These vegan carob chip cookies are adapted from a recipe in the original Cranks recipe book, which was something of a bible for vegetarians in the ’80s.
This version has half and half wholemeal and white flour, light muscovado sugar, flaxseed in place of egg, a mix of coconut oil and vegan margarine, and vanilla extract.
The resulting biscuits are light, crunchy and high in fibre, with a wholesome texture and the unique taste of carob.
Carob is generally regarded as a wholefood-y substitute for chocolate. The trouble with that is that not too many foods come off well in a head-to-head taste comparison with chocolate. Moreover, chocolate, in the less processed form of cacao, is a wholefood staple in its own right.
Carob is completely different. It has a natural sweetness and mild flavour, less bitter than cocoa, and an aftertaste that isn’t quite like anything else but reminds me of a treacly dark roasted coffee. While it doesn’t have all the wonderful flavonoids of chocolate it does have more fibre and is still a good source of antioxidants (it is a legume, after all).
Usefully, it doesn’t contain the stimulants – caffeine and theobromine – that chocolate contains, nor tyramine, which can trigger migraines in some people.
The recipe will make around thirty-two medium-sized cookies like those shown. They retain their crunchiness really well, so it’s okay to make a huge quantity!
Vegan Carob Chip Cookies…
Ingredients
- 85 g coconut oil
- 85 g vegan margarine
- 110 g wholemeal self-raising flour
- 110 g white self-raising flour
- 100 g light muscovado sugar
- 1.5 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 80 g carob bar/chips
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line or very lightly oil two large baking sheets. (If they are non-stick trays you may not need oil as there is quite a high fat content.)
- Stir 3 tbsp of water and the vanilla extract into the ground flaxseed and set aside.
- If you are using a bar of carob, chop it up into fairly small chunks (see pictures). Set aside.
- Soften the coconut oil unless it is already at a warm room temperature. It should be easily spoonable but not turning to liquid. Place this in a large bowl with the margarine.
- Add the flours to the fats and blend using a pastry blender, or by rubbing with your fingers in the way you would pastry, until it resembles crumbs and no little lumps of coconut oil remain.
- Add the sugar and mix well with a fork or the pastry blender.
- Add the flax mixture and combine with a fork until it begins to come together.
- Add the carob chips and combine with fork then bring the mixture together into a ball of softish dough. Don’t overwork – treat it as you would pastry.
- You can chill the dough at this stage if you think it is too soft to roll. When you’re ready, turn it onto a floured board and roll to a thickness of around 5 mm.
- Cut rounds – the pictured biscuits were made with a 5 cm cutter and were 6.5 cm across when baked.
- Transfer to the trays, leaving a bit of space for them to spread, and bake for around fifteen minutes until golden brown.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing.
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