Food Friday- the best ever most perfect chocolate chip cookie

What's better on a chilly fall day then homemade chocolate chip cookies? Nothing- that's what.

For a few years I was on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. You know the ones, flat, chewy, addictive, perfect. Nothing "cake-y", nothing crispy. Then after a good 2 years of trying endless recipes I FOUND IT. Or rather, I almost found it. It just needed to be a bit softer, have a slightly different sweetness, and have wonderful chocolate chunks instead of cheap-o chocolate chips. So I tweaked and Found perfection.

THEN.... allergies came into my life in the form of an adorable little Bravo. Who wanted chocolate chip cookies. So I tweaked again and came up with the perfect allergy cookie. It still uses wheat, but it's soy, egg, and dairy free. warning: both the normal cookies and the allergy cookies taste better when cold. I think they're the only chocolate chip cookies that aren't all that tasty when warm. But they're really only warm for like 12 seconds, so I'd rather they taste best when cold. Actually- they taste best the next day. And the allergy ones smell gross when cooking. Something about eggs makes cookies smell better. Who knew??? The allergy cookies are still really good but not quite as good as the regular ones.

So without further delay

The perfect chocolate chip (chunk) cookie
Non-allergy bits will be in parentheses.

1 1/2 cups lard or spectrum shortening or Crisco (don't use the butter flavoured one- it ruins the cookies.)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons egg replacer powder + 6 tablespoons rice milk (OR 3 eggs, beaten)
1 tablespoon vanilla or a bit more- I just dump and don't measure.
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 package of enjoy life chocolate chips or 3 cups of whatever choc chips *** for the non-allergy best ever choc chip cookies this is the most important part. Get three of the big dairy milk chocolate bars and chop up fairly finely instead of chocolate chips. Don't skimp on other bars or on plain baking chocolate. Trust me. They're so good!- YUM!****

Pre-heat oven to 350 and prepare cookie sheets (I love parchment paper- but do what you do)
Cream sugars and fat
add egg choice and vanilla and beat mixture
mix dry ingredients (but not the chocolate) and add to wet ingredients. Mix well. Add chocolate and stir. I usually end up using my hands.
Drop onto cookie sheet by teaspoon- they grow.
Bake 10-12 minutes *** this is super important. They will still look uncooked. If they look brown and like cooked cookies then when they cool they will be harder and will still taste good but like normal choc chip cookies and not the best ever ones. This is the most important part of the whole recipe- DON'T OVER BAKE****
cool on trays for a few minutes until they can be lifted by metal spatula onto wire racks. Let cool completely then store in air tight container. These stay great on the counter for a few days and freeze really well.
Makes about 3 1/2 dozen. Which in my house lasts all of 14 seconds.

Food Friday- pumpkin cookies

There's a lot I could post about food. Many many creations I've cooked up to meet our family's many many food needs. Nutrition, appealing to a slightly picky Matt, a differently picky me, a baby, a not so picky Alpha, and a highly allergic and also picky Bravo.

I'll get into the details of our specific allergies later, but currently Bravo is allergic to milk (NOT lactose but milk protein found in so many many many things), eggs, soy, peanuts, nuts, alfalfa, and clover (so glad that short and sandal season is ending!)

So for today is my current favourite recipe.

Allergy Friendly Pumpkin Crack Cookies

(egg free, soy free, dairy free, nut free, absolutely amazing and addictive pumpkin cookies)  

(can also be vegan soy free pumpkin cookies)

I'll add in parentheses what the easier to use non-allergy friendly ingredient is for those who don't need to avoid them.

These are amazing cakey-type cookies with pretty icing on the top. Fine without the icing, but amazing with it.

Cookie Ingredients:

         3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

         1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

         1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

         3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

         1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

         1 teaspoon ground cloves

         1 teaspoon ginger

         3/4 teaspoon salt

         3/4 cup spectrum shortening for soy free vegan. (use lard, normal shortening, butter or your fat of choice)

         2 1/4 cup brown sugar

         1 can (the size of a tomato or mushroom soup can, not the big one) canned pumpkin puree

         1 1/2 tsp of egg replacer powder and 3 Tablespoons of rice milk or water (or 2 small eggs)

         1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.

Make like normal cookie. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Mix wet ingredients and sugar in a different bowl with a spoon or a mixer or whatever. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until blended.

Spoon by large-ish teaspoon or small-ish tablespoon onto cookie sheets (I always line mine with parchment paper for ease of baking and cleaning). This makes between 4-5 dozen, depending on the size of cookies.  Get a spoon and cup of cold water and smooth the tops of the cookies out with the back of the spoon, dipping in the water between each cookie for super-smoothing non-sticky power.

These don't spread too terribly much, so they can be kind of close together. Bake for 15 minutes.

Cool for about 5 minutes on sheets then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Icing:

This is open to whatever you want to do. I put cinnamon in the icing, but you don't have to. I've made it with maple syrup before, and that's really good. You just want a thick-ish glaze, so add what you want to make it the right runny-ness. It should drizzle off of a spoon, but not run off completely.

2 cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon melted shortening or butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons of rice milk or whatever milk you use (you made need more to get the right consistency)

mix the icing up, drizzle over the completely cooled cookies. Let set, and Voila!