In truth, I was tempted to not write “vegan” in the title of these chocolate chip cookies because they are amazing, vegan or otherwise. This is another recipe that comes from my boss (and friend) and just knocks it out of the park. Matt and I have been on this fitness kick and haven’t been eating much of this sort of thing, but if i’m going to feel guilty about something, these are worth it. The only drawback about these is that you do need to plan slightly ahead, because the dough needs to refrigerate for 12-24 hours. On the plus, prep time is minimal, so you just have to know how to ignore the pile of cookie dough in the fridge all day… ahem…
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 dark chocolate chips (double check the ingredients to make sure they’re vegan if thats important to you)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup olive/canola/grapeseed oil
1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
Coarse grain sea salt (garnish)
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips to the flour mixture and toss to coat. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugars briskly with the oil and water until smooth and incorporated. Add vanilla. Stir. Add the wet and dry ingredients until combined, do not over mix. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 12-24 hours. (NO CHEATING!) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two pans with foil (spray with a little olive oil) or parchment paper. Remove dough from the refrigerator and use an ice cream scoop (or spoon) to portion into 2 inch balls. Freeze the balls for 10 minutes; this will help them retain their shape better when baking. Sprinkle the balls of dough with coarse sea-salt and bake 12-13 minutes until golden. Careful not to overbake.
Pour whole cream into a pint-sized jar (or any size jar) with a tight fitting lid. We usually fill it about half way.
Shake it! It takes about 8-10 minutes of shaking, so be patient. Of course, you could just use a mixer, but what fun would that be. For Kennedy we bought one of the cheap plastic containers from Target (the one with the plastic straw and lid with a hole) and used a regular Kerr/Mason jar lid on it. Keep shaking! There will come a point where it wont feel like the liquid is moving anymore, keep going! It will separate into a large lump.
Separate the Buttermilk from the Butter. Don’t worry about getting all of the liquid the first time. We don’t generally cook with Buttermilk, so we often just throw this away, but if you do make sure you have a jar or something to save it in. After separating, you will want to add water to the jar and shake it again (a few times) until the rinse water runs mostly clear. You don’t need to shake it long, just a few seconds.
By this point, you have officially made butter, now you just need to do what you can to get as much of the the liquid out as possible. We generally will put it into a large strainer (not necessary) and then put it into a large bowl. You can turn the butter with a spatula or wooden spoon, and strain off the excess liquid as you go; do this until most of the liquid has been removed.
All that remains is to add in any salt/herbs/honey that you choose (or nothing at all). We bought 
