it's goop!

Perhaps you've heard of Gwyneth Paltrow. She's an actress. An Oscar-winning one, at that. She's married to this guy, Chris Martin, who happens to be the lead singer of a band called Coldplay. They're fairly successful, I hear. Gwyneth, not content to "just" be an actress, wife of a rock star (oh, and mother to his two kids) and best friend to the likes of Madonna, Stella McCartney and Liv Tyler, has also taken on a website. It's called GOOP.

GOOP is where you go to get life-changing advice about well, how to change your life. According to Gwyn, it's all about "nourishing the inner aspect." There are lots of ways you can change your life, says Gwyneth. She shows us this through clever categories, like "Make", "Be", "See", and "Get." My favourite is "Go", in which Gwyneth explains where to find fruitarian-friendly food in Barcelona, and so on. It's incredibly useful stuff.

But I digress. As some of you may know, I work at a ladymag. As part of my work for said ladymag, I was asked to follow the gospel according to Gwyneth for a week, for the sake of a story that was unfortunately killed when a rival ladymag ran exactly the same idea. That's the way these things go, unfortunately. But all was not lost - during a week of nourishing my inner aspect, I learnt how to make vegan cookies. And by GOOP, they are awesome.

If you sign up to GOOP (and obviously, I recommend that you do), you'll receive Gwyn's pearls of wisdom every Friday, in newsletter form. In a newsletter titled simply, Babycakes, Gwyn teaches us how vegan baking can rock. She enlists the help of actual vegan baker Erin McKenna (who owns and runs NYC's Babycakes) and explains that even without eggs, milk and white flour, vegan baking is totally cool and deserving of praise. Now, I don't know about you, but when I indulge in cookies, cakes and the like, I want the real deal. I want to nourish the particular inner aspect that is crying out for dairy and eggs and sugar and flour.

But as I live as a disciple of Gwyneth, I dutifully make McKenna's Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. Surprisingly, I found most of the ingredients at Woolworth's. I couldn't find coconut oil anywhere, so I simply used olive oil and added a cup of shredded coconut. I don't want to know what Gwyneth would think about this, so I try to ignore the niggling voice that tells me it's probably not OK to change things up on Ms Paltrow.

When the dough was wet, it was very crumbly and didn't really stick together. I used a tablespoon-sized scoop to hold the portion together, and pressed this onto the baking paper. And you know what? They were delicious. My apologies to Gwyn - the cookies were dense, chocolate-y and really yummy. The texture was almost like flourless chocolate cake - which is definitely a plus with me. Here's the recipe:

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, from Erin McKenna at Babycakes

• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour (NB: this is obviously an American brand - I reckon any type of gluten-free plain flour is fine)
  
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (NB: find this in the health food aisle)
  
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, applesauce, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla. In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, flax meal, baking soda and xanthan gum. Using a rubber spatula, carefully push the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and combine until dough is formed. With the same spatula, gently fold in the chocolate chips just until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Using a melon-baller, measure out the dough and place on the prepared baking sheets. Space the portions 1-inch apart. Gently press each with the heel of your hand to help them spread. Bake the cookies on the center rack for 14 minutes, rotating the trays 180 degrees after 9 minutes. The cookies will be crispy on the edges and soft in the center. Remove from the oven.

Let cookies stand 10 minutes. They’re best served warm, but to save them use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before covering. Place in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.