Dairy free dark mint chocolate chunk cookies

Before I had never really thought about vegan/dairy free baking as something that I would seriously be interested in doing, but after making some brownies and and then these cookies on Monday and them turning out so yummy and perfect, now it seems like the perfect way to go. I love how they were so quick & easy to make and are just like cookies should be, a lovely golden colour-hardened around the outside and soft and gooey on the inside.

I'm not sure if I've ever made many traditional cookies before but I don't think I have any need to after discovering these, and the best thing is they are both free of dairy products and refined sugars, which are both things I try to avoid. In this recipe I used coconut palm sugar which is both natural and unrefined with a lovely caramel taste that doesn't leave you feeling yucky afterwards. Brilliant for health freaks like me. So for this recipe and for the majority of recipes I will be doing in the future, I will be using coconut palm sugar. Ahh, just saying the name of it makes my heart flutter. If I could eat the whole jar to myself I probably would because I love it that much. If you don't have or want to use coconut sugar you can just stick with caster as it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the recipe.

If you find yourself craving something sweet and chocolatey on an evening thats also ridiculously good for you, these cookies would be perfect with my warming hot chocolate with 100% natural ingredients.

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Makes 6 large cookies

Ingredients: 

125g vegan butter
125g coconut palm sugar
250g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp peppermint extract
50g dark baking or normal chocolate cut into chunks (I use Green & Blacks)

To Make:

1. Cream the butter and coco sugar with the back of your spoon in a large bowl until fluffy, then add and stir in the peppermint extract to your preferred mintiness. 
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder then add the flour to the creamed butter until a soft dough is formed. 
3. Once you have your dough, make it into a log shape and wrap it in cling film ready to go in the fridge. I would recommend keeping it in the fridge for at least an hour and if you can, overnight. I kept mine in overnight just to be safer! 
4. A few hours later, or the next day, take your dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease a baking tray with butter and cut out some baking parchment to fit. 
5. Then taking a knife, equally divide and mark six lines on the dough before rolling into neat balls and pressing them down on your baking tray. Make sure there is plenty of space between each one as they will expand in the oven. Depending on your personal preference, you can make six large cookies or twelve smaller ones.
6. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes. It will be pretty easy to know when they're ready, just remember to make sure they are all cooked through properly. Also keep in mind that they will cool down and harden quickly when they're out. Once they're all cool, transfer to a wire cooling rack or plate. 

Enjoy!

Emily X