28/11/2008

Vegan With A Vengeance - Chocolate Chip Cookies

Has anyone else made these?
Has anyone else who has the UK version of this recipe book made these? Page 189. Has anyone else noticed any problems with the recipe? The ingredients calls for, amongst other things, 500 grams of Flour. I thought at the time that sounded like a LOT of Flour, especially compared to the 225 grams of Marg, 1 Tablespoon of Molasses and 2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract. Those three things are all the liquidy ingredients the recipe uses. I mixed everything up, added the Flour and was left with a load of mix that looked like Breadcrumbs. The recipe then goes on to say "drop by teaspoonfuls". There was no way this was going to drop as anything apart from fake dirty snow!! And as festive as that might be it's not gonna feed our hungry bellies with delicious Cookies. So I added about 100 grams more Marg and was able to mold biscuit shapes out of the mixture.
Look at the size of these!!
Oh and I used the Butterscotch Chips my package swap buddy, Laura, sent me. They tasted OK but nothing special and in all honesty I probably won't make these again. I wonder how much Flour the American version tells you to add? Anyone help me out?

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

The case of the crap cookies strikes again!! Dum dum dum!! (dramatic music!)

I feel for you buddy!

I can't say I've tried anything out of VWAV ever (no pictures=no inspiration *sigh*)

I'm sitting here right now with a Dreena cookie in my hand feeling sorry for you >:o(

I can send you a good recipe for cookies using marg and egg replacer if Hippy wishes??

*Big Hugs*

half pint pixie said...

Haven't made them, but it seems to be a common issue with them. The ppk forums have lots of reports of crumbly batter. I have the US version, first ed, there were a few typos in that but no mention of that recipe, AFAIK the official stance on these cookies is "move along, nothing wrong with this recipe", people seem to get a bit tetchy on ppk when they are discussed!

Bake Dreena's cookies, the are the best, best, best and are especially yummy with spelt flour!

Butterscotch chips.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

1 cup margarine

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/4 c sugar

I have these marked in my cookbook, but I don't remember if I made them or not.

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

Dreena's CC Cookies are the best. Seriously, it's not even worth trying other recipes.

http://viveleveganrecipes.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html

Anonymous said...

...erm, I probably meant the curse of the cookies....
I do wish you could edit comments....... stupid Rabbit.....

Jen Treehugger said...

Three Dreena approvals!!
WOW!
These are my next Cookie recipe for sure!
Thanks guys.
Why oh why don't I ask you lot BEFORE I make things!!

It seems the US version uses more Marg but it still seems like a lot don't ya reckon!
I'm glad I didn't post about it over at PPK now - I didn't even think before I made them to do a search over there - I kinda just trusted the recipe (as you do).
Ahhh well.....another lesson learnt.
I'm gonna give half the batch I made to my local Bar where I know they'll be appreciated anyway.
rabbit - curse/case both work well.
;)

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

Yeah I've made them. They are more doughy than I like and I found the mixture impossible to mix. I had to use my hands (I kinda like that though :) )

It was WAY too dry though. I added soymilk, a tbsp or so at a time, till I had a dough I could mould.

Make that 4 Dreena approvals! They are soooo delicious and easy and you can knock em out super quick!!

I made these last night and I had the opposite problem than the VWAV ones - I thought they were too wet, but actually they turned out perfectly!

Carrie said...

The US version turns out too dry too (for me anyway), but I just add some extra soymilk and they're still just as tasty!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Sorry about your cookies!! Everybody raves about Dreena's cookies. I keep saying I'm going to make them but they keep getting postponed for some idiotic reason, but I will make them today! Hey, let's make synchronized Dreena cookies!! :)

Jen Treehugger said...

Synchronised Cookies - LOL!
Can I just say that now they are completely cooled they're not THAT bad - I've just had one with a cuppa tea and I'm gonna go and grab another!!

So a good rescue all round.
Can't wait to try Dreena's recipe now and I have white Choc Chips to use up........
:)

half pint pixie said...

Synchronised Cookies for all :)

I shall make some over the weekend, I know it'll be hard but if I must ;-)

Cody said...

I've never tried those, but the peanut butter cookies from VWAV have failed on me, and lots of other people.

I like the chocolate chip cookies from Vive le Vegan.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone who said "make the Dreena CC cookies!"

I am in love with those cookies!!!

As for those butterscotch chips, where on earth did your swap buddy by those?!?!?! I would kill to find vegan butterscotch chips!!

Bethany said...

"me too" on the Dreena cookies. Though I like them better if you increase the molasses to 2 tsp or even 1 tbs. I don't like a super white chocolate chip cookie.

