Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1
Preheat oven to 350°F.
2
Grind the 1 Tbl plus 1 tsp whole flax seeds in a blender until they become a fine powder, then add the soy milk and blend for about 30 seconds more and set aside.
3
In a large bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt.
4
Cream the sugar and oil in a separate large bowl.
5
Add the flax/soy milk mixture and mix well.
6
Stir in the vanilla.
7
Slowly mix in the dry ingredients (the original recipe does not call for a mixer, but you may want to use yours.).
8
Mix in the chocolate chips.
9
Roll dough into 1" balls and flatten into disks about 1 1/2" in diameter.
10
Place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 1" apart and bake for 10 minutes.
11
Let rest on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes, then remove with a spatula to a cooling rack and cool completely.
12
**For chocolate chocolate chip cherry cookies, replace 1 teaspoon of the vanilla with almond extract, and use 3/4 cup chocolate chips and 3/4 cup chopped cherries.
13
***For chocolate nut cookies, replace 1 teaspoon of the vanilla with a nut extract (almond, walnut, etc) and replace the chocolate chips with 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts of your choice.