Easy, Yummy, Cheap Cookies!

The Topic: Homemade cookies that make amazing (and affordable!) gifts with Associate Publisher Colleen Holland

The Dish: I love to bake, but rarely do much of it anymore. Having an entire cake or a couple dozen cookies around the house is, frankly, a recipe for disaster. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, most of the time.

The other night, I got a hankering for homemade chocolate chip cookies. We must have been talking about them at the office that day, or maybe it was an ad for vegan cookie dough I had seen. Whatever it was, I could not stop thinking about spoonfuls of fresh, chip-and-nut-filled dough (my weakness) and hot-out-of-the-oven cookies. I had to have them! So I pulled out Claire Gosse's 2010 cookbook Are  you sure that's Vegan? and got baking.

When I find a great cookie recipe, I always want to share it. And this was no exception. Claire's Nutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are sinfully delicious, and make a wonderful gift for co-workers, friend's birthdays, or anytime you want say "thanks" to someone special. Hey, anything you can do to get them out of the house, right? This recipe makes a ton of cookies, so each one ends up to cost just pennies. So for not much dough (the green kind), you can share great vegan desserts (always a crowd-pleaser) while saving money on something you would have bought from the store.

Nutty Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I absolutely adore any cookie with oatmeal, chocolate chips, and nuts—and this recipe has them all. Since I am recipe-challenged and always have to change something, I added white chocolate chips (purchased at Food Fight! vegan grocery in Portland), slivered almonds, and extra vanilla. Yum.

What You Need:

2-1/2 cups oatmeal

1 cup vegan margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Egg replacer for 2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
12 ounces chocolate chips
4 ounces grated dark chocolate

1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Blend oatmeal in blender to a fine powder.
2. Cream the margarine and both sugars. Add egg replacer and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts.
3. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

The Final Word: Homemade cookies always make the day a little better, and these were no exception. Pick up a copy of Claire's Are you sure that's Vegan? for excellent renditions of everything from red velvet cupcakes and pineapple upside down cake to vanilla fudge and peanut butter cups. You won't be disappointed.

I am a sucker for raw cookie dough. I love it and eat by the spoonful! But then I don't feel so hot.

Vegan Baking As Cheaply and Easily As Humanly Possible

The Topic: Vegan baking for dunces on a budget with Editorial Assistant Hilary Pollack

The Dish: As a child, nothing mystified me more than watching my mother mix together a baffling concoction of powders and liquids in a giant bowl, pop gobs of the resulting batter in the oven, and reveal fresh chocolate-chip cookies in just a few minutes. Baking never gets stale, and making cookies, cakes, and brownies at home is beyond satisfying. Even better, it’s often less expensive—and tastier—than going store-bought, as vegan pastries are often attached to unsavory price tags. Working from scratch doesn’t have to mean bank-busting trips to the grocery store, and many traditional baking mixes can be veganized as well. A tray of fresh-from-the-oven muffins, cookies, or cupcakes is guaranteed to result in many pleases and thank-yous from bystanders, and doesn’t require loads of time or moolah. Filling your kitchen with the irresistible aroma of impending sweets alone warrants the effort.

Six Ingredient Wonders

If you’re baking from scratch, pick a recipe with a short ingredients list to avoid stress and waste. Whether for a friend’s birthday, an office party, or just a Tuesday afternoon, homemade cookies are always crowd-pleasers, and there are many recipes that only require a few things that are probably already in your pantry. When my wallet is barren but my resolve to bake is high, I stick to the six-ingredient rule, which dictates that whatever I’m making requires only six or fewer ingredients. Although this may sound challenging, it is oddly doable. For example, Super Easy Thumbprint Cookies require only vegan butter, sugar, vanilla, jam, and two kinds of flours, plus about 15 minutes of your precious time. As a bonus, their colorful fillings feign fanciness, so they make a sweet gift with the added value of looking time-intensive. VegWeb’s Best and Easiest Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies also have a mere six components, and resemble the childhood classics to a T. If you can’t be bothered with oven time, No-Bake Cookies are a delicious alternative that are so simple, you could make them in your sleep. Sleepwalkers beware, you might awaken face-first in a batch of these chocolaty delights. If you’re feeling ambitious and willing to go just one element beyond the six-ingredient rule, give these seven-ingredient blueberry muffins a whirl. Who can resist a warm blueberry muffin, spread with jam, agave, or melted Earth Balance? No one. That’s who.

(You Can't) Beat Box (Mixes)

Have no fear if you don’t have a knack for getting crafty, or if your funds are so limited that multiple ingredients stretch your budget; there is no shame in the boxed-mix game. Vegan baked-good mixes are plentiful and inexpensive, such as Wholesome Chow’s cake mixes, which will set you back a mere $4.50 and come in gourmet flavors like lavender and chai spice, in addition to classic chocolate and vanilla. Just add oil, nondairy milk, and vinegar. Or, try Cherrybrook Kitchen’s cake, cookie, and brownie mixes, which call for only margarine, oil, and water to make delicious vegan, nut-free, kosher creations. Surprisingly, Duncan Hines also has several vegan mixes, such as their Classic Yellow Cake Mix. As an amazing bonus, several of their frostings are vegan too. They even sport a recipe for vegan chocolate cupcakes on their website, decadently topped with their pre-made chocolate or mocha icing.

