The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
No flaxseed flour
No chia seeds or egg substitute
Only 9 ingredients
No chickpeas
This is my tried and true best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that both vegans AND meat eaters love. Try the recipe with all your friends.
How is it possible that these secretly vegan cookies taste so much like traditional chocolate chip cookies? That’s because the cookies are made with ONLY traditional chocolate chip cookie ingredients!
You might also like these vegan peanut butter cookies
Homemade chocolate chip cookies have been one of my favorite desserts for as long as I can remember.
Give me a choice and I’ll choose chocolate chip cookies over cake or candy any day of the week. Even before I was old enough to see over the deli counter, I earned the nickname Cookie Monster .
Whenever there were cookies, I was sure to find them.
So it makes sense that when I went vegan, they were one of the very first recipes I veganized, along with these vegan pancakes and these vegan cinnamon rolls.
No one who tries the recipe will ever believe that these classic, chewy chocolate chip cookies are actually vegan!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
The one bowl recipe is easy to make using basic ingredients, no almond flour or applesauce, and no coconut oil.
For the flour: Try the cookies with spelt flour, oat flour, or regular all-purpose white flour. I haven’t tried using whole wheat flour, so I can’t vouch for this substitution. Be sure to leave a comment with the results if you try.
Fat source: Options that work include sunflower, coconut or vegetable oil. Or substitute a full-fat vegan spread like Soften Natural, Miyoko’s or Earth Stability.
For sweetener: Feel free to experiment with different types of sugar or alternate sugar-free options such as xylitol or granulated erythritol.
You can also use just one type of sugar instead of two. The resulting cookies may be crispier or more spreadable, or they may take more or less time to bake, but edible baking experiments are the best kind of experiments!
*For keto chocolate chip cookies, try these Keto Cookies
Is chocolate vegan?
And are chocolate chips vegan? I get asked this question quite often and luckily the answer is that yes, chocolate itself is vegan.
Although milk is sometimes added, there are many brands, even some generic grocery store brands, of vegan chocolate chips and chocolate bars that are becoming much easier to find.
If you want to buy vegan chocolate chips at a regular grocery store, the best place to start is in the natural foods aisle. Most regular grocery stores should have a natural foods aisle. Just ask an employee if you don’t know where it is.
Look for one of the following brands: Take pleasure in Life, Easy Reality Natural, Goal Merely Balanced, Lily’s Candy Stevia Sweetened, Kirkland Semisweet (Costco brand), Guittard Semisweet or Further Dark, Equal Change, Scharffen Berger Dark Chocolate Chunks, Dealer. Joe’s Semisweet, Sprouts Semisweet, or Pascha.
(Note: Some of these packages state “may contain milk” on the label, as the chocolate chips are made in a facility that also produces non-vegan products.
Most vegans still consider these products to be vegan, but of course it is a personal choice, especially if the reason for avoiding milk is due to an allergy. As of press time, the brands Take pleasure in Life and Pascha are certified dairy-free, gluten-free and soy-free.)
Where can I buy vegan chocolate?
As mentioned above, you can find vegan chocolate chips at many regular grocery stores. Other good places to look include Complete Meals, local health food stores, Amazon, or iHerb.
Sometimes online stores offer a lower price. At least you can always chop up a chocolate bar to make your own chocolate chips!
There are too many vegan chocolate bar options to list them all here, but some of my favorite fair trade options include Theo, Pacari, Taza, Loving Earth, and Endangered Species. And there are many more.
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How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gather all the cookie ingredients and a medium mixing bowl.
Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips in the bowl. Stir well.
Add the plant-based milk, oil, and pure vanilla extract. Stir to form a cookie dough. It will be dry at first, so keep stirring and it will suddenly turn into cookie dough.
Press the dough into a large ball. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight, or freeze until cold.
Once cooled, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out balls of chocolate chip cookie dough and place on a greased cookie sheet. Leave enough space between cookies so they can spread as they bake.
Bake for eleven minutes on the center rack of the 4th oven. The cookies will look undercooked when you remove them from the 4th oven. This is what you want, as they will continue to firm up considerably as they cool.
Let the chocolate chip cookies cool for at least ten minutes. If for some reason the cookies don’t spread enough (sometimes the weather interferes), simply press down with a spoon after baking.
Storage and cooking tips
- If you want to freeze the cookie dough to have on hand whenever you’re craving chocolate chip cookies, roll it into balls and freeze in an airtight container for up to three months. When ready to bake, there’s no need to thaw the cookie dough first. Just add an extra 1 to 2 minutes to the baking time.
- For soft chocolate chip cookies, store leftovers in an airtight plastic container and add about 1/4 slice of ache if you have one, which helps keep the cookies soft. For crispier cookies, store them in a glass container. Baked cookies will last 2-3 days.
- I’ve made these cookies so many times and the climate can definitely affect the shape and texture of the results. But while they don’t always look the same, every batch has always tasted ridiculously delicious. I’ve never made a bad batch yet.
- Vegan chocolate chip cookies are perfect for lunch boxes or parties where someone else is hosting and you need a portable vegan dessert that you can take from A to B without the mess.
- Over a hundred other dairy-free and plant-based vegan cookie recipes can be found by visiting the following webpage: Healthy Cookie Recipes
Above, watch the video for the recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies.
The recipe was adapted from these healthy chocolate chip cookies.
- 1 cup white, oat or spelt flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar, unrefined if desired (for sugar-free, try these breakfast cookies)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons milk of your choice, plus more if needed
- 2 tbsp melted vegan oil or butter
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-
Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir in wet ingredients to form a dough – it will be dry at first, so keep stirring until it has a cookie dough texture. If needed, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of additional milk of your choice. Shape into a large ball, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours or freeze until cold. Once the dough is chilled, preheat oven to 325 F. Shape dough into balls and place on a greased baking sheet, leaving enough space between cookies to spread. Bake on the center rack for 11 minutes. They will look undercooked when you remove them. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before touching them, during which time they will firm up. If for some reason the cookies don’t spread enough (climate can play a role), simply press down with a spoon after baking. You can also choose to make extra cookie dough balls and freeze them to bake later. I can’t vouch for the flours listed, but feel free to experiment!See nutritional value
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