Chocolate Lovers Brownie Cookies

I have a little bit of advice for you: the best way to repay someone for letting you crash at their place (besides chipping in for groceries-that's a nice thing to do) is to bake them cookies. As I have preached before, nothing says thank you, you're the best better than chocolate.

I crashed at my friend Mel's family's house this past weekend for Lollapalooza, a huge 3-day music festival in Chicago. The trip was definitely an experience, complete with it's ups and downs.

The downs included:
-being evacuated from Grant Park for three hours along with 70,000 other people because of severe thunderstorms
-the mud after the thunderstorms
-having mud balls thrown into the crowd during Calvin Harris
-almost passing out because of heat exhaustion during J. Cole. Don't worry, I chugged some water, ate a granola bar and I was fine.

The highlights, however, were:
-watching the amazing way that Florence and the Machine practically hypnotized a whole crowd with Florence Welch's incredible voice
-finding possibly the only vegan food at the whole festival (tasty veggie-stuffed dumplings)
-raging with Mel
-despite being so sweaty that I looked like I had taken a shower, getting a guy to dance with me at Kaskade
-getting a pedicure after the hell my feet had been through. It was only slightly embarrassing how horrified the woman looked when I put my feet up for her to see...

To repay Mel and her parents for providing me with a place to sleep and lots of granola bars, I made them a big batch of these. 

These cookies should come with a warning: you have to really love chocolate. They are dark, fudge-y, and as rich as the 1%. There is some seriously sinful chocolate flavor going on here.

Chocolate Lovers Brownie Cookies (loosely adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar)

makes 2 dozen cookies

1/3 cup non-dairy milk
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sucant
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla 
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the milk, flax seeds, canola oil, sugars and vanilla until smooth. Sift in the remaining ingredients (not including chocolate chips) and stir until a dough forms. Fold in the chips.
3. Roll the dough into about 1 1/2" balls and place them on the cookies sheets, at least 2" apart in case of spreading. Bake for about 10 minutes- they will still feel soft and gooey to touch, but trust me, they firm up as they cool. 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! If you're not, make a batch of these and it will instantly get better. These cookies are a dream come true. Is that over the top? Well excuse me, I'm still in a chocolate coma :)