Fake Cookie Dough
Recently I’ve been reading a fair few ‘healthy lifestyle’ blogs, mostly from the US. Many of these blogs seem to be written by marathon-running fitness gurus who somehow find the time to post about their daily food intake. The thing that appeals to me the most about these blogs are the creative recipes. Being crazily fit, these bloggers tend to steer away from processed foods, and write about natural/low fat/low sugar/vegetarian/gluten free/vegan versions of their favourite foods.
Now I am sure that if you have read any of my other blog posts, you will realise that I’m definitely NOT vegetarian/vegan/particularly fussed if a dessert contains three sticks of butter. But I do find these recipes interesting.
So when I saw this raw vegan chocolate chip cookie dough recipe made from cashews and oats on Love Veggies and Yoga, I thought I would give it a shot.
You’re skeptical aren’t you? Keep reading. Trust me.
Cashews and oats went into the food processor:
After a minute the consistency was quite dry:
But after another minute, the mixture looked like this:
Interesting! I then added agave syrup and vanilla extract and gave it another whirl. The original recipe also used maple syrup, but I just added an extra tablespoon of agave.
The recipe suggested letting the food processor run until the ‘dough’ formed a ball. I was skeptical about this occurring, but lo and behold:
So what did I do? I kept blending to try and get those last little bits at the bottom didn’t I? Here’s what happened:
Go me.
The dough seemed to survive though. Next I transferred the mixture to a bowl and added the (non-raw non-vegan) chocolate chips:
And worked them in to form a GIANT FAKE COOKIE DOUGH BALL:
Mr: ‘So, do we just take turns at eating it or what?’
Bless.
I then started making mini dough balls. The mixture was surprisingly oily, I’m assuming from the cashews.
The verdict?
THESE ARE CRAZILY GOOD. And very filling. I was worried that we might go through the whole batch in one go, but I only managed to eat two before retiring.
Even though these don’t contain anywhere near as much fat and sugar as regular cookie dough, it’s still in there. These are definitely a sometimes food!
I’ve been doing a little bit of research on agave nectar/syrup and have read many conflicting opinions about it. Some sources say that it is low GI, but others talk about the high fructose content. From what I can gather, there doesn’t really appear to be any huge health benefits to using agave rather than honey (or sugar). It seems to be used more for it’s vegan/raw food status. Please feel free to comment/correct me if I’m mistaken.
Would I make these again? YES! They are delicious. Plus, I have been imagining exciting conversations that I could have about raw vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls:
Me: excuse me, would you like to try these?
Impressed Friend: oh wow, you actually made something? Are these cookies that you haven’t baked yet?
Me: No, they’re finished.
IF: Oh.
Me: Just try one.
IF: Mmmmmm! These are nom-tastic!
Me: I know! Guess what’s in them?
IF: Um… cookie dough?
Me: NO! Oats and cashews!
IF:……….
Me:……..
IF: Why didn’t you just make normal cookie dough?
Me: Well, they’re vegan!
IF: You’re not vegan.
Me………..
IF: And what about the choc chips?
Me: Shut up.
Food gobbler. Wine lover. Kitteh keeper. Gen-Y. Fiancée. Twitter addict.
Fighting the war against Leggings As Pants one fashion victim at a time... 
Haha, I would *so* be that friend who’d ask you why you didn’t make normal cookie dough, and about the chocolate chips. But they sound fantastic!
Hehe, I would be asking too if I wasn’t the one who made them!
Good one – thanks for sharing. I’ll definitely try these sometime.
Definitely do, they’re surprisingly delicious and addictive.
I was having this conversation with Cindy from Where’s The Beef. She’s vegetarian so uses agave syrup sometimes. As you guessed, it’s no healthier than normal sugar. It’s only if you want to eat raw foods that you might use it. It’s also very expensive she said.
The cookies look yum but I suspect they’re just as unhealthy as regular cookies if you eat heaps. Nuts have lots of oils & surely chocolate chips have lots of fats and sugars in them. Having said that, I’d definitely chomp through a few of your cookie doughs.
Yes it is expensive. And difficult to find sometimes. We ended up finishing the whole batch in 24 hours, so they were very bad for us in the end.
I’ve got two versions of raw vegan cookie dough balls on my blog, and love the moment when you give them to skeptical people who find themselves excited by the deliciousness. I can raise your imaginary scenario, though, by reality, whereby two friends of mine asked why I was carrying around raw meatballs. :S
Haha! You should have let your friends think that they were raw meat then forced them to eat them.
Bahaha! I totally did make Andy eat one while singing “la la la, yummy raw meat, la la la”! (I had told him it was delicious first, though. I’m not entirely crazy.)
I do the like the looks of these. I’m with you on the butter though :)
This and a bowl of ice cream for me please!
Oooh.. I could make cookie dough ice cream. You are a genius.