Review: Kroger Simple Truth Plant-Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

I ate plenty of Pillsbury cookie dough as a kid, but hadn't found a vegan version until recently. And it's unexpectedly from Kroger, where they happen to have an impressive selection of vegan products throughout the store. Kroger seems to be investing in the plant-based trend and I am all here for it. Hopefully this will encourage other major stores to do the same.

The ingredient list looks long, but most of the big words are the added vitamins to the flour. It looks like chickpea flour is the egg replacer here. And I was surprised to see vanilla bean seeds in the chocolate chips - maybe that's why they taste so good. 

Simple Truth Plant-Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ingredients: Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, ascorbic acid added as a dough conditioner), semi-sweet chocolate (organic cane sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], vanilla bean seeds), palm oil, brown sugar, sugar, chickpea flour, water, salt, natural flavor, baking soda.

This egg-free and dairy-free cookie dough was so satisfying. It tastes just like regular cookie dough. It was hard for me to stop eating it and save some for baking. (Note that the package still says not to eat raw cookie dough.)

You should resist the temptation to eat all of the cookie dough though. It's worth saving some for baking because they are delicious fresh out of the oven (and smell heavenly). I still couldn't tell they were vegan.

The chocolate was the right amount of ooey and gooey. The inside was soft and chewy and the edges were crispy. Writing this makes me want to go make more.

Review: Kroger Simple Truth Plant-Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

First impressions: Can't stop eating it

Taste: Like other store bought cookie dough. Chocolatey and satisfying, sweet but not too sweet.

Texture: Soft in the middle with crispy edges

Can you tell it's vegan? Not at all

Worth buying again? Yes, I have more in my fridge right now.

Overall: 5/5

Review: Sprouts Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was pleasantly surprised to find these vegan chocolate chip cookies on display with the rest of the freshly baked (non-vegan) cookies at Sprouts. They were the same price too! They looked so good I had to try them. 

Some vegan cookies can be dry or dense. These were soft and chewy like chocolate chip cookies should be. I would not guess that they're vegan if I didn't know. 

The only downside to these is after a few days they seemed to dry out faster than non-vegan cookies. So that just means you have an excuse to eat them quickly.

The egg replacer in these vegan cookies is chickpea flour, which happens to be my go-to egg replacer for baking. Chickpea flour can be used as an egg replacer in a lot of recipes, from baking to crepes to quiches. Chickpeas are the same thing as garbanzo beans, so you might see it called garbanzo bean flour in the store. I've even heard that aquafaba (the liquid from canned chickpeas) can be used to make a meringue, but I haven't tried that myself yet. 

Sprouts also has some prepackaged vegan cookies in the cookie aisle, including chocolate chip and vanilla wafers. 

Sprouts vegan chocolate chip cookies ingredients: 

Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, ascorbic acid add as a dough conditioner), semi-sweet chocolate (organic cane sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin [an emulsifier], vanilla bean seeds), palm shortening, sugar, brown sugar, water, chickpea flour, salt, natural vanilla flavor, baking soda. 

Review: Sprouts Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

First impressions: These don't look vegan.

Taste: Sweet, chocolatey, satisfying 

Texture: Soft and chewy

Can you tell it's vegan? No
Better than other vegan options? Yes, my favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie so far. 

Worth buying again? Yes, I already have.

Overall: 5/5

Review: OCHO Organic Coconut Bar

This vegan chocolate coconut candy bar is exactly what you would expect: simple, chocolate-covered coconut. 

The chocolate is very thick but doesn't taste too bitter because of the coconut. They complement each other well. It's a chewy and satisfying vegan candy bar. 

 

I couldn't tell this was vegan and wondered if Mounds bars are vegan. I looked it up and they are not vegan because they use milk in the chocolate (even though it's dark chocolate). 

OCHO Candy is an organic candy company. All of their products are organic and gluten free, but not all are vegan. 

OCHO Organic Coconut Bar ingredients: Organic dark chocolate (organic cacao beans, organic evaporated cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin), organic tapioca syrup, organic coconut, organic sugar (organic cane sugar, organic tapioca starch), water, sea salt, organic soy lecithin, organic vanilla extract. 

Review: OCHO Organic Coconut Bar

First impressions: Reminds me of Mounds.

Taste: The dark chocolate is balanced by the coconut so it doesn't taste as bitter. 

Texture: Thick chocolate coating, chewy coconut inside. 

Can you tell it's vegan? No

Worth buying again? Yes, and I would try their other products too. 

Overall: 5/5

Review: free2b Rice Chocolate Sun Cups

Most vegan candy uses dark chocolate, which is naturally vegan. But as someone who loves milk chocolate, I appreciate when companies make a vegan milk chocolate. This is especially true as I search for vegan peanut butter cups. To me, milk chocolate and peanut butter go better together than dark chocolate. 

These vegan sunflower seed butter cups from free2b use rice chocolate, which seems closer to a semisweet than milk chocolate, but it still not as intense or bitter as dark chocolate. It wasn't quite as satisfying to me either though. 

The free2b brand is free from 12 common allergens, so that's probably why they used rice instead of nuts. They also use 67% Fair Trade ingredients. All of their products are vegan, gluten free, and allergen friendly. It's nice to be able to recognize a brand and know that anything you pick will be vegan. 

As far as comparing the sunflower seed butter to peanut butter, these tasted a little more bland to me. Although I didn't notice as much of a difference with the Trader Joe's Sunflower Seed Butter Cups. Interestingly, they have the same ingredients other than the rice chocolate instead of dark chocolate. 

One thing I did like a lot about these is the name. "Sun cups" sounds better and is much easier to say than, "sunflower seed butter cups." 

free2b Rice Chocolate Sun Cups ingredients: rice chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, rice syrup powder), sunflower seeds, powdered sugar (evaporated cane juice, tapioca starch), cocoa butter, sea salt. 

Review: free2b Rice Chocolate Sun Cups

First impressions: Not amazing but not bad.

Taste: Not as bitter as dark chocolate, but doesn't taste quite like milk chocolate either.  The sunflower seed butter is a little bland compared to Trader Joe's Sunflower Seed Butter Cups. 

Texture: A little softer than I expected. 

Can you tell it's vegan? Maybe
Better than other vegan options? I like the Trader Joe's version better. 

Worth buying again? I probably won't buy these again, but would try their other products. 

Overall: 4/5