Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies & Walnut Milk

Crunchy-chewy chocolate chip cookies and creamy walnut milk make a great treat after a winter outing

By Chef Christine Moss, The Garden Cafe Woodstock

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 36-40 cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oat flour
• 2 TBSP vanilla extract
• 3 cups white flour
• 8 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups cane sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 sticks earth balance soy free at room temperature
• 1 bag 10 oz vegan chocolate chips (just under 2 cups)

 Directions:

1. In an electric mixer with the paddle, or in a bowl with a handheld electric mixer or by hand with a whisk, fork or masher, cream together all of the butter and both sugars.
2. Add vanilla and mix until blended.
3. In separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients, oat flour, white flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients slowly to creamed butter and sugar and mix until a uniform dough has formed. 
5. Add chocolate chips and mix in by hand with a large spoon.
6. Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll into logs 2” thick diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill dough at least 2-3 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350F. Unwrap and slice chilled dough into ½” slices and place on a greased baking sheet 2” apart.
8. Bake 5 minutes, rotate baking sheet and bake another 4-5 minutes and remove from oven while they are puffed up a bit. The trick with these is that they will not look done when its time to remove them from the oven, that’s ok, it’s what you want. Let them cool on the tray and they will finish cooking that way. This makes a tender and chewy cookie. If you leave them in for too long they get very hard to bite.

TIP: Make your own oat flour by blending the measured amount of oats plus 1 teaspoon to a blender and blend on high until you have a fine flour.

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Walnut Milk

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw organic walnuts
• 3 cups water plus more for soaking
• 1 TBSP maple syrup 
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Place the walnuts in a bowl and cover with water to soak at least 1 hour at room temperature. They can soak overnight up to 12 hours, the longer they soak the creamier the milk.
2. Drain the soaked walnuts and rinse very well.
3. Place walnuts into a blender with 3 cups water, maple syrup, cinnamon and salt. Blend on low for 2-3 minutes.
4. Serve as is or strain through some cheesecloth to make it extra smooth. It will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator.