To me, the perfect texture for a cookie, almost any cookie, is a soft and chewy body, with close to zero crumb, while not going so far as to become a dense blob akin to fudge. However, this recipe is kinda pushing it, even for me.
From Vegan with a Vengance, I tried making the Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies the other day. While this book has never steered me wrong before, and I’m sure they’ll still taste great… There was something very off about the consistancy of the dough. I didn’t even play around with the recipe as I usually do! The only change was substituting the almond extract for more vanilla, seeing as my almond cake had just cleaned me out. Firstly, they didn’t roll so well… I used more of a scooping method with my hand, and it was much more like batter than dough. When they came out of the oven for the first time, I really couldn’t leave an indentation with my finger (As you can see from the pictures), and only flattened them, if anything.
Finally, after their total 11 minutes of cooking time was complete and they had cooked on the baking sheets for a good 10 minutes… I couldn’t lift them up! Each time I tried, they threatened to cave in on themselves and disolve into cookie mush! Seeing as it was becoming late, I couldn’t very well turn the oven back on… So I just let them sit overnight to firm up. It sort of worked… But still, not what I was expecting.
Who knows what happened. It was probably just some stupid mistake on my part… This certainly won’t be the last time I attempt these cookies, and I’m determined to find out.
OK, so I’m not the only one…I made this exact same recipe and they turned out the exact same way. They were to be for a work lunch so I made them over again (wanting to impress people with vegan cookies!). The 2nd time, made the next day, turned out perfectly well. So who knows. Maybe it’s the humidity in the air, or the type of flour I used?? Anyway, they were both quite yummy :)