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Friday, September 23, 2011

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies…and an ‘Equal Opportunity Cookie’ Call for Recipes

Sorry I disappeared. No baby. Just Cate and her broken arm. She had surgery on Tuesday and is doing very well…today was her first day back at school, where she was welcomed by applause and many interested friends who were very happy to see her. Between her doctor’s appointments and mine this week, I’m plum worn out! The baby should be coming this weekend, so stay tuned for an announcement!

All this nuttiness had me craving baked goods. I had seen a recipe for cream cheese chocolate chip cookies on Pinterest recently and decided to give them a whirl last night. When I sat down and read the recipe, I realized it was an adapted recipe by a mom who’s son has an egg allergy. The cream cheese was serving as an egg substitute in the recipe. I can eat eggs, so I was just going to throw an egg in there, but I decided to be courageous and give it a try.

I dug around the web, found a few similar recipes and ended up going with this recipe from a blog called Art of Dessert. The verdict? The flavor is great, but it took some tweaking to get the texture right. I cooked the first batch right after making the dough. Combine that with not cooking them quite long enough at 325 degrees and they were super flat and sort of gooey. After letting the dough sit in the fridge overnight, things improved greatly. I highly recommend cooking the cookies after the dough has been refrigerated at least overnight. I also cooked them longer and at a higher temperature. The shape and texture came out much better. Once I got it figured out, the cookies were fab! Definitely a great eggless chocolate chip cookie recipe!

Yes, these two cookies came from the same dough! Left: Unrefrigerated dough, not cooked long enough. Right: Refrigerated dough, cooked at the right time and temperature. 

In the spirit of ‘Equal Opportunity Cookies’ everywhere, I thought it would be fun to do a special Call for Recipes today. The theme? Cookies for people with special food considerations! Please share your best vegan, gluten-free, eggless and/or allergy-friendly cookie recipes!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies...and an 'Equal Opportunity Cookie' Call for Recipes
 
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Directions (rewritten a bit by Jane):
  2. Preheat oven to 375ºF (Jane note: my batch that came out was cooked at 350 degrees in a convection oven).
  3. Cream together butter and sugars in a mixer – beat until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese and vanilla – mix well. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt then gradually blend dry mixture into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
  4. Drop heaping tablespoons (Jane note: I used my medium scoop, which is 2 Tablespoons) onto ungreased cookie sheets (Jane note: I cooked mine on my Silpat) about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375ºF for 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown (Jane note: I cooked mine at 350 degrees F in a convection oven for about 10 minutes).


36 Comments »

  1. 1
    Maria

    You know I love a good cookie. These look great!

  2. 2
    mamaT

    so does the cream cheese taste come out much, or is it just for substitution purposes?

    • Jane Maynard

      well…when you undercook them, they taste like cream cheese 😉

      BUT…when I cooked them CORRECTLY I would never have guessed there was cream cheese in there if I hadn’t known. they just tasted like yummy chocolate chip cookies. I actually kind of wanted them to taste like cream cheese, but whatever…it was fun trying this out!

  3. Hi Jane, here is a recipe fron my blog – it is absolutely delish!

    Gluten Free Shortbread:

    Ingredients:

    150g Butter (For a dairy free version use Blossom Margarine)

    90g Caster Sugar (For a slightly healthier version substitute with Fructose)

    100g Rice Flour

    50g Almond Flour

    100g Maizena (Corn Starch)

    The almond flour adds a lovely nutty flavour and texture.

    Method:

    Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

    Cream butter and sugar

    Add flour slowly and mix well until you have a soft dough

    Roll out dough gently onto parchment paper and the same baking tray you will be putting into the oven (make sure it fits into the fridge too)

    Set the rolled out dough in the fridge to rest for half an hour

    Bake the shortbread for 15 minutes or until golden brown

    Cut into squares while still hot

  4. Wow, these look delicious! And every woman who’s ever been pregnant (that would include me) feels for you, as each day toward the end feel like an eterity! Hopeing you get to hold your gorgeous baby in your arms very soon!

