Egg free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm back after a brief hiatus. Tonight was my turn to host my cookie club's cookie night. I decided to try my hand at an egg free interpretation of my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.
To replace the original recipe's egg content I used one banana, a half cup of apple sauce, and 1/8 of a tsp of baking soda. Removing the eggs meant that the baking time had to be adjusted to twenty minutes instead of the usual twelve. These cookies are a little more chewy, and less cake like, however they retain much of their usual look and scent. If you need to make an egg free chocolate chip cookie I can recommend using the approach I took above.

The hand made chocolates in the middle of the platter are my take on peanut butter cups -- all of them start with a dark chocolate base, followed by either peanut butter or cognac cranberry filling, then covered in milk chocolate. They melt in your hand so you have to eat them quickly :)

I hope to get back to regular posts soon, after all my holiday baking I needed a break. Hoping everyone is doing well in this new year - and enjoy the above recipe!

Holiday Cookiegeddon (part 2 of 2)

Continuing cookiegeddon here are some pics of the many, many dozens of Chocolate Chip cookies I made, including the tins as they were packaged for giving away.

Vegan Apple-Banana-Nut Bread:
I know these are not cookies, but I needed to have a Vegan friendly dessert. These are based upon my Vegan Apple Torte recipe, but baked in a bread pan instead of bunt.

With Cookiegeddon drawing to a close I'd like to sign off this year with my cookie club's Happy Holidays photo 2011 :)

Hoping everyone has a cheerful holiday season, and enjoys a cookie or two or three!

Holiday Cookiegeddon (part 1 of 2)

It's that time of year again - Holiday Cookiegeddon. This time around I'm restricting my baking to three recipes: Chocolate Chip, Cranberry-Oatmeal, and Cake Pops. As I've published the recipes for these cookies in previous posts, I'll keep to sharing photos (click image to zoom).

Cake Pops:

Cranberry-Oatmeal cookies:

Apple Preserves - A Christmas Experiment (more Brandy and Grand Marnier)

I haven't made preserves before so please bare with me while I experiment with this recipe for Apple preserves. When complete these preserves should have a healthy Apple and Cranberry flavour with a light syrup of Vanilla, Brandy, and Grand Marnier. I've collected photos during my preparations, including steps with each picture.

4 cups of dried apple slices, adding dried cranberries to fill the gaps in the measuring cup.

In a large pot mix 8 cups of water with 2 cups of sugar, bring to a boil. This will serve as the syrup base.

slice in half 2 limes.

use a reamer to extract the juice.

slice lengthwise a vanilla bean, and harvest the seeds. Chop the remains of the vanilla bean in to quarters, this will be added to the syrup as well.

mix the vanilla seeds into the syrup

When the syrup is cool, add in a half cup of brandy and grand marnier.

Pour the syrup over the sliced dried apples and cranberries.

It's important that you use a non-metallic bowl for the fruits so that the flavour isn't tinged with a metallic taste.

Wrap the fruit & syrup mixture with plastic wrap, and let sit for 48 hours.

Sterilize preserve jars, then pour in fruit & syrup mixture.

Add lid to jar finger tight, then boil to ensure a sterile container.

The preserves are ready to enjoy!

I've taste tested the preserves on pound cake, and vanilla ice cream - it really goes well with either of them however I think next time I use Apples I'll have to slice them into smaller portions to make them easier to pick up with a fork or spoon.

I like this recipe, so those whom know me personally, perhaps you'll be seeing a jar of these Apple preserves come this December :)