Friday, September 5, 2008

The key to a poor doctoral student's heart is chocolate chip cookies


Jason is the first person I met at college. He was the roommate of my friend from high school. Six years later, he is still one of my best friends in the world. Whenever I'm super upset about something, I call my mom first and then Jase. His birthday is at the end of August which was perfect because we got to have a party every year right when we went back to school. Sadly, we haven't been together for his past couple birthdays and this year he is all the way in State College, PA where he is starting his six year PHD program, eek! I wanted to send him a little something for the big 25th b-day, so I found the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies in VWAV and got to work.

I did my homework and saw that a lot of bloggers had problems with the dough being too crumbly. So I added the flour 1/2 cup at a time and in the end I obtained the perfect texture with about 1/4 cup less flour than is called for in the recipe. The recipe says that it will prove to any non-vegan that you can make vegan chocolate chip cookies that taste just as good as regular ones and when I tasted them I was shocked at how they tasted exactly like the normal kind! Before I mailed these out I had a couple coworkers try them and they both said that while the look and texture were spot on, the taste bore no resemblance to real chocolate chip cookies, adding that they just tasted like molasses cookies. Siiiigh. Next time I am going to get them to try them without knowing they are vegan first.

I was slightly worried about how the cookies would fare in the mail, as the last time I sent cookies they arrived at my friend's house in Argentina a month later, melted into one giant cookie blob. These suckers arrived in three days however and Jase assured me they hadn't blobified. As for Jason's review, he said "these are really good considering they contain none of the ingredients needed to make chocolate chip cookies." Hmmm, not sure what that means, but he ate them all soooo whatever! Actually, Jase may not be the best judge of any food. In college he would routinely bake up a dozen Jiffy blueberry muffins and eat six of them for dinner and then have the other six for breakfast the next day. So he's not exactly a foodie.

If we aren't dating someone when we're 45, Jase and I are going to get married, so I've got a few years to perfect the recipe. But in the meantime, I still say that these suckers are delish.

Happy 25th Jayyyyseeee!!!!!

P.S. The recipe says it will yield 36 cookies, but unless you like your cookies to be no bigger than quarters, that is definitely not the case. This made about 20 average sized cookies.

9 comments:

IttyBlog said...

aww jason is one lucky dude. can we get some linkage to that cookie recipe?

¡Yo Soy Liz! said...

ah yes, but of course. Here is a link: http://www.recipezaar.com/258421

Katy said...

Mmmm, the cookies look great! I haven't tried that recipe yet, but my absolute favorite is the recipe for Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive Le Vegan. All my non-veg friends LOVE them!

¡Yo Soy Liz! said...

thanks for the tip Katy! I will definitely try those next time. There is nothing I hate more than trying to get omnivores to see how good vegan food can be, only to disappoint them. I just browsed through your blog and I love it and added it to the ole Reader!

jaxwell said...

liz....they weren't jiffy muffins. they were duncan hines and the sugar-crumb topping was, to recall the mid-90s, "the bomb." and, i'll have you remember, the first six were consumed around midnight, constituting a late-night snack, while the second six were finished off in the late morning. get your facts straight, winter!

Anonymous said...

Chocolate chip cookies are the key to everything! Yours came out great. I love that recipe too.

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

those look delicious to me! Thanks for the tip on the flour.

Anonymous said...

WTF!?!?! i need to have some friends like you! nobody mails ME vegan cookies! god those look good.

i've not baked a cookie since high school, as a vegetarian. giving up meat is easy. it's all the baked goods that i miss and seem to daunting to even attempt. i think you have officially inspired me.

when it cools down here a little weatherwise, i am gonna bake some and take them to work to test them out on my co-workers. i will use your recipe and get back to you! ;)

John David said...

I'm with Jase. Yo Soy needs a better fact checker. Jason Maxwell was not only your high school friend's roommate, but also your housemate. And you're not allowed to call the Argentine cookie recipient your "friend" if he was your boyfriend at the time. Otherwise, your cookies look very delicious, and your story was thoroughly entertaining.

Hungry and Heartbroken,
Los Angeles, CA