Tips for Success:

• Rolling Cookie Balls with Damp Hands: The dough is sticky.  Wet your hands, shake off the excess water, then use dampened hands to roll the cookies into tight balls, you will get a smooth glossier cookie.  Wash your hands between every 3 to 5 cookies so you can continue to roll a smooth round cookie ball.  Then while the cookie is in your hands, slightly flatten into a disk and place on the baking sheet.  This is not a cookie recipe where you can just drop the batter onto the baking sheet.  We highly recommend rolling the dough into balls in your hands.
• Vegan Chocolate Chips: You can use your favorite chocolate chips with this recipe.  We used Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks. We prefer to chop the longer chunks into 3rds and the smaller chunks in half, then measure out ¾ cup.  You can use up to 1 cup if you wish. You do not need to chop the Mega Chunks; however, it will make the rolling of the dough slightly more challenging if you don’t chop them.  This is what we like to do, we place ¾ cup of the chopped Mega Chunks in the dough, then after the cookies have been rolled, flattened, and placed onto the cookie sheet, we then press the last ¼ cup (or less) individually into the tops of the cookies so the tops show off the lovely chocolate pieces.  It lets cookie eaters know that they are in for a double chocolate treat!
• Peppermint Extract: We like to use 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract for a kiss of peppermint.  If you love peppermint, then you can always increase the amount of peppermint extract.
• Silicone Baking Mats: We highly recommend using silicone baking mats to prevent the bottoms from overbrowning.  We have not tested parchment paper lined baking sheets; however, we feel confident that parchment paper will work fine; however, instead of allowing the cookies to rest 2 minutes on the baking sheet, reduce the time to 30 seconds before transferring to a wire rack.
• Baking Sheet: We used a large 14 x 20 baking sheet, then placed two silicone baking mats on the baking sheet.  We laid them vertically on the baking sheet, so that the silicone mats stuck over the edges a little. Just form the silicone mats to the baking sheet. They will stick up a little like an “L” on the wider end.  This is fine. We place the side that sticks up like an “L” toward the back of the oven.  If you don’t have a large baking sheet, use 2 small ones, but bake only one batch at a time using the center rack.
• Cookie Scoop: We used a small cookie scoop (1 ½ inches in diameter). This helped keep the cookies uniform.

 *Notes Continued:

*Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar:  We get tons of questions about sweetener substitutions. We totally get it. Some folks want to use their favorite sweetener.  Honestly, the best sweetener for this cookie recipe is the combination of maple syrup and maple sugar. Additionally, using date sugar is not recommended either as it just doesn’t have the same flavor and texture needed for this recipe. *** We also get lot questions about using coconut sugar, if your diet permits, you can substitute coconut sugar for the maple sugar. However, we have not tested with coconut sugar, many of our readers have let us know that coconut sugar works well as a substitute for maple sugar.

*Unsalted Almond Butter:  You want the almond butter softened, but not melted.  Almond butter at room temperature is best; however, if you store your opened jar of almond butter in the fridge like we do, just spoon out the recipe required amount and microwave it for 4 to 5 seconds to soften it without melting it.  You can substitute other nut or seed butters that have the same consistency as the almond butter with the understanding that the flavor will change accordingly.  We do not recommend tahini as a substitute.

*Peppermint Extract:  You can find peppermint extract at most grocery stores. We often get questions about essential oils.  We have not tried this recipe with peppermint essential oil.  We used peppermint extract.  You can totally leave the peppermint out of this recipe for Double Chocolate Cookies.

*Chocolate Chips:  We used Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks. We prefer to chop the chunks into smaller pieces as they are rather large.  The Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels are another option.  You can use your favorite semi-sweet chocolate/dark chocolate chips or chocolate bar chopped.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Serving:  Makes approximately 16 to 20 cookies.

*Storage:   Use within 5 days.  Freezes well.