Muddy’s Blog

feature flavors: the all new Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (that just so happen to be vegan -- WHAT?!)

feature flavors: the all new Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (that just so happen to be vegan -- WHAT?!)

chocolate crinkle cookies ... that just so happen to be vegan!

Mmmm, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. For many, they conjure up visions, smells, and tastes of a grandmother's kitchen often (though by no means, always) during the most festive times of the year. Their fudgy chocolateyness punched up with that lovely layer of powdered sugar is quite simply happiness in the mouth, making it no wonder that Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have been one of the most frequently requested items we've encountered since our doors first opened almost nine (NINE?!?) years ago.

Well, this week we are proud to announce that after months of work in the Test Kitchen, we've finally done it. We've found THE ultimate Chocolate Crinkle Cookie recipe, and we just so happen to have killed two birds with one stone (or fed two birds with one recipe, if you prefer): we've also created Muddy's first ever vegan cookie!! HUZZAH!

Our Chocolate Crinkle Cookies have a melt-in-your-mouth brownie-like consistency with pockets of pure vegan chocolate, loads of crinkles, and the generous layer of powdered sugar that no self-respecting Chocolate Crinkle Cookie would ever dare to leave home without. And all without an atom of dairy entering its dough! The multi-talented baking gnomie Caolinn (also the artist behind the gnomes you've spotted on the windows of our kitchen on Broad Avenue) is the mastermind behind this perfection in a cookie, so I asked her to tell us about its development.

So tell me about why you decided to make this cookie vegan.

Since we don't currently offer any vegan cookie options, I wanted to develop a vegan cookie option. And I also wanted it to taste good -- I got a lot of feedback on that. I didn't want it to have a strong vegan butter taste. I wanted it to be a vegan cookie that everyone to get into. There are special challenges to making a vegan cookie specifically because cookies are so reliant on fats -- and usually butter. And since there isn't any butter in it, you need different things to hold the cohesiveness of that cookie and to make it tender.

Well, however you pulled it off, I can testify that you can't tell the end result is vegan.

Oh, yes, I'm very pleased with the results. Melted vegan chocolate and chunks of vegan chocolate give them a wonderful brownie-like consistency, and the powdered sugar rounds it off with an added sweetness. It's hard to describe, but you'd miss it if it wasn't there.