Happy Birthday Cookies

By request, for someone's very special birthday, I made these sorta vegan chocolate chip cookies.  The no-egg, no-butter, lactose-free milk versions of amazing chocolate chip cookies.  These came out really well, the perfect size, crisp, but with some chewiness as well.

Chocolate chip cookies 
Makes 3 dozen cookies 

Takes 2 hours (for all the baking and cooling)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup Earth Balance, softened

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

8 1/4 tablespoons Milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (16 ounces)

1/2 c. lightly toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together Smart Balance and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the milk and vanilla, and beat until combined.

Stir in flour mixture until just blended, then stir in chips and nuts.

Evenly scoop big spoons of dough onto 2 baking sheets, 8 cookies per sheet.  Pat them into a flat circle.  The cookies will grow very little while baking, so make sure you make them as thick or as thin as you want.  I prefer 1/2 inch thick cookies.

Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until golden, 12 or 13 minutes, turn sheet around in oven half way through if your oven is uneven. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and keep making cookies.

These cookies definitely do not last as well as conventional amazing chocolate chip cookies.  They become hard the next day.  And yet, they are still very good!