Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Two things are unacceptable: I keep forgetting to buy butter, and there’s a spider on my ceiling that my cat can’t reach.
Two solutions have presented themselves: Make vegan cookies, and construct some sort of winged apparatus to send my cat into flight, thus into spider hunting range.
So far, I’ve got the cookies. The cat wings have proven more difficult. This mancat of mine doesn’t seem very aerodynamic. Why don’t cat tails double as some sort of cat helicopter blade? That would solve this stupid spider situation for sure.
Sunflower seeds covered in chocolate and a hard candy shell. The candy shell makes them precious, darling, and edible by the fistful.
Ps. The sunflower seeds are less than vegan. Vegan chocolate chunks are a great replacement for those of you who are down with the vegan thing.
These cookies are adapted from my favorite vegan cookie recipe from Organic and Chic. The original recipe is for spicy ginger cookies. They’re dense, cakey, cookie biscuits. I love them.
Applesauce, oil, and flax seed meal moisten these cookies, giving them a chewy bite and ample body.
Yea… these cookies have body.
Chocolate, espresso powder, and a touch of cinnamon are all packed into this batter. The sunflower seeds make these cookies spring, sprung, flowery, and bright… vegan chocolate chunks would also be wonderful.
Rolled in sugar and slightly under-baked, I think these cookies are a treat. I have a giant bag of them in my freezer. I share… I’ll probably share.
Recipe adapted from Organic and Chic.
Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
24 to 28 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar (vegan)
- 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup chocolate coated sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or 1 cup vegan chocolate chips)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cooking Directions
- Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, carefully whisk together sugar, flax seed meal, applesauce, oil and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients, all at once, into the dry ingredients. Add the chocolate chunks (and sunflower seeds, if using) and stir together with a spatula. The dough will be fairly thick. Stir until all of the dry ingredients are just moistened. You can even use your hands if necessary, but try not to knead and overwork the dough. Dump dough out onto a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap.
- Form into a disk, wrap, and refrigerate for one hour (or overnight).
- Once chilled, scoop dough by the tablespoonful into balls. Roll in granulated sugar, place on prepared cookie sheets, and press them down, just slightly with the heel of your hand. These cookies won't spread much.
- Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. Cookies should still be slightly soft in the middle. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will keep, in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 5 days.
**For extra deliciousness: add 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients, sift together, and proceed as recipe instructs.
208 Comments Add A Comment
Love all the flavors in these cookies and those candy coated sunflower seeds sound interesting. I love sunflower seeds ;) I love under-baking my cookies, yum
Spider solution = vacuum
woah there! now that’s powerful :P
an image of you, joy, wobbling on a chair, using a vacuum to kill a spider, and your cat eating sunflower seeds…. just is so.. beautiful. ^o^
Hahaha! Heather… you’re hilarious. And smart.
These cookies look great and I love the chocolate covered sunflower seeds. Definitely need to grab some!
I have to admit that I’ve never tasted a vegan cookie, but I’ve also never seen a vegan cookie that looked so good. Wish I lived closer so you could share with me! :)
These are springy awesomeness!!!! I add cinnamon and espresso to almost everything chocolate I make! SO GOOD!! I absolutely adore your website! You rock!
Thanks Joy! I’ve just started the 21 day Vegan Kickstart and these look almost (but not quite) too pretty to eat.
This are so great – love the color!
hey joy, these look oh so amazing!
do you have a broom? maybe your cat could stay on the floor, you can gently brush the spider with the broom onto the head of it, and carefully put it outside so it can catch some flies!
Spider on the ceiling + broom sounds like a recipe for a spider in your hair. Eek!
These sound delicious. I love that they’re vegan and chocolate (how can you go wrong with all that chocolate?)
You should just get your cat to stand guard by that spider till it gets within reach for him
Ps. I checked out Organic and Chic after the first time you mentioned it. Its a great book! I love the photos and it has some very creative ideas in it. Thanks
those look so pretty!! i love all the colors… they look so easter-y!
These cookies look pretty good, but it’s the whole applesauce thing that scares me. I don’t like applesauce and whenever a recipe says to use it, I skip it because I’m afraid of the applesauce taste. But these do look really pretty, and very Springy :)
I promise that you don’t really taste the applesauce….just the goodness.
all the applesauce does is make things sweet and moist. works really really nicely in chocolate recipes (like brownies!!). :)
You might try canned pumpkin instead of applesauce.
Yum, those cookies look so soft and moist! I’ve never made vegan cookies before…
ohhhh i love soft cookies. mmm.
my eyes widened at that first photo! holy cow.
