1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees c fan and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. In a bowl, sieve in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and stir together until combined.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add in the apple sauce, light brown sugar and caster sugar. Whip together for 2-4 minutes until the apple sauce is smooth and pale in colour. Best to use an electric hand whisk or stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment. You can use a wooden spoon, it might just take more time.
4. Place the dairy-free butter/margarine and chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and place on top of a saucepan with water-filled half of the way up making a bain-marie. Gently simmer until the butter and chocolate has completely melted.
5. If you’re using a stand mixer, reduce the speed and slowly add in the chocolate mixture. Once it’s all in the bowl, whip up on medium speed for 30 seconds to incorporate everything together.
6. Slowly add in the flour mixture and fold in. The mixture will resemble brownie batter.
7. Fold in the dairy-free chocolate chips.
8. Using a small ice cream scoop or two dessert spoons, scoop a golf ball size about of batter and place onto the lined baking trays. make sure to leave an approximate 3-inch space between the cookies as they do spread out whilst baking. Work fast with this step as the batter will firm up when standing at room temperature for too long.
9. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, rotate the baking tray and bake for a further 5 minutes.
10. TIP- It’s best to bake one tray at a time in the center of your oven.
11. Remove the trays from the oven. Before the cookies cool down, use a circular cookie cutter, a tiny bit larger than the cookies. Place it around the cookie and nudge the edges of the cookies towards the center. This makes the cookies have a round shape, and they will all be symmetrical.
12. For more chocolaty goodness, while the cookies are still warm, add some chocolate chips on top of each cookie (optional).
13. Allow the cookies to cool for 10-15 minutes on the baking trays.

They will be very soft when you remove them from the oven, but when they cool, they’ll firm up and you can use a spatula to remove them from the trays and onto a cool rack or serving plate

Why not add a swirl of salted caramel buttercream inbetween the cookies to create sandwich cookies?! Get my salted caramel buttercream here. 

Caramel swirl:

Why not add a swirl of salted caramel buttercream in-between the cookies to create sandwich cookies?! Get my salted caramel buttercream here. Transfer it into a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle and pipe a swirl of the buttercream onto one cookie, and sandwich another on top. 

Use some caramel sauce in the middle of the cookies. You can make you own, recipe here, or use Natures Charm Coconut Caramel sauce.