I like graham crackers.

They remind me of recess. And climbing trees. And the day I decided to take a 20-year hiatus from wearing dresses because you can’t wear dressed if you want to swing on the swings, dumb butt. Also, brush your damn hair, 5 year old me.

SPOILER ALERT: I wear dresses now. More often than not. Because pants? Ughhhh. Pants. Pants. Ugh.

I do not, however, eat enough graham crackers. And this needs to change. Starting with some soft and chewy cookies just like your vegan grandma used to make.

She was such a visionary, your vegan grandma. Bless her imaginary soul.

Soft and Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Cookies

makes 18 cookies

ingredients:

9 graham cracker sheets, divided

1/2 cup of flour of your choice (I have garbanzo bean flour on hand so that’s what the nutrition facts are based off of)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

18 packets of truvia (or 3/4 cup sugar)

2 tbs brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used a brand called Naturally More and it is awesome and flax-y)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tbs ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbs water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

about 90g of dark or bittersweet chocolate (like 3/8ths of a cup or something stupid like that)

Graham cracker happy fun time:

Take 7 graham cracker sheets and grind them to a powder-like consistency in a food processor or chopper thing. It ends up being about 113g worth of powder or so. Try not to promptly dump half of your graham cracker powder onto your stove like some people (me). Sift your flour, graham cracker powder, baking powder and soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Put somewhere it can’t tip over.

In an electric mixer, “cream” your peanut butter and brown and white sugars. Add the flaxseed/water concoction and mix. Scrape down the sides and add the applesauce. Mix mix mix. In goes the vanilla.

Break up the remaining 2 graham cracker sheets into small pieces. Mix the pieces of graham cracker and the chocolate into the cookie dough by hand. Set in the freezer while you heat your oven up to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Freezing will help combat this, but your dough will be a little sticky so use one of those spring-y ice cream scoopers if you have one. I made my cookies about 3/4 the size of an ice cream scooper. Press them down to flatten them a bit after spreading them out on your baking sheet. Flattening them with the bottom of a drinking glass that’s been dipped in warm water can sometimes do the trick. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browning. Cool a bit on the sheet. Cool completely on a cookie rack.