Post Punk Kitchen Forum

yesterday i made the 'soft and chewy choc chip cookies' from vegan diner. yesterday, they were soft and chewy and really tasty. however today, they are quite a bit hard and really chewy and the dairy-free chips I used from Trader Joe's look weird, tasty still, but weird. i stored the cookies in a plastic storage tub.

i have been baking for a long time and like to think i'm pretty good at it ;) i don't think i did anything wrong (overstirring, etc...) when putting together the batter. i've never made vegan cookies before, it is the norm that it's best to eat them the day they are baked rather than later?

Cookies last overnight? I thought it was the law that you had to eat them all straight away even if you were the only person around.

LOL, well it made 18 and it's just me and my hubby. so 9 cookies a piece last night would have been a bit too much and probably given us a belly ache! it was awesome that i could eat the batter too since there wasn't any gross raw eggs in it!

I know..... vegan cookies rock the world! Sorry I can't answer your question. I'm not baking smart enough (yet).

PS.... try the giant PB oatmeal cookies in VWAV for THE best batter experience. I actually ate so much that I may have been a sick little girl for the rest of the night.

Did you use egg replacer? My one time making a brownie recipe with egg replacer early on--the first day the brownies were fine, the next day hard as a rock. They didn't keep at all and they usually do for me. I always attributed that to the egg replacer because that's the only time I remember using it to bake something and I haven't had the same problem since and never used it in baked goods again.

well the recipe calls for ground flaxmeal, I think 1 TBS. having this been my first time using the product, I have no idea if I used golden or brown, I think I used brown. Not sure if that could be the cause.

What kind of specific egg replacer did your recipe use?

I have another choc chip cookie recipe I can try from a different vegan cookbook that I don't think used any egg replacer at all, so I'll try that one next.

I developed an adult allergy to all nuts so I'd be one sick little girl too if I made up those PB oatmeal cookies! they sound divine though!

Oh shoot!

The chocolate chip ones from Babycakes NYC are pretty amazing but they are crunchy. They are seriously amazing though.

Nah, flax is fine and they won't harden because of that. I put flax in lots of my baked goods. I'd just stay away from egg replacer powder recipes (I think I use En-R-G) unless I know the baked goods are going to be eaten the first day. Maybe it wasn't even my egg replacer for me, but I always found it curious that I've never had the problem since and was the only time I used it in anything baking....

hm...maybe they were a little overbaked, but still a bit warm last night when you tried them, so when they fully cooled they hardened? I don't think it's a vegan cookie thing that they will harden. I've made that vegan diner recipe and they stayed soft. Try putting a piece of bread in the box with the cookies overnight and they should soften up again.

glad to know you have had success with that recipe. i will take care not to overbake them next time and I'll peek a couple of minutes early and see how they are doing. plus since there is no egg in them i certainly don't need to worry about slightly undercooking them :)

thanks for the tip about the bread! will definitely try that!

I made them this week also, and mine were not soft the next morning, stored in a ziplock bag. I think I've read somewhere that if you want a cookie to stay soft you don't seal it up, keeping it open to the air keeps them softer. I'm pretty sure I didn't over bake mine, so other than that I've got nothin'!

i am a big noobie dork! my hubby packed me 2 choc chip cookies yesterday with my lunch. they were sitting ontop of my cold blue ice-pak! hence that is why they were really firm and why the dairy free chips looks all weird and dried out. i had one last night after dinner and it was just fine (or nearly just fine, slightly more firm than when they were first baked on sunday).

sigh, it was monday, my brain was not fully functioning ;)

the recipe is still a keeper and i will make them again. my hubby did like the subtle flavor the flaxseed meal contributed to the cookie's taste. although i do have a different choc chip cookie recipe from another cookbook i'd like to try just for comparision.

maybe they had to pee?

I would make a habit of doing this, especially if your environment lacks humidity.

I dont know if this will help you or not, but one night while making choc chip cookies, I found that I was out of brown sugar. I added some extra white sugar and made up the rest with (1/4 cup I think--no more) maple syrup. My cookies turned out so chewy and tender and they stayed that way. Ever since then, thats what I do!

I've had lots of cookies to toughen up on me though--someone said add a piece of bread to the container you are storing them in...I dont know if that works, but my mom says it keeps stuff moist.

D.

thanks but as i mentioned above, it turned out that the cookies got hard because they were sitting atop my icepak in my lunchbox.

i made a 2nd batch last night and took 2 cookies with me to work but did not pack them in my lunch box ;) OMG these cookies indeed are soft and chewy. fantastic recipe! i am in love with these cookies!

Hi Bookwormbethie!

I find that those cookies hold best if you freeze them. I wait till they cool, stick them in a zip top bag and then stick them in the freezer. They will thaw super fast, so pull them out of the freezer about 15 minutes before you want to eat them. They will keep in the freezer for a while too.

Although I haven't tried it with these cookies, I used to store homemade cookies in a ziplock bag with a slice of bread. The cookies absorb the moisture from the bread and stay soft. You'll notice that the bread gets crisp. But, I haven't tried it with the VD chocolate chip cookies.

Julie

Just to add to the bread comments, yes, it does work. My great aunts always did that and it always worked! Those waste-not, want-not depression era cooks knew all the tricks!

thanks but as i mentioned above, there was no hardness issue, i was a noob and put the cookies right ontop of my icepack in my lunchbox (monday morning brain). i have made more batches since then, and they have stayed just fine, soft and chewy, in a plain tuperware container all by themselves for quite a few days until they are all gone :)