This post is for those random, middle-of-the-night, I-just-felt-like-making-something-sweet cravings. Maybe you don’t have all of the exact ingredients you need, but you need cookies. Below you’ll find some substitutions and helpful modifications for cookies that I’ve used over the years.

What goes into a cookie…usually

Cookies usually consist of the following ingredients:

• Butter
• Sugar (some combination of brown, white, and/or natural sugars)
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract (or some other flavoring)
• Flour
• Baking soda (or baking powder for cookies with an airier finish)
• Salt (for balance)
• Add-ins (chocolate chips, nuts, candy, dried fruit, etc. aka the fun part)

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Useful substitutions

What happens when you want to make some cookies, but don’t have the ingredients you normally use? The following substitutions have come in handy more than a couple times for me.

• No vanilla extract? Use maple syrup instead! The flavor will be slightly different, but it adds a subtle maple flavor to cookies that’s delicious. 1 tsp of vanilla extract can be substituted for 1 tsp of maple syrup

• Out of baking soda? That’s fine. You can substitute ½ teaspoon baking soda for 1 teaspoon baking powder

• Use margarine, lard or vegetable shortening in place of butter. You can also use mashed ripe avocados in place of butter. A 1:1 ratio will work perfectly.

• One large egg can be replaced with the following ingredients:
  • ¼ cup applesauce
  • 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons water
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • ½ banana mashed + ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ cup pureed silken tofu

• No brown sugar? You use 1 cup of granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon of molasses to make your own. Muscovado sugar, coconut sugar and maple sugar are also appropriate substitutes for brown sugar

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Suggested add-ins and modifications for cookies:

Sometimes you want something besides a chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookie. Get creative and add your favorite flavors to your next homemade batch. Use the following suggestions as inspiration:

• To a basic (white) sugar cookie dough, you could add:
  • Orange zest and dried cranberries
  • Lemon zest and freeze dried strawberries or blueberries
  • Pistachios
  • ½ teaspoon of cardamom & cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon of ginger & cloves (added to the dry ingredients)

• To a basic brown sugar cookie dough (chocolate chip base), you could add:
  • Dried cherries and dark chocolate chunks
  • Semisweet chocolate chips & a teaspoon of peppermint extract
  • Chocolate and potato chip crumbles
  • Bitesize chocolate candies, caramel or butterscotch morsels
  • Chopped honey roasted peanuts