We signed a lease on an apartment in Wellington yesterday! Yessss! Even though it’s a short one, just 2 months, we are so excited to finally be settled in our own space for at least a little while. Our last airbnb was lovely and our host was generous enough to let us kidnap her kitchen everyday, multiple times a day to cook our meals (and make these cookies!) which was wonderful.
It was really nice to be in a fully equipped kitchen for a while, however in our new very tiny studio apartment, we have returned to the land of the dorm-ridden college student. We have a 2-burner portable electric stove, one frying pan, one big pot, one small pot, very limited utensils and no oven!
It will definitely be a test of creativity, but I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to spend my time making up recipes instead of spending hours scoping out our next airbnb, coordinating our next bus/plane tickets, or figuring out all the millions of silly little details that come with traveling, like deciding how many kilograms of checked bags to buy when we’re buying flights online (because how am I supposed to know if my bag weighs 20 kg or 23 kg or 25 kg…).
Anyways, on to these pretty, little cookies. I was originally going to post a vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies recipe that I made at our second to last airbnb. I had already taken all the photos for them, written the recipe, all I had to do was post it, but I couldn’t! They were good but they just weren’t awesome.
So, I did some research, tweaked the recipe (a lot), and came up with these puppies. These cookies are SO good. Crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle, gooey chocolate, crunchy almonds, this is everything I want in a dessert.
These are vegan, but if you wanted to make them non-vegan, you could easily substitute the coconut oil with the same amount of butter and the chia seeds with an egg. If you’ve never baked with coconut oil before, you might not know that it does NOT make your food taste like coconut. If you don’t have coconut oil and chia seeds, I understand, but if you’re looking to try out some vegan baking, these truly are just as delicious vegan as non-vegan. If you don’t have almonds, you could sub walnuts or pecans or just leave them out.
Ingredients
- 1 T chia seeds (or 1 egg)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup coconut oil at room temp (or butter)
- 1 cup of rolled oats
- 1/3 cup almonds, chopped
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips (use non-dairy for vegan)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 375 F and lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
- 2. Skip this step if using an egg. Grind the chia seeds in a spice or coffee grinder to a fine meal. Then mix the ground chia seeds with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and let it soak for a couple minutes. It should get thick and gelatinous. This is the equivalent of one egg.
- 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, vanilla, coconut oil, and chia seed mixture and stir .
- 4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Finally, add the oats, almonds, and chocolate chips and mix gently until fully incorporated.
- 5. Scoop out two-tablespoon size balls of dough and space them evenly apart on prepared baking sheet, leaving at least two inches between them.
- 6. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let rest on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack and eat!
Notes
Loosely adapted from this recipe
Hi, I’m new to your website . I was directed to your you tube page from The Game Changers website. Just wondering what kind of brown sugar you use in your recipes. I’m very excited to try your cookies, first I need to get to the store to buy the chia seeds.!!!
by Rebecca Myers March 3, 2020 at 12 : 45I’m so glad you’re here! I use light brown sugar but either will work!
by Taylor March 3, 2020 at 10 : 19Two questions– is there any reason to make it vegan as opposed to non-vegan? And, do these hold together the same as with an egg??
Love the photos and story!!!
by Rebecca Tombaugh December 12, 2015 at 05 : 28I believe the vegan version is slightly healthier. Chia seeds are very good for you, and in my opinion, coconut oil is better for you than butter, though its a debated topic. However, neither version (vegan/non-vegan) of the cookies is very healthy… And, yes, they definitely hold together the same as with an egg!
by Taylor December 12, 2015 at 02 : 35