Sub Smarts

Learning to get down with substitutions is another crucial aspect of vegan baking. While the box or recipe may call for eggs, milk, or butter, cruelty-free replacements are available for virtually every need. Soymilk and almond milk are obvious choices for ditching cow’s milk, and bananas and applesauce are well-known as being great for replacing eggs. PETA recently released an Ultimate Vegan Baking Cheat Sheet that makes swapping ingredients a breeze, as it offers specific suggestions based on purpose. Even better, easy proxies may already be lurking in your fridge or cupboard. Looking for leavening? Puréed tofu is here to help. Want a denser texture for cakes or cookies? Instant mashed potatoes are a surprising egg-free way to achieve it. Once you’ve gotten the hang of vegan replacements, baking mixes that call for dairy are no longer a problem. 

The Final Word: Even if your bank account is sputtering and your baking talents are questionable, homemade or semi-homemade baked goods are not beyond your abilities or funds. Whether whipped up from scratch or out of a box, oven-fresh vegan cookies, brownies, cakes, and cupcakes are an easy and affordable way to treat yourself or your friends to a taste of cozy kitchen goodness.

Fun Fundraising

The Topic: Make a Little Money

The Dish: When money is tight, exercising your inner do-gooder can be difficult. Sure, you'd love to donate to the local animal shelter or sanctuary, but sometimes cutting your budget isn't an option. Of course, money isn't the only thing that non-profits need—volunteering is a huge help. But if there's a particular cause in need of funding, there is hope. The solution? Get creative.

Of course, there's the tried-and-true bake sale. Who doesn't love cookies and cupcakes? VN columnist Laura Beck helps organize San Francisco's insanely successful vegan bake sale series (raising and donating more than $18,000 to date), and she's shared plenty of sage wisdom on how to parlay your skills into a successful sugar-filled fundraiser. If baking isn't your forte, don't fret.

Recently, Laura's rescued pit bull, Hazel, had to undergo major surgery. The bill reached into the thousands, and worst of all, a second surgery may be necessary. Being her genius self, she decided to take action. This past Sunday, seven shameless friends (myself and Laura included), most lacking actual musical talent, got on stage at a local bar and played a benefit concert for Hazel. Our band, Dino Bike, practiced a mere three times before performing. We publicized the event like crazy and put on a ridiculous spectacle only to be cheered because it was a benefit. I mean ridiculous—ribbon dancing, Lady Gaga covers, and a Top Gun medley. There were even vegan cupcakes for sale, which of course sold out. The result? Dino Bike raised more than $500 for Hazel, simply by sacrificing a little dignity and having a great time doing it.

The Final Word: Whether you decide to bake cupcakes, start a band, host a yard sale, or sell lemonade, there are so many ways you can help animals. Gathering as many friends and volunteers as possible helps lessen the load, and the end result is guaranteed to make your efforts totally worth it.

Cheap Cookbooks

The Topic: Veg Bargain Books

The Dish: I may have mentioned before that I'm a bit of a bibliophile. It's a problem, really, when you live in a small city apartment and the majority of your square footage is taken up by books. That's what all that vertical space is for, right? Regardless, I can't help myself, especially when it comes to vegan cookbooks. It's hard to say no to a reasonably priced (read: cheap) page-turner that could potentially hold my new favorite recipe.

Sure, there's always used bookstores, thrift shops, and even mainstream chains' used collections. But they can be a bit of a grab bag, which I'll admit is half the fun. The other alternative is heading online, where Amazon has made it possible to find almost any veg cookbook at a bargain price, both new and used. New to veg cooking? One of my first cookbooks was How it All Vegan! by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard, and you can grab a copy for only $3.99 used. If you still haven't jumped on the vegan brunch bandwagon (what do you do with your Sunday mornings?), then Isa Chandra Moskowitz's stellar Vegan Brunch can be yours for $4.99.

A great seller on Amazon is HalfPrice VeggieBooks.While all books are not vegan, there's a great selection of veg and health-related books. Narrowing down the crapshoot that is used-book shopping, it still has a wide enough selection to make the search fun. From cookbooks to animal rights to green living, there's something for everyone.

Wanting a title but out of storage space, like me? Check out Swaptree, which allows you to make a trade list (your offerings) and a wish list. Peruse the books other swappers have to offer, and trade up! There's more than 150 veg books listed right now, which of course can change daily. It's free, minus shipping charges, which will run you about $2.20 when sent using the media mail option at the post office.

The Final Word: I rarely feel regret when buying books. They're a worthy investment, especially when they're cookbooks that can lead to more eating in, less dining out— of of my favorite money savers. Oh, and as a bonus, I have to share that KitchenAid appliances are on Rue La La (a discount shopping site with free sign-up) today! Score a sweet stand mixer on sale (a very worthy investment, says Mom) and put those cookbooks to good use. The sale ends in two days, so shop while all of the great colors are still in stock. If anyone wants to send me the fancy yellow mixer, I promise to bake you cookies for at least a year.