Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Vegan Pizza Party



I know that the above is not a photo of pizza. I was too preoccupied at this wonderful pizza party to snap pics of the pizza, so what you see instead is a shot of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I baked to take with me.

Multiple chefs graced us with a variety of homemade pizzas, some with Teese, some with Follow Your Heart mozzarella. The first piece I had was roasted garlic and spinach, I believe (it's the spinach that I'm questioning). The second had the spicy kick of soyrizo. It felt like the whole gang (Foodeater, Your Vegan Mom, Sunny of Vegan Beauty Review and her husband, the Vegan-LA couple, JennShaggy, Cute & Delicious, Studiodrome, Happy Herbivore and her husband, Brittany of Sick of Lettuce, and many, many more) was crowded into the kitchen of our gracious hosts, Mr. Meaner and Miss Anthrope of Quarrygirl, in eager anticipation of whatever pizza was going to emerge from the oven next. It was a magical night on many levels.

The cookies were born of this recipe that shockingly called for 4 tablespoons of baking powder. I've been baking cookies from scratch for a long time and I've never seen so much baking powder in one recipe. In fact, I even ran out and had to race to the grocery store in the middle of incorporating the ingredients!

In the interest of full disclosure, I modified the method for creating the cookie dough. I just couldn't stray from what made more sense to me as a seasoned cookie baker. So, I whisked the flax and water and set it aside. Then, I combined all the wet ingredients (remember that sugar counts as a wet ingredient when it comes to baking) in one bowl, incorporated the flax mixture, and sifted the dry ingredients into a separate bowl. I added the dry to the wet and folded the ingredients together until they were fully combined. Finally, I stirred in the chocolate chips (Trader Joe's semi-sweet).

My guess is that the 4 tablespoons of baking powder was a typographical error (note that the cookies didn't spread at all, retaining the shape of my cookie scoop). However, the result was an incredibly light and delicious cookie that I'll bake again. It seemed to please who I was aiming to please and that's definitely a good thing.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Um... why was I not made aware of these cookies?! I never saw em, must have been devoured mighty fast!

Anonymous said...

You are SO lucky to be able to meet up with all those great bloggers! And what a pizza party! The cookies sound great, but 4 TBSP??? I would have been mighty skeptical, too.

PS Re: your last comment on my blog--did you know you can get certified GF oats from Bob's Red Mill?

Anonymous said...

J'aimerais trop passer une super soirée avec vous tous! Quelle chance!

And the cookies - miam miam! I want me some of those!! I think your made some great decisions!

Brittany said...

COOKIES! How did I miss them?!

Anonymous said...

I've gotta say, I've been sitting on some pumpkin recipes for far too long and have been dying to post them, but didn't think they were appropriate.. . But your pumpkin cookies look so good, I think that proves that anything goes provided it's delicious! You may see more pumpkin recipes out of me yet!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

A vegan pizza party has to be the best type of party ever! How fun!

WOW! Four tablespoons of baking powder? I had to re-read that a couple of times! Pumpkin and chocolate is one of the best cookie combos!

Anonymous said...

i didn't see them either LOL! although i bet NOTHING is as tasty as your cadbury eggs! seriously vegyogini, those were the best things ever and so close to the real treat that i miss so much. :)

Zoey said...

Your pumpkin cookies still look delicious. How much baking powder would you use if you were going to make them again?

VEGAN TICKLES said...

yum... pizza sounds delicious.