  5. 6
    maren

    After my third baby I developed an allergy to raw egg. Because I LOVE cookie dough I HAD to find a way to make them without eggs. Here’s the substitution I use all the time now (even though after my fourth baby my egg allergy went away. Weird.) Anyhow, instead of two eggs I put in 1/3 c. water + 2 tsp. baking powder. That’s it. I make them that way now because it saves on using all my eggs and NO ONE notices. seriously! Good luck with the babe! I’m so excited for you. Boys are awesome. And tiring. 🙂
    maren

  6. 7
    Kim

    First, I wish you a peaceful birth. Second, here is an allergen-free recipe for granola chocolate chip cookies that I hope you like! http://welcomingkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/02/granola-chocolate-chip-or-dried-fruit.html

  7. 8
    Dianna

    I’ve got a few friends with Celiac, so whenever we have friends over for dessert, I make sure to also make these flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of Martha Stewart. They’re delicious!

    http://doublebatch.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/flourless-peanut-butter-chocolate-cookies/

  8. Here is a recipe for my Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Cookies. They are delicious and sugar free too!!
    http://squashblossombabies.com/2011/04/08/peanut-butter-banana-cookies/

  9. I too have found that – like pizza dough – a spell overnight in the fridge does wonders for choc chip cookie dough. Recently it accidentally spent two nights (I know. How could that happen?) and tasted even better than the one night chill. The super chilled dough into the hot oven crisps the outside but keeps the inside so soft and gooey – perfection. Sprinkle with a tiny hint of flaky Maldon sea salt – extra yum. Like the cream cheese idea too.

  10. I keep checking in to hear baby news…is he here yet? 🙂

    I just found out this week we’re expecting our second in May. After the 9 months of hypermesis with my first, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking!!! 🙂

  11. 12
    Soybeanlover

    I’ll pray that you pop soon! We are egg, dairy and peanut free here. My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe is this.

    http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2011/05/vegan-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

    It hits the spot perfectly, and no sad baby with hives afterwards.

  12. 13
    Nikki CB

    Cool idea for a call for recipes. I’ll try to think of something! If not, I’ll just enjoy all the other great ideas. 🙂

  13. 14
    Jeri

    When I make chocolate chip cookies I use a regular recipe and substitute the eggs out for about the same looking measurement of plain or vanilla flavored yogurt. I also do that to sugar cookie mix or chocolate chip cookie mix or recipes when my kids want to just eat the dough raw as I don’t feel good about letting them eat unpasterized eggs raw. Bake per recipe if you are baking. I also use for muffins the substitute of 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 2 T. water and 1 T. oil per egg for the egg(s). Doesn’t work as well for cake or brownies. Cupcakes turn out more tender and fall apart more easily but for muffin mixes and homemade muffins and cornbread mix it works just fine. They don’t rise the same as with the egg but it’s still fine.

  14. My sister can’t eat gluten…here are a couple recipes I’ve made for her.

    Brown Sugar Meringues:
    http://cookanddishwasher.blogspot.com/2011/08/brown-sugar-meringues.html

    Cardamom Cinnamon Macaroons
    http://cookanddishwasher.blogspot.com/2010/07/cardamom-cinnamon-macaroons.html

    Happy Birthday, and best wishes for an easy labor.

  15. These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies! They kind of remind me of a softer Nabisco cookie. They are gluten free, dairy free, and sweetened with palm sugar!
    http://cookingglutenfree.blogspot.com/2011/07/palm-sugar-sweetened-chocolate-chip.html

    And if you want to go flour-less, this is my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe… again, gluten free and dairy free.
    http://cookingglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/12/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

  16. well posting thanks for that.

  17. 20
    Melissa

    I featured these on my blog Cajun Sugar Pie today. They are AWESOME! My new favorite cookie! Thanks for posting the recipe.

  18. 21
    joana

    i finally made these…so good!
    thanks for sharing, xx j

  19. 22
    rama

    hi how many cookies will this recipe make. thanks

    • hi rama! it’s like a standard cookie recipe, which for me usually yields about 2-3 dozen normal sized cookies. I checked the nestle toll house cookie recipe – the amount of ingredients is similar. that says 5 dozen, but that’s when you do 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. I usually make my cookies about 2 tablespoons.

      hope that is helpful!

  20. 23
    rama

    hi..i tried the cookies taste wise they were awesome but the issue was that they were too soft even after cooling them for an hour..i baked them for about 14 mins..i live in india were it is hot n humid..could the weather affect it..pls guide me wht shld i do increase the flour/ cook them a bit longer or chill the dough in the fridge..looking forward to your reply..thanks

    • hi rama!

      I don’t think the amount of chocolate will make much of a difference with the problem you are having.

      first off, I think the heat is probably playing a role. try adding flour 1/4 cup at a time, doing a “test cookie” (bake 1 cookie at a time) with each addition to see if it is the right amount.

      but, also, DEFINITELY refrigerate the dough! if you read the full post, you’ll see how different the cookies were when I baked them with dough that was not refrigerated as well as dough that was refrigerated. the cold dough is key to success! I would try that before even changing the recipe to add more flour.

      hope this is helpful! let me know if you have any other questions!
      jane

  21. 24
    rama

    sorry forgot to tell you that in half recipe I reduced the chocolate chip to 3/4 cup..does it also affect the texture.

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