wheat-free chocolate chip bread

Britney and I have know each other since the third grade. We immediatley became best friends in Mrs. Berry's class. When our parents met my mom asked her mom in a hushed, concerned, voice, "Does Britney have immaginary friends?". "No", replied her mom, "She just reads a lot". Obviously my mom thought I was a little off for creating my friends instead of just making them in real life. (True story: my first imaginary friend's name was macaronni) But when Britney came along there was no longer a need to have imaginary friends or for her to immerse herself in books. We were inseperable. Living in a small town and being (at the time) only children, we clung to each other like twin sisters. Since the third grade we have grown our seperate ways and live much different lives now. But one thing remains the same, we are still very much like sisters who can't get enough of each other. This makes baking and taking photos of our baked goods a synonomous effort, like two energys moving as one in the kitchen, creating doublely good stuff.

We were on a mission to make vegan m&m cookies. I was disheartend to see "whole milk powder" in the ingredients list in the natural, m&m type product. "Well, should we go for a classic chocolate chip cookie" Britney asked. Of course, what else would we do??

Sifting through several cookie recipes, vegan and not vegan, we soon became anxious and went into the kitchen, beers in hand, to create the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie. While Britney measured out flour, I measured oil and sugar. We worked in silence, focusing all our positive energy into the wonderful cookie dough. Ummm....cookie dough? Right. "Okay, just 1/2 C more flour." Staring in disbelief into the mixer while we watched our beloved batter refuse to thicken up. Right, lets just try them out, see how they do. More like pouring crepe batter onto the cookie sheet we kept our spirits high until the timer went off and we peeked into the oven. A mess of batter splayed out on the pan looking more like pancakes with an identity crisis. We stuck the rest of the batter in the fridge to chill and tried again 20 minutes later. Still, these babies did not like the free from of the cookie sheet. Determind not to let the rest of our batter go to waste we filled the last of the batter into two little springform pans. We sat in the kicthen, chatting away and sipping our beers, while a miracle happened in the oven. Surprisingly enough we still had a positive energy about whatever it was we were creating. While we talked we unconciously munched on the cookies that had refused to become cookies. They became solid on the cookie sheet and even though they were thin as crepes, we were both in agreement that the taste was right on. The cakes came out and we immediatley knew that our positive efforts had created a wonderful thing. I guess we were listening to our Buddhist talk earlier that morning when we heard a lecture on not letting ourselves, along with our perception of the world, conform to a certain identity. Things change every moment and nothing will ever stay the same. Cookie dough should not have to be cookie dough if it's time has passed and needs, instead, to be bread batter. It is up to the baker to roll with these changes and become fluid cooks knowing that soon, cookie dough, turned into bread batter, will one day make excellent crepes... and so on. Or maybe that's the beer talking combined with my whimsical recipe writing.


Try this recipe as muffins, mini-cakes or a whole sweet bread. It will make approximately 2 dozen muffins, one 8x8 (or thin 9x13) bread or several small cakes such as the small springform pans used here. Get creative and let the batter speak to you. Becoming one with what you are cooking and preparing to consume is key to creating perfect food.



you will need these:
2 mixing bowls
wooden spoon
rubber spatula
muffin tins or cake tins

flour mixture:
3 1/2 C spelt flour (you can make this with regular all-purpose flour, just add a couple of tablespoons extra flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C organic unrefined sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, added for bit of mystery)

liquid mixture:
2/3 C canola oil
1 C agave nectar
1 1/2 T ground flax seed blended with,
1 C almond milk
2 tsp alcohol free vanilla extract

1 C vegan chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees

blend the flax seeds and almond milk together and set aside

combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper (if using)

cream the oil, agave, and sugar until incorporated and add the flax/milk mixture. then add vanilla at the last second

putting in a cup at a time, slowly mix the flour mixture into the liquid until just combined. add chocolate chips and give a couple more stirs

pour into desired tins and bake for 30-40 minutes. a little less time for muffins, though

when it has come out of the oven, the top will give a nice shine which is what i like most about this little treat

p.b. (that's post-blog, fyi) as with the Ultimate Brownies I posted last month, there were no special additions to the batter. However, for that extra special crunch try adding 3/4 C nuts of your choice (perhaps walnuts?) or 3/4 C dried, unsweetend cherries. If you do get frisky and add a little something else, be sure to let me know what it is so I can try it too.