These are adorable. The chocolate coated seeds are the best part – I don’t know why I’ve never seen these before. BTW, how is your birthday list going? It would be fun to have an update, mid-process and then after the fact :)
I’ve just come across your website while looking for vegan treat recipes, and I think this is going to be the one! I’m baking birthday cakes to bring to work and I always feel bad that the vegan girl misses out (even though it’s her choice). Is applesauce just cooked apples?
With regards to your other problem, I usually stand on a chair, lift the cat up, and she’ll grab the spider with her paws and gobble it right up. Do be careful not to panic as your hands get near the spid, as cats don’t appreciate being dropped, and will refuse to save you from spiders in the future.
These are so pretty! I’m not vegan, but not opposed to vegan offerings :) Love the idea to add the coated sunflower seeds rather than basic chocolate chips! Yum.
Joy, you are awesome! Thanks for all you do! Good luck with the spider/cat contraption!
I’m in the mood for something dense and fudgy, -like every day. I’ve never made vegan cookies, but I am so willing to try these. I’m wondering….is flax seed meal and ground flax seed the same thing?
They are just so pretty!
My dough did not come together like the ginger cookies did. It was dry and crumbly, but I figured I might as well bake it. I smooshed it together, smooshed it in the sugar, and prayed they would at least stay together. Know what? They still taste fantastic, and the baking helped them stay together. Not as chewy as the ginger cookies (which were AMAZEballs), but still rich and chocolately. :)
Our cat thinks he likes to eat spiders. Then they get in his mouth and he freaks out. The attacking still does the trick though. I squirt the ceiling spiders down with a spray bottle, then put the cat near the spider.
For the applesauce-averse, extra-soft tofu mixed up with a little bit of soy or almond milk — just enough so that it’s around the consistency of applesauce — works perfectly well for things like this. It’s my favorite way to make vegan brownies; they come out all soft and fudgy and lovely.
As soon as I saw this I shared it with my sister who is a vegan. She loves chocolate and says she is going to make this as soon as Lent is over (she gave up chocolate).
que rico!!!!!!!!!!!
We just had the critter on ceiling issue, too, but the critter was a bird. He/she came in through the back door (i left it open to put the dog out…) and hid way up on a top shelf. Corralling the dog and two cats, dragging/carrying each of them away from the kitchen, and locking them up away from the bird, occupied enough time for the bird to move him/herself to another high shelf, over the washer.
I opened up the back door again, and waited somewhat impatiently until my guest found its way back out. He/she was only slightly more relieved than I was.
The dog and two cats, however, are still prowling the house. And giving me disappointed looks.
My best friend and I love, love your blog! We were just in Santa Monica and as creepy as admitting this makes us sound, we were totally hoping to run into you. Told you. A bit creepy! But creepiness aside, thanks for the amazing recipes and laughs. We do love you (creepiness continued :) haha).
i love this!
One word. ‘Yum.’
Joy, you add so much joy to my day! :)
I just made these, and they’re fantastic! I can’t wait to try the ginger version!
i gotta get some espresso powder, these look awesome!!
hope your cat can fly soon!
OMG these look TO. DIE. FOR! I’m obsessed with all things chocolate lately!
I just finished our chocolate covered sesame seeds (though ours were all white) just last week. I will have to pick a different candy to make them with. Chocolate chips or a bar of something fun.
I need those beautiful sunflower seeds on my life ;o; any chance I can buy them online? on my country there is no such cute thing =(
yum yum!!
Hi Joy! I’m also in LA, and I’ve been to two Whole Foods, and Trader Joes, and Ralphs (all on the West Side)and can’t find these lovely pastel covered seeds. Where did you find yours? Thanks!
i found mine at the Trader Joes on Pico in Santa Monica. I’m sorry you’re running all over town!
Great. Thanks! (They don’t have them at Trader Joes at Olympic & Granville, just FYI)
I usually find chocolate covered sunflower seeds at Home Goods or Cost Plus/World Market. Michaels even has them around holidays.
Belle,
If you are still looking, you can usually find the Sunny Seeds brand at Cracker Barrel and World Market. If you are still having trouble, let me know, and I will do what I can to help. I know some people… ;)
Lisa
I made these last night and they were a huge hit! (I made them without sunflower seeds and added cinnamon but not coffee) :)
My batter was a bit dry, though, so I added another 1/4 cup oil and 1/2 cup water and that did the trick.
5/5 stars
Wow these look delicious!
Joy, where did you get those sunflower seeds?
trader joe’s.
I live in the Milwaukee, WI, area, and chocolate covered sunflower seeds aren’t available. :( Tho, when I called the local Whole Foods, the very nice grocery guy, Ethan, said he’s gotten several calls lately about them, and is checking into them. I bet the calls are from everyone who’s read this blog!
