I'm quitting cookies.

The Queen Has Spoken...

A girl's got to know where to expend her energy in the kitchen, and after today's little taste test, I'm not frittering my time away making chocolate chip cookies from scratch anymore. My kids (and hubby) are pretty much happy with any cookie that is warm and sweet, but I'm a much tougher critic. I REALLY want the cookie to taste good, and not just to my kid's allergy-skewed taste buds. In my bittersweet nightmares, she outgrows her allergies only to enjoy soy margarine more than real butter and thinks Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are better than Standard Baking croissants. I want her food to taste as real as possible, so she can make the transition to normal food someday without a problem. 

Waiting for the cookies to cool.

So here we go, Cherrybrook Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, $5.50 at Whole Foods, it made exactly 18 cookies using my 4 ounce thumb trigger batter scoop ( so 30 cents/cookie for the bean counters). It calls for 1 stick of margarine and 1/4 cup of water with the mix, I used 1 stick of Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine (see footnote) and 1/4 cup soymilk ( I'm trying to get my 6 year old to stay above 30 pounds, so every calorie helps). I have to say, not bad at all. The cookies were crispy on the outside and tender-puffy-cake-like on the inside. After a few hours, they actually softened instead of most dairy and egg-free cookies, which turn into bricks. The batter reminded me more of a vanilla shortbread, in a Chips Ahoy sort of way.

So I'm happy, and I'll swallow my pride and stock a few more boxes on my pantry shelves.  As far as cost is concerned, it's still cheaper than Divvies ( $10 plus shipping for a baker's dozen, although Divvies are so dang cute and convenient I'll probably still order a few boxes for the freezer, but this month I'll spend my money on their new chocolate bars instead!).    In the future, if I want a smaller batch, I could weigh the mix out and only use half at a time to make nine cookies.

Addendum: You can mix up the whole batch a bake a few, then freeze the rest of the dough to bake later.  I have tried two freezing techniques with equal success.  You can shape the dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, and freeze. To make cookies, just slice off the log as needed and bake in the usual fashion.  You can also place individual dough balls on a baking sheet, freeze, then transfer to a freezer bag. 

Happiness in a box.

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Footnote on dairy-free margarine options.  

As far as I know, around here, our options are Fleischmann's Unsalted, Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks or Willow Run Margarine.  There are probably some generic brands I haven't looked at either.   I keep wanting to be cool like the vegans and embrace Earth Balance, but I can taste the stuff a mile away and it tastes like beany celery!  Willow Run tastes like sour soymilk.  So I always use FUM, because it tastes like mostly nothing...which I think is a good thing.  So buy a few options and taste them yourself before mixing them into your baked goods and expensive mixes because their flavor will shine through!

My humble apologies to Maggie at Doghill Kitchen. She has impeccable taste in food and a whole lot of creativity.  I have to smile every time I mention using Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine because I know she despises it and uses Earth Balance!  So again, buy a few options and try them for yourself, everyone's taste is different on this!