Chocolate Chai Cookies

This year I had the honor of participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! I knew as soon as I heard about it which recipe I just had to share: chai cookies! I've been making these babies for years but just hadn't gotten around to veganizing the original recipe yet. Eggs and butter are always pretty easy to substitute however this recipe calls for chai concentrate. The concentrate I was using was by Tazo and *gasp* it had honey - a very nonvegan ingredient. So I whipped up my own chai concentrate for these chai tea lattes and decided to use it to make these cookies as well!

Sending these cookies as gifts was a treat in and of itself but I also received incredible cookies from these amazing ladies:

Speculoos Pinwheel cookies by Bittersweet 
Eat Within Your Means 
Cooke Biscotti Sticks by Killer Bunnies Inc

I would have taken pictures of the wonderful cookies I received but the mailman always delivered them when I was hungry (it's like he knew!), so alas the cookies were devoured before photos could be taken.

    

Recipe adapted from Pass the Sushi

Ingredients

1/2 cup of Earth Balance

1/2 cup of raw can sugar 

1/4 cup chai concentrate (Find my recipe for chai concentrate here)

1 Ener G egg replacer egg (1 1/2 tsp egg replace + 2 tbsp of water mixed well)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 all purpose unbleached flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chai mix*

Chocolate filling

1 cup of Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips

4 tbsp Earth Balance

*Chai Spice Mix: 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamon, 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. Cream Earth Balance and sugar together until fluffy

2. Stir in chai concentrate, egg replacer, and vanilla extract until well combined

3. Add in flour, baking soda, salt and spices

4. Stir on medium speed until fully combined

5. Refrigerate dough for 1 hours 

6. Preheat oven to 325 and lightly grease a cookie sheet 

7. Roll the dough into small balls about 1 inch in diameter and place on cookie sheet

8. Allow cookies to bake for 10 minutes

9. At 10 minutes using a spoon or thimble press a small indentation into the center of each cookie

10. Bake cookies for an additional 2-5 minutes

11. In a medium sauce pan melt Earth Balance for the chocolate filling

12. Add in chocolate chips to the pan once the Earth Balance has melted and continue to whisk it until the chocolate has completely melted

13. After the cookies have cooled to room temperature use a small spoon to fill the indentation in each cookie

You can store the cookies in the fridge to solidify the chocolate center faster or eat them right away and enjoy the chocolatey gooiness