try it tuesday .. er .. wednesday

A recent New York Times dining article suggested substituting eggs in cookie recipes for ground flax mixed with water.

Huh. Well, lets give it a go, shall we?

For this week's Try it Tuesday, I give you yet another cookie recipe. Not very original, I know, but I just couldn't resist trying out this recipe and doing a blind taste test to see who, if anyone, would notice the difference.

This is the flaxy mixture, as seen in the NYT article (spoiler alert: mine did not turn out looking like this):

Here goes nothing. The ultimate goal is to pull one over on Husband; if he can't tell the difference, everybody wins.

Cookies With Flax

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with six tablespoons water (or 2 eggs)
2 cups chocolate chips

Editor's note: What I hadn't realized is the flax we have is actually whole flax seed, not ground. A quick Google search informed me that the whole seed doesn't actually have the same nutritional value, as they can pass through your system undigested.

The food processor didn't even touch the tiny seeds, so I had to bring out the big guns:

The blender mulched it up perfectly. Then I added the water and tucked it into the fridge for an hour, as the article suggested. When I was ready to add it to the cookie dough, it had become slightly thicker — sort of the consistence of egg whites.

Method
With an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla extract, and then add the flaxseed mixture.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and oatmeal in a separate bowl, and then stir into the butter mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for about eight minutes at 375 degrees.

And the taste test? Delicious! I give them a full 5 stars, especially for the chewy texture. Lovely friend A guessed that the secret ingredient was marshmallow because the morsels were so soft. Lovely friend T also gave the cookies the thumbs up, and Husband has been eating cookies like crazy, and still has no idea, until he reads this post, that I made a switch. Success!