Is the dough supposed to be really dry and crumbly???
it’s a thick dough, but it’s not supposed to be dry and crumbly. hm…
Mine was also very dry and crumbly. I added about 1/4 cup extra applesauce, and 1/8 cup more oil. Seems to be a good dough now.
Any ideas as to why my batter doesn’t stick together?? It’s moist but REALLY crumbly even after I mixed it with my hands. When I put the cookies on the baking sheet they kept falling apart… ;(
crumbly batter. mine was thick, but still held together. perhaps add just a bit more applesauce.
These look amazing! I have a 2 year old nephew with an egg & peanut allergy so I’m always on the lookout for egg-less treats to make when I see him.
Question: Where do you find chocolate covered sunflower seeds? I’ve never seen them in my part of the world (ie. southern Ontario, Canada). Can you buy them online? They look great!
I see from an earlier post that you got the sunflower seeds from Trader Joe’s — who aren’t in Canada :( Perhaps a trip over the border is in order. :)
Dear, dear, Joy, could you possibly read all 72 million comments from your adoring fans who hold on to your every blogging word?
I just wanted to say after seeing the sunflower seeds on a trip to T.J’s
Made ‘em
ate waaay to many of ‘em
took the rest to Grandma
Amazing!
Thanks
Kate
i read em all! hope grandma liked the cookies!
The chocolate cookies do look amazing. I need to try these, but without the chocolate candy covered sunflower seeds. I have a weird relationship with them. More like a fling. I received some on Christmas from my boyfriend’s mom and at first, I thought,”Eh..these are a little odd”…but then I couldn’t stop eating them. A day later, I couldn’t bare the sight of them. Made my tummy churn. *shrugs* I’ll probably use walnuts instead–although the colors are undeniably purty. :)
Wow…those sugar coated sunflower seeds…where do you get those? Never seen them before in my life! would love to find a source of those that would send downunder…to nz ;)
Love your style of writing..very funny.
love your cooking…very delicious looking! So I guess I love your photography of your yummy food! lol
ciao
jessie
nelson, new zealand
I spoiled. I told my mom I NEEDED chocolate covered sunflower seeds from TJ’s… but I didn’t tell her what they were for. The dough is in the fridge. It’s a good thing I’m going to a baseball game or I would be counting down the seconds until I could whip it back out of the fridge.
I think a decent way to describe the dough (albeit not very appetizing) would be ‘dirt’. It reminds me of slightly moist dirt. Except dirt doesn’t stick together quite like the dough does. The color is almost exact, and the “crumbliness” looks like dirt. And it’s super tasty.
These cookies are NOT Vegan if you use the coated sunflower seeds. My girlfriend’s husband is Vegan and I had hoped to make these for him when they attended my annual Easter brunch. I have a number of delicious Vegan recipes that I prepare for him. These looked so pretty with their pastel-colored coated sunflower seeds that I headed right off to Trader Joe’s to buy them. Unfortunately, using these in your “Vegan” cookies makes them non-Vegan. They contain milk powder which is an absolute no-no when serving Vegan guests. Since my TJs only carries these, I searched on-line to see if I could find a brand without animal by-products to no avail. In fact, some even contain gelatin in the candy coating which comes from animals. Although I will not be adding the sunflower seeds to these cookies :-( , I am planning on making them with Vegan chocolate chips. It is important to be informed about ingredients and add a disclaimer when labeling anything that is being marketed to a specific population like Vegans. If you have a source for Vegan coated sunflower seeds, would you please share it? I would really like to make these as pictured. They look so Easter-y! Thanks.
dude… there’s totally a disclaimer about the non-veganness of the chocolate coated sunflower seeds in the post. i suggest adding vegan chocolate chips instead of the coated sunflower seeds. so… yea.
also… i’m afraid i don’t have a source for vegan coated sunflower seeds.
I am going to try these! Thanks for sharing. Beautiful photos!
um, i made these. they are amazing.
i’m in canada so i don’t have trader joe’s sunflower seeds, but i did have a box of Toffifee (tah-fah-fay) which i chopped up and mixed in. not vegan. but absolutely delicious. THANK YOU!
Joy, these are amazing! My sister says they were sent from heaven… Thanks for sharing :)
I’ve finally worked up the courage to comment on these—which are now my favorite cookie. I actually make them with mint (and orange extract/zest and almond–tasted like chocolate marzipan, yum–once each) and have yet to try vanilla. Although I’m by no means vegan, I really appreciate the healthy alternative. :)