Vegan Cranberry Orange Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Begin by creaming the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and orange zest with an electric mixer. Once creamed, add in the vanilla and flax egg. Mix to combine, about 30 seconds.
Next, add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of wet ingredients. Mix until a thick dough forms. The dough should be slightly sticky, but not wet.
Once the orange cookie dough has formed, gently fold in the dried cranberries and chocolate chunks with a spatula. Cover the bowl of dough and add to the fridge for 30 minutes- 1 hour to chill.

About 10 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and use a 2 tablespoon cookie scooper to scoop out 10 evenly-sized cookie dough balls. Place them onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Make sure to leave space between the dough balls as the cookies will spread while baking. If cookies do not fit on one tray, it's best to bake only one tray at a time.
Add the tray of cookies to the oven and bake for 14-16 minutes or until cooked through. You want the centers to be barely cooked, but not glossy, for the best chewy texture.
Remove the cookie tray from the oven and immediately tap the tray on the counter to produce a more “wrinkly” cookie and help deflate the cookies. For round cookies, use a round cookie cutter (or large mug in my case!) that is slightly larger than the cookie and swirl the cookies around inside to form them into a round cookie. This step will only work if you do it while the cookies are still warm. Then, let the cookies rest on the warm tray for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to continue cooling. Then, serve and enjoy!