Vegan white chocolate macadamia cookies

The main reason I went vegan was because I wanted to start living a healthier lifestyle. I really enjoy being vegan and I don't see myself going back anytime soon. 

There have been many things that I've given up since going vegan such as ice cream, chocolate and a lot of my favourite types of store bought cakes and biscuits but I'm quite happy to do this because it means that I'm also cutting out a lot of junk out of my diet too. 

One of the unhealthy things that I don't eat any more are white chocolate macadamia cookies. I remember them tasting delicious, but I like being vegan far more than the taste of those cookies. 

I've been vegan for nearly two years now and in that time I've come to realise that there is usually a way to make vegan versions of most foods. 

Now don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because there's a vegan version of something that it is automatically healthy. Sure, it may be healthier, but it may not necessarily be healthy. And it certainly doens't mean you can eat ten servings of it.

I recently discovered vegan white chocolate. The brand is called Sweet William and they do dairy free chocolates. The white chocolate actually tastes pretty spot on to what I remember normal white chocolate tastes like. 

Even though I try to eat clean, I have the biggest sweet tooth and so when I was flipping through my Veganomicon cookbook and came across a recipe that I could change in order to make vegan white chocolate macadamia cookies, I just couldn't resist. I have googled some other recipes for these cookies but they all include a lot of vegan margarine and I didn't have any at home. Plus I don't really like using it unless there is absolutely no other substitute.

These cookies turned out pretty delicious. Even my mum (who usually doesn't eat anything that is unhealthy, let alone my vegan baking) enjoyed these :)

Suitable for vegans

So this is my variation of the Veganomicon recipe for white chocolate macadamia cookies. This recipe was originally for chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies.

Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Makes about 24

Ingredients 

2 1/4 cups white spelt flour (you can use plain flour)
2/3 cup oat flour (I just processed rolled oats)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 canola oil (or 1/2 cup should be ok too)
1 1/2 cup Stevia (or any baking sugar substitute)
4 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1/2 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
3/4 vegan white chocolate bits
3/4 halved unsalted macadamia nuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line three baking trays with baking paper.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the oat flour. 
In a separate large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar. Add the flaxseeds, soy milk, vanilla and almond extract, and mix well.
Fold in the dry ingredients in batches. When the batter starts to get too hard to mix with a fork then use your hands.
Add the chocolate and nuts. 
Roll dough into 1-inch balls (or whatever size you like. Each ball of dough was about 1 table spoon for me) and flatten into disks (I prefer these cookies to be quite thin so I flattened them out as much as possible).
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer onto cooling rack to cool completely.