I also squish them flat before I put them in the oven.

Felicity said...

ooo, now I want to make Dreena's cookies as well!

BTW, I've sent some vegan love your way, Jeni!

Anonymous said...

I also have the UK version, and I scribbled in my margins that this wasn't the best. I remember having major issues, and I used less flour the next time and it worked better. I really love this book, it's one of my favourites, but this is one recipe that just needed some fine tuning.

DJ said...

That's weird... is that like a pound of flour?? I'm with Becks, nothing beats Dreena's homestyle chocolate chip cookies, They're my go-to recipe!

disabled account said...

hola! this was my first recipe tried from this book...pg 193 in the states. they are too dry so you just have to add some liquid till they're a good consistency. however, i've redone this recipe so many times and have come up with some really good cookies. maybe i'll make some today and post the recipe.

along with adding more liquid though, it helps to lessen the sugar to 1 cup and leave the molasses out and to add 1/4 of brown sugar. and less salt, for the love of god! we don't need 1 tsp of salt in this recipe! i think the recipe tester went all goofy with this one or something.

Jen Treehugger said...

Ginger - so a completely different recipe then!
LOL!

DJ - it's a pound and a quarter of Flour!! See my concern!!!

I did tend to put my faith in cook books - guess I've been lucky and this is the first let down I've experienced.
The Cookies ended up all right so all's well that ends well hey!
:)

Jackdaw Jayne Studios said...

Maybe it's a typo and it should be 50g of flour? 500g seems like waaaayyyy too much!

x said...

That's a shame, Jeni. I don't have VWaV yet but have read comments that the measurements aren't always spot on in the U.K one.

I am another lover of Dreena's cookies, they are always yummo!

Anonymous said...

I made the us version and they were too dry until I added a little bit of soymilk - I hear you really have to cream the hell out of the margarine to get this recipe to work right.

Anonymous said...

I really wonder who was responsible for the UK version of that book. I heard people complain before. So sad your cookies didn't turn out right. Everyone raves about the version from the US VwaV.

Anonymous said...

Okay, make that yet another Dreena fan. I served her cookies to a "mixed" crowd, and EVERYONE--vegan or not--absolutely loved them!

RE: your flour issue, if the 2-1/2 cups mentioned earlier is correct for the US version, that should translate to only about 350g. flour--maybe that's the problem?

And I LOVE River's idea--like a vegan daring bakers--let's all do synchronized Dreena cookies!

disabled account said...

this makes me want to send you a set of measuring cups so you can slum it with all of us kids that aren't up on the metric system yet. haha!

i bet they converted it wrong from cups to grams. it sounds like they converted liquid/dry measurements to weight and that's not cool when you're messing with people's cookies man! can you measure in 1.5 pints of flour? does that make more sense?

i have tried many recipes in this book and there are some things that are off...including someones incredibly large love of salt and garlic because i always automatically cut those measurements in half. still, i love this book. it's awesome. i've never tried any cookbook that gives 100% perfection every time anyway.

i have a friend who was recently a recipe tester for a cookbook on pies and she heard from the author later that the copy editor had been changing some of the measurements on her own because she thought it would be better that way. so that alone tells me that there may have been too many hands in the pot and some people may not understand unit conversion.

btw, i can't find my cookie recipe...still looking.

Lily Girl said...

Yup, the American version has the same issues. I've solved it by adding 1) oil 2) additional margarine 3) non-dairy milk (my favorite solution - and I think ends up resembling the recipe Isa recently posted on the ppk blog). Once corrected they are very good.

Jen Treehugger said...

You know when women work and live together their periods synchronise - well, synchronised baking Dreena Cookies is what happens to us bloggers instead.
LOL!

Ricki - 350g sounds a lot better!
Ginger - The crazy thing is I have a set of measuring cups that I bought off ebay as most recipes I use are American/Canadian - the VWaV I have though is the UK version (typical).
Lily - if I make these again I'll try adding Soya Milk but to be honest, my next Cookie baking adventure will star Dreena's recipe!

:)

For the Love of Guava said...

aww.. I'm sorry I've had some cookie failures lately as well... until I can master vegan versions I think we're doing homemade granola for christmas....

Bex said...

These cookies do seem to have mixed results.

Definitely try these:
http://theppk.com/blog/2008/11/10/chocolate-chip-cookies/

These and Dreena's cookies are my favoritest chocolate chips cookies evar!

A.M. said...

The translations from cups to grams in the UK VwaV just plain sucks... I always have trouble with it, and when I ask people who have the US version and I use cups insteads of grams, it always works out...

And I second all the I love Dreena cookies!