I did it! For those of you who saw my post last week about trying to recreate my mom’s delicious chewy chocolate chip cookies, this week I finally triumphed. I literally did a little dance in my kitchen when I tasted the first one and it was just like mom’s. I was actually very surprised they turned out at all – this was again a trial and error process and half the batch ended up not photograph-worthy, I ran out of all-purpose flour and earth balance vegan margarine, and my grocery store only had fair-trade organic brown sugar in the dark variety. So I was about to throw in the towel. But I powered through, substituting here and there and ended up with delicious (although darker than mom’s) chocolate chip/chunk cookies.

What you’ll need: 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour (or just use two cups of all-purpose. I just happened to have ran out of all-purpose)
• 1/2 cup cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (or use all margarine, I just happened to run out and had shortening on hand)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 TBS unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375. I followed the rules better this time than last, and mixed the flour, salt and baking soda first. I then transferred the mixture to another bowl so I could use my giant bowl for the rest of the ingredients.

Add the shortening, margarine, sugar and vanilla together, beating until everything is well mixed together. (if you have a mixer use it! Otherwise get your arm workout in for the day like I did) At this point I would suggest adding the applesauce, but that’s not what I did. I didn’t decide to add the applesauce until after I added the flour and thought the batter was too dry. In any case, add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix well. Once everything is mixed together, add the chocolate chips and chunks and give it another good swirl.

Using a spoon, measure out the batter and place on a baking pan. My first attempt I had the cookies too close together, and they spread out pretty quickly and mushed together. Whoops.

Bake the cookies for 9-12 minutes, or until the edges are browned and they’re cooked through. Transfer to a towel to let them cool a bit before eating.

Now as I’ve said, this is all a work in progress. The first half of the batch was too thin, and didn’t hold together well. I added additional baking soda and flour to the second half and was much happier with the results (don’t worry – I did the math and ingredient list above is accurate for a full batch). It was interesting to me to see how frustrated I was at first, but then how excited I was when I fixed the batter and ended up with cookie’s like mom’s. Who knew you could learn so much just from spending a little time in the kitchen? The next challenge will be to make them gluten-free so I can make them for the entire family when I’m home for the holidays…