peanut butter centers or chocolate outsides.

The key here is folding the outsides around the centers and making sure they seal. I later began to squish the centers into a disk to create a more even cookie, and avoid them having a spaceship-like appearance. They don’t spread much, so I learned I could put 12 on a tray - this also meant that baking could happen on 2 pans in 2 batches! So efficient.

It’s important to let these cookies cool on the tray for a good while before you move them to a cooling rack. They’re very soft at first, and need a little time to stiffen up so they stay intact.

I also learned that these cookies don’t store particularly well - possibly because of the amount of oil in the dough required to replace the egg, they tend to go a little off or metallic-tasting if stored in a bag for too long. They appear to freeze really well though!