How to Bake Dairy Free Cookies: A Case Example

 The Recipe Inspiration

http://food52.com/recipes/25844-whole-wheat-chocolate-chip-cookies

  

Summary of Impressions

Positive feedback was provided by multiple dairy-eating reviewers. They were easy to assemble and some minor modifications to the original recipe made them delicious to enjoy freshly baked and after being stored in an air-tight container the next day. Not that they're going to last that long ;) 

Recipe Intervention: Dairy-Free Modifications

1. I replaced the butter with my usual swap, Imperial brand stick margarine, or more accurately "vegetable oil spread." 

Link: http://www.kroger.com/p/imperial-53-vegetable-oil-spread-sticks/0001111587132

2. I sometimes find that my batter is a little "wetter" or less thick than indicated in recipes. Please feel free to jump in with your ideas, but I think this is because the dairy-free butter alternatives sometimes have higher water content than their dairy counterparts. Therefore, when followed the directions exactly, scooping and baking the cookies immediately, the result was lots of spread and crispiness (left, Figure 1). That might be what you are looking for in a cookie, but I wanted to see if I could make it chewier.  Therefore, I tried refrigerating the dough to help it solidify a bit more before baking. I initially tried this with scooped cookie dough on the sheet pan for 10 minutes, then I tried refrigerating the remaining dough overnight. The overnight chill yielded the chewiest result (right, Figure 2). Some might also say most delicious. That would at least be me. The Great British Bake Off prefers a crisp biscuit. What's your preference? Please comment below! 

 

    Figure 1. Crispy cookies.                             Figure 2. Chewy cookies. 

3. I made sure to use Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips, which are specifically labeled dairy free. There are a few other brands which I use frequently and will be sure to note them in the future as well. 

Link: http://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/semi-sweet-chocolate-chips-004529

4. Bonus modification! Not for dietary purposes, but I think my scoop was smaller than the size of cookie indicated in the recipe. For reference, the recipe indicates 3 Tbsp of dough per cookie, but my scoop is 1-2 Tbsp, and I was able to get 12 cookies on a sheet (Figure 3). Therefore, I played with the baking time. 12-13 minutes led to crispy but still delicious results, and 10 minutes was perfect. You can see in the pictures that when the dough comes out it almost still looks raw (Figures 4-5), but after cooling and solidifying on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, the cookies were chewy heaven. 

    Figure 3. Raw cookies, eat at your own risk. 

   

    Figure 4. Straight outta the oven.                 Figure 5. Close up glamour shot. 

The Story

If you've read this far, thank you! As you may be able to tell from this inaugural post, I am experimenting with writing a blog about baking dairy free. I'm no expert, but I have enjoyed baking since I was a pre-teen, and have been severely allergic to dairy my whole life. I enjoy baking and figuring out how to adapt recipes to be dairy free. I started learning from my amazing mother, who championed food allergies early on and figured it out as she went. She always made sure I had safe and delicious treats to enjoy at school, at birthday parties, and at home, normalizing these experiences for me. Since then, it has been a bit of a challenge to see what standard recipes I can master, and what recipes that one might think could never be made dairy free, can indeed. 

Sometimes I get comments of surprise that I can bake something without dairy. To me, it often seems second-nature. I thought that creating a blog could allow me to share this information with other dairy-free bakers, challenge myself to grow in my repertoire, and perhaps learn from any ideas that others are willing to share. 

I love baking cookies but never tried a whole wheat version! Typically, my baking philosophy is to let desserts live their best lives as treats. However, my sister is caring for a newborn and requested a treat that was at least "a little healthy." Who am I to argue with a newborn mama? If I can't always visit my little nephew as often as I'd like, at least I can bake "healthy-ish" cookies. Overall the cookies were delicious with a deeper, nuttier flavor, and I got to feel like a healthy, virtuous "that girl" while eating cookies, so not bad. But you don't have to take my word for it...

Thanks for reading! What should we try next? 

Follow along on Instagram! @dairyfreewithemily