High-Altitude Vegan-ized Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These High-Altitude Vegan-ized Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies take me back. They are time travel cookies. Do you remember childhood? You know, when bills were paid for you and adults took an interest in your activities? Do you want to remember childhood? It’s okay if you’d prefer not to.

Do you like cookies? Did you make Nestlé Toll House cookies right off of the package instructions and use slightly fewer chocolate chips? Seriously, Nestlé, I know you want to sell a lot of chocolate chips, but the recipe on the bag might have too many chocolate chips. But I suppose that’s subjective.

What’s a Toll House?

I used to think a Nestlé Toll House was like a Tollbooth with elves in it. Yes, I know that Nestlé doesn’t do elves and that it’s a Keebler thing. I just pictured a cute Tollbooth with elves handing out cookies to people in cars.

The Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. Circa 1938, Chef and then Toll House Inn Owner Ruth Graves Wakefield added chopped up bits from a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie, making history and childhoods. What did we do before Wikipedia?

Why bake the cookies when you can eat the dough?

If you are making this for Eatin’ Dough, that’s a great idea! I love vegan batters and dough because they are perfectly safe to eat because they are made without eggs. If you are making this to eat as raw dough you may want to reduce the salt a little (by 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon) or let the dough sit in the fridge overnight before enjoying. If you are into eating dough and batter you may want to make this Banana Bread and leave a little batter behind to eat straight.

Do you remember that Beavis and Butt-Head episode when Butthead is eating cookie dough right out of the tube and he says to Beavis, “Don’t bogart my log, dude?” I miss the nineties, though I’m not sure if Beavis and Butt-Head stand the test of time. However, I recently watched all of the Daria episodes and they hold up. I can’t get enough Sick, Sad World.

Letting the dough sit overnight in the fridge

I learned from a cooking show that letting the cookie dough sit overnight in the fridge before baking produces the best cookies. It’s true, but your cookies will also be plenty scrumptious if you make the dough and bake them straight away, like a normal person.

Usually I make the dough, bake some cookies for the two of us and store the dough in a baggie in the fridge. Then I bake them off whenever we want fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, which is often. Sometimes pirates and cookie monsters come and eat some of the unbaked dough as a snack.

Ingredient Notes

Which chocolate chips are vegan?

Most, if not all, Chocolate Chips that are labeled “Allergy Free” are vegan. Here are some that I use; I think all of them are great:

• Equal Exchange Organic Chocolate Chips Semi-Sweet, available online or at Natural Grocers
• Enjoy Life Semi-sweet Chocolate Mini Chips (these are small, I use more) or the chunks (which I cut in half), available at Whole Foods
• Simple Truth Organic Semi-Sweet Vegan Chocolate Chips, available at Kroger and Kings Soopers

For Sugar, you can use:

• 2/3 cup light brown sugar.
• 1/3 cup white or cane sugar & 1/3 cup brown sugar.
• 2/3 cup white or cane sugar and add 1/2 – 3/4 teaspoon of molasses when creaming the sugar and Earth Balance. You may need to do this if you cannot find vegan light brown sugar. Some sugars are processed with bone and not technically considered vegan. Look for vegan, usually a V in a circle, marked on the label of your sugar to confirm.

Vegan Egg-Replacers for baked goods

Ground Flaxseed and Flaxseed Meal are the exact same thing. Do you remember Charlie Sheen’s torpedos of truth? Do you think this counts?

Flax Egg is just ground up Flaxseed or Flaxseed Meal mixed with water. I recommend letting it sit so that it becomes more gel-like. 1 TBSP Ground Flaxseed + 2.5 TBSPs water make one Flax Egg.

Neat Egg is ground up Chia Seeds and Garbanzo Beans. I like this product because it doesn’t contain any additives or artificial ingredients. 1 TBSP Neat Egg + 2 TBSPs water make one Neat Egg. I also recommend letting this mixture sit so that it becomes more gel-like.

Other egg-replacers probably work fine for this recipe, but the two above are the only ones I’ve tested.

Nuts?

Nuts are optional. I’ve used walnuts and pecans. If you want some crunch but you need nut-free you can use Rice Krispies.

How High?

I know, we’ve been over this. High-Altitude for me is 5280 ft or one mile high because I live in Denver. These are not marijuana-infused cookies. I’m sure they could be if you infused the Earth Balance. However, this is not my area of expertise. Please do share your experience in the comments section below if you’d like.

Sea Level?

If you live at sea level, omit the teaspoon of water. Also, bake at 375 degrees F.

Let’s Make High-Altitude Vegan-ized Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Set the Earth Balance out to let it soften.

Make the flax-egg. Mix up 1 TBSP Ground Flaxseed + 2.5 TBSPs water and let it sit.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Put sugar and Earth Balance in a medium to large mixing bowl and cream with the mixer. Take your time here and let it get creamy.

Then add Flax-egg, water and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl. Mix well with the mixer.

Gradually add approximately one-third of the flour mixture in at a time, lightly mixing with the mixer or using a spatula and mixing by hand. Do not over-mix.

Fold in Chocolate Chips and other mix-ins like Chopped Nuts or Rice Krispies, if using. You can also instead press the mix-ins into each cookie dough ball before baking, which is what I usually do.

Drop, ball or slice dough

Drop with a spoon, form into two-teaspoon-sized balls, or slice dough off of the log (if you’ve stored the cookie dough in log form) and place on the pan spaced out, I recommend 12 – 16 per cookies per baking sheet depending on size. If you make bigger cookies you may need to bake them a little longer.

Bake at 350° F for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Bake time depends on the size of the cookies. Please check cookies to avoid burning or undercooking. See notes below for Sea Level Instructions. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; move to wire racks to cool completely.

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Recipe adapted from Nestle® Toll House.

If you like this recipe you may also enjoy Decadent High-Altitude Vegan Banana Bread and Denver High-Altitude Vegan Zucchini Bread.

Did you make these High-Altitude Vegan-ized Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies? Were they delicious? Any fun mix-ins? Tell me about it in the comments section below.