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Whisks + Whiskey: Episode 3

Somehow it’s already NOVEMBER, so that means it is time for the next installment of Whisks + Whiskey, the column in which I get mildly to moderately intoxicated and try to bake delicious things. (Rules can be found here.)

When looking for a recipe to test out this month I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go the pumpkin route again or not, because technically pumpkin is still very much in season. However, since last month was pretty aggressively Pumpkin Month, I figured I’d branch out. November, when it’s not an election year, doesn’t generally have much going on other than Thanksgiving, so I figured I’d try to find a recipe that related to the holiday somehow without having to make a pie. (Because honestly pie isn’t even that good. Sorry, I’m not sorry.)

I don’t know about anyone else, but the main dishes I truly care about on Thanksgiving are the stuffing and the cranberry sauce. Everything else could accidentally burn to a crisp, but as long as the stuffing and cranberry sauce was safe it would be a pretty good Thanksgiving for me. (Although if you managed to burn a can of cranberry sauce what were even you DOING??)

img_7501So, for this month’s recipe it was a toss-up between a spiced apple cake and cranberry chocolate chip cookies, and ultimately I went with my heart’s desire for cranberries. Both recipes were from Hot For Food, a vegan food blog that aims to make vegan cooking easy and accessible. I would highly recommend checking out their blog or YouTube channel if you are interested in veganism or just want to switch up your everyday recipes because they make some pretty stellar dishes.

While the recipe for the cranberry chocolate chip cookies is vegan, the dark chocolate chips I picked up turned out not to be vegan, so I guess I made (almost) vegan cranberry chocolate chip cookies.

Time started: 8:15 pm (also it was a Sunday night because I like to live on the wild side.)

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What I’m drinking: Ben and Jerry’s recently partnered with New Belgium to make a Cookie Dough Ale that is brewed with chocolate and vanilla. It sounded pretty crazy and I didn’t know what to expect, but since the collaboration was meant to help “protect our winters and combat climate change” it seemed to go well with the fact that I was making a vegan recipe. (Living and eating vegan is actually really good for the environment.) The beer was interesting to say the least, the first sip does taste a bit like cookie dough but then the aftertaste is jut beer. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’d necessarily pick it up again. Oh, and I also had a shot of whiskey.

Estimated difficulty: 2/5

Cookies are generally a pretty simple task but I wasn’t sure if the vegan side of things would be slightly challenging.

Challenges (besides being intoxicated): I actually didn’t run into any troubles with this recipe. It was probably a bit too easy, so I guess I’ll have to stay away from cookies from now on.

Time finished: 10:30

Results

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My drunk opinion: I don’t know if I just can’t taste things very well when I’m drunk, but I couldn’t really taste the cranberries. Otherwise, they were really good oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies.

Mollie’s opinion: It was pretty good, I’ll give it to you. (She was skeptical about the cranberries and the veganism. She also brought some home to her roommate so…)

Rylee’s opinion: Really good, could use more of a crunchy factor though.

My sober morning opinion: The cranberry taste is pretty subtle, but I would definitely make them again.

Final deliciousness rating: 8/10

If you’d like to test out the recipe for yourself you can find it here.

Christmas is just a month away so prepare yourself for some ~*~holiday baking~*~


Previous Episodes:

Episode 1: Orange Chili Brownies

Episode 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones