Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
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These Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies are easy chewy chocolate chip cookies made without eggs, butter, or dairy.
They taste like classic, bakery-style cookies with a sweet and chewy texture.
What Are Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies?
These cookies are the vegan version of the most classic cookie recipe.
They are not as healthy as my almond flour chocolate chip cookies, but a delicious treat for those craving a real, true chocolate chip cookies made with plant-based ingredients.
Vegan cookies don’t have to be healthy, and sometimes you want to indulge in a rich, decadent, sweet cookie.
So if you are after a real cookie taste and texture, try these chewy vegan chocolate chip cookies. They hit the spot.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s so easy to make this vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Like any cookie recipe, there are a few tips and tricks to make them perfect every time.
Vegan Cookie Ingredientsb
All you need to make bakery-style vegan cookies are:
- Vegan Butter – or softened coconut oil. It needs to be soft, but not melted. If your coconut oil is melted, pop the jar in the fridge until it hardens and use cold coconut oil.
- Brown Sugar – Light soft brown sugar decreases air pockets in cookies while creaming it in the vegan butter. Therefore, it prevents the cookies from spreading too much and keeps them compact.
- White Sugar – It aerates the cookie dough and makes creamy puffy cookies.
- Plant-based Milk of choice any non-dairy milk work
- All-Purpose Flour – I didn’t try this recipe with vegan gluten-free flour but I am pretty sure it works well if your blend contains xanthan gum. If not, add 1/4 teaspoon of gum per cup of all-purpose gluten-free flour.
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Flaxseed Meal – Combined with water, this forms a natural egg-replacer. Not all Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes contains flaxseed eggs but I found the texture of the cookies much better with it. It adds a real chewy texture to cookies that mimics the real bakery-style cookie texture.
- Water
- Vanilla Extract – To add an extra touch of flavor and make these cookies perfect.
- Salt
- Dark Chocolate Chips – Not all dark chocolate is vegan, so pick vegan chocolate chips!
Making A Flax Egg
First, prepare the flaxseed egg.
In a small mixing bowl whisk the flaxseed meal and water.
Set it aside for about 10 minutes or until it looks like an eggy texture.
Beat The Sugar And Vegan Butter
Add vegan butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a large bowl or stand mixer. This is called creaming the butter.
Using an electric beater or the paddle attachment, beat the vegan butter and sugar until it looks creamy and smooth.
Combining Ingredients
Then, beat in the flaxseed egg, milk and vanilla extract. When they are well incorporated, it’s time to add the dry ingredients.
Stop the beater and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat again until creamy cookie dough forms.
Fold in the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks and beat the mixture for a few seconds to incorporate them evenly into the dough.
Chilling The Dough
Chill the dough for 15 minutes, not more. Chilling the dough helps control the spread of the cookies.
If you over-chill the dough, the cookies won’t spread as well on the baking sheet.
Forming Vegan Cookies
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Line a large cookie sheet with lightly oiled parchment paper.
Scoop out 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegan cookie dough. Roll it between your hands to form a ball or use a medium cookie scoop and release it on the baking sheet.
You should be able to form 10 to 12 cookies.
Baking The Cookies
Leave at least 4 inches of space (10 cm) between each cookie and place them away from the edges of the pan by 2 inches (5 cm).
Leave a thumb of space between each cookie dough ball because they expand in the oven.
Lightly flatten the top of each cookie, but not too much because the cookies will expand. If you overly flatten them, they result in super-thin cookies.
Bake in the center rack of the oven at 350°F (180°C) for about 12 to 14 minutes or until the sides and top are golden-brown.
Cooling Down
Cool the cookies on the baking sheet before using a flat tool to slide under each of them to transfer them onto a cooling rack.
The cookies are still soft and fragile just after coming out of the oven. That’s normal. The cookies will firm up as they cool down.
You can then sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top of the cookies.
Storage Instructions
These vegan chocolate chip cookies can be stored for up to 5 days in a sealed cookie jar at room temperature.
You can store the cookies in the fridge too if it’s hot where you live. However, chilled cookies loose a bit of chewy texture getting harder.
You can also freeze the cookie dough, unbaked or baked.
Chill the cookies in sealed silicone zip-lock bags or airtight containers after placing a piece of parchment paper between them to prevent the cookies from sticking to each other.
Freeze the cookies for up to 3 months in the freezer and thaw them the day before at room temperature.
Allergy Swaps
If you have food allergies, pick one of the two ingredient substitutions suggested below.
- Gluten-Free – The best swap for all-purpose wheat flour is an all-purpose gluten-free blend that contains xanthan gum. Use the same amount as wheat flour in this recipe.
- Flax-Free – You can replace the flaxseed meal with ground chia seeds or swap the flaxseed egg for a commercial, store-bought egg replacer. Another option is to mix one tablespoon of cornstarch with two tablespoons of water.
- Sugar-Free – Sugar-free crystal sweeteners like erythritol and brown erythritol should provide similar results. The cookies won’t work with xylitol. It keeps the cookies too soft.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about these vegan cookies.
You can replace brown sugar with coconut sugar, but the result will differ.
Coconut sugar acts like sugar. It doesn’t add moisture to cookies like brown sugar.
As a result, the cookies will be crispier, less chewy, and darker in color. If you swap the brown and white sugar with coconut sugar, the cookies won’t chew at all and turn brown.
No, authentic chocolate chip cookies contain one or more eggs, butter, and most of the time, milk in the chocolate chips.
A flat chocolate chip cookie is a cookie dough that spreads too fast.
It can be because your oven is too warm, you didn’t chill the dough, which limits the spread, or you over-greased the parchment paper.
An excellent baking tool to make the cookies grip the pan is a silicone mat. This prevents the cookies from over-spreading on the baking sheet.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
Here’s some more vegan cookie recipes for you:
Have you tried these best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies? Share a comment or review below to connect with me.
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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Flax Egg
- 1 tablespoon Flaxseed Meal
- 2 ½ tablespoons Water - lukewarm
Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ½ cup Soft Brown Sugar
- ½ cup White Sugar
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (Unsalted) - softened
- 1 tablespoon Almond Milk - or any non-dairy milk
- 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt - if vegan butter is unsalted
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Vegan Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Prepare the flaxseed egg in a small bowl by whisking the flaxseed meal and water. Set it aside for 10 minutes or until a gel-like texture forms.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set it aside.
- In another bowl, add vegan butter, brown sugar, sugar and using an electric beater or the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, whisk 1 minutes until creamy.
- Whisk in flax egg, almond milk, and vanilla extract for a few seconds until incorporated.
- Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl, then use a silicone spatula to combine the ingredients together and form a creamy cookie batter. Fold in the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and store the cookie dough for 15 minutes in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line one or two cookie sheets with parchment paper and lightly grease them with coconut oil or vegan butter. Set them aside.
- Scoop out two tablespoons of batter with a small cookie dough scoop and place it onto the prepared cookie sheet. Leave at least 4 inches of space (10 cm) between each cookie and place the cookies 2 inches away from the edges of the pan (5 cm). Don't hand-flatten cookies as they expand by themself.
- Bake the cookies on the center rack of the oven for 12-15 minutes at 350°F (180°C) or until golden brown and crispy on the edges.
- Cool down on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. They are still soft and hot. That's normal. They firm up as they cool down. When easy to handle, slide a flat spatula under each cookie and transfer them to a wire rack before eating.
Storage
- Store them for up to 3 days at room temperature or 4-6 days in the fridge in a sealed cookie jar. Freeze in zip-lock bags and thaw at room temperature the day before.
These are lovely and came out perfectly for me! I can report that the recipe works flawlessly with Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer and their One to One gluten free flour mix. This will be my new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Thanks!
Great recipe. Can you use oat milk? Is it okay to not use brown sugar at all?