Baking lower-fat cookies

Ingredients:

2 heaping cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of white sugar (can be a mixture of brown/white if you don't have enough of white. To make it ultra vegan, you can use any turbinado #1)
1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (not necessary. I like using it though)
Semi-sweet chocolate chips (add as much as you want)
A tablespoon and a half of water (if the dough is too sticky)
1/4 cup margarine (or butter)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce

Step 1:

Get a nice big bowl and drop in your stick of margarine. The vegan-friendly brand I used was Nucoa. You'll want it soft, so you can nuke the stick for about 15-20 seconds until it's squishy.

Step 2:

Now, measure out a bit of oil and add in your applesauce. Enlist the help of someone else to be your spotter in case if your oil bottle is larger than you.

Step 3:

And then the applesauce...

Step 4:

Drop this abomination in with the margarine.

Step 5:

Pour out your sugar next.

Step 6:

If you're like me and you ran out of normal sugar, you can combine it with cane sugar. It won't make the cookie as crisp, if that's what you like but it's great when you don't have enough normal sugar to go around.

Step 7:

I didn't melt my margarine enough, so the mixture looks revolting. It'll look better though.

Step 8:

The time to add the vanilla and the almond is upon us.

Step 9:

You'll want a generous 2 cups of flour:

Step 10:

Get a nice scoop of baking powder to toss onto the flour cup before you mix it in with the margarine.

Step 11:

Slowly add in about half of the flour.

Step 12:

Add in the rest. Now it doesn't look like that pile of barf anymore.

Step 13:

Get your chocolate chips.

Step 14:

Add in however many you want. I used the whole bag for my batch.

Step 15:

Digging right in is the best way to thoroughly mix in those chips.

Step 16:

Instead of greasing cooking sheets, you can just lay a piece of foil over a pan. Makes for easier cleanup.

Step 17:

Grab a small glob of dough and roll it inbetween your hands. Squeeze it between your palms to flatten it.

Step 18:

Set the flattened spheres of cookie dough a bit apart from each other. Bake them for about 10 minutes, give or take a couple. All depending on your oven and how quickly they will lightly, lightly brown.

Step 19:

If you use less applesauce, your cookies will turn out looking like my last night's batch (flatter, and a bit browner and softer):

Step 20:

Give it some time and you should have some soft, chocolate cookies!