Rocky Road Cookies

My sister was trying to make some homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream recently but couldn't find all of the ingredients she was looking for in time. And when I asked her what she wanted for dessert for her birthday, she requested chocolate chip cookies. I took it a step further and made these Rocky Road cookies from the Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar coobook. Mmmmm. These are actually super easy drop cookies. The hardest part is tracking down vegan white chocolate chips, but I help you with that below.

Rocky Road Cookies with Soy Milk

Rocky Road Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup nondairy milk¹
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds²
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups sugar ³
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder⁴
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks ⁵
1/2 cup vegan white chocolate chips⁶
1/2 cup roasted almonds, chopped ⁷

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine nondairy milk, flax seeds, oil, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until well blended and smooth. Sift in all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir to form a thick, wet dough but do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips, and almonds. If the dough seems too sticky or wet, chill for 30 minutes to firm up, but this step is not essential.

For each cookie, drop about 2 tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet 2 inches apart, as cookies will spread. Spray the spoon or dough scoop with nonstick spray if the dough is sticking.

Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, until spread and cracked on top. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. Store in a loosely covered container.

From Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, which is an AWESOME cookbook, btw. Also, the cookie on the cover of the cookbook is *the* Rocky Road!

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My preferred products and where you can find them:

1. I always try to use almond milk for baking, but soy milk works too. I used the vanilla almond milk for these cookies but could just as easily have used the chocolate.
a. Blue Diamond Almond Breeze SWEETENED Almond Milk- Sprouts, Whole Foods, Fry's Marketplace
b. Silk Original Soy Milk (Plain)- Sprouts, Whole Foods, Fry's Marketplace...most mainstream groceries, even Wal-Mart carries it.
2. Bob's Red Mill Flax Meal- Whole Foods, Fry's Marketplace, Sprouts
3.a. 365 Vegan Cane Sugar- Whole Foods
b. Florida Crystals Cane Sugar- Sprouts, Whole Foods, Fry's Marketplace

4. Wonderslim's Wondercocoa- Whole Foods, Sprouts
5.a. Sunspire Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips- Sprouts, Whole Foods
b. Whole Foods Brand Chocolate Chips- Whole Foods
6. a. VeganSweets White Chocolate Chips- Pangea
b. Lieber's Decorating Chips- Vegan Essentials
[Order these online, and make the most of the shipping by buying a few bags and maybe getting a couple other products that look interesting. They keep in your cupboard for quite awhile and you can use them in several other recipes, like my awesome Craisin White Chocolate Chip cookies [recipe forthcoming], or White Chocolate Macademia Nut cookies, etc. The white chocolate chips are worth it.]
7. Kroger Roasted Almonds, Unsalted - Fry's Marketplace (These are only special because they were unsalted. I didn't want the cookies to be too salty because of salted almonds.)