I'm not vegan, but I'm intrigued by the idea of making cookies out of ingredients that don't rely on animals. Allen likes to mispronounce vegan just to get on my nerves. His version sounds like they are cookies from Las Vegas.
These are from a neat little cookbook called Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. Some of the vegan ingredients are foreign to me, so I started with a recipe that called for common cookie ingredients.
And just to prove I had a limited social schedule on January 15, 2012, the day I made these, I made 8 variations of Banana Everything Cookies.
All had chopped pecans. So my variable ingredients were cinnamon chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate chunks ...
... or rolling them in crushed pretzels, or ground nuts/sugar.
Here's the basic recipe, then I'll reveal my findings. The bottom line is, out of my 8 versions, 2 really shined. This test kitchen method really helps you to learn, with one dough mix and one sitting, what works and what doesn't as far as combinations, so that you can learn those basic rules in other recipes.
P.S. I did not use vegan chocolate chips because I just hadn't found them yet, and I don't think they make vegan cinnamon chips at all. There is one maker of vegan white chocolate chips but you will likely have to order them online.
Banana Everything Cookies
Compliments of JennaDish
from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero
MAKES ABOUT 2 DOZEN
1 very ripe medium banana (I used 1 small frozen ripe banana + 1/4 ripe fresh)
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar (I used raw sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla (whoops forgot this, and lived to tell about it)
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used Vietnamese cinnamon)
2 cups quick-cooking (not instant) oats or old-fashioned rolled oats (I used the latter)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or cinnamon chips if you're not really vegan, or white chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 350o. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
In a mixing bowl, mash the banana well. You can use a fork for this, or your hands (I used a potato masher). Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix with a strong fork. Add the flour baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the oatmeal, walnuts, and chocolate chips and mix well. It's actually good to use your hands for misxing when using oatmeal, that way you make sure that the oats get nice and moist. If the dough is very slippery, you might want to add a few tablespoons extra flour - it depends on how big your banana was.
Clean your hands and roll the dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball. Flatten it a bit in your hands and place each ball about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.
******************************
*Variation 1: with cinnamon chips only
Very good, consider using less chips to allow banana flavor to come through. Careful to tuck in chips so they don't get burnt.
Variation 2: no chips, just pecans
More banana taste, but plainer and dryer.
Variation 3: no chips, but rolled in mixture of wheat germ, ground nuts, brown sugar
Much better than #2 but would be better with raisins for sweetness and texture.
*Variation 4: no chips, rolled in crushed pretzels
Very good, pretzels are better to roll in. The salt helps, no raisins needed because you can taste the banana more.
Variation 5: with chocolate chips only
Very good but chocolate overpowers. Hardly any banana taste.
Variation 6: with cinnamon chips and bittersweet chocolate chunks
YUK.
Variation 7: with only bitterweet chocolate chunks
Better than above but too bitter and no banana taste.
Variation 8: with chocolate chips, rolled in crushed pretzels
No, can't taste banana much, the salt is nice though.