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If you’ve been looking for the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe, your search is over! These egg free chocolate chip cookies bake up thick, chewy, and golden brown. You don’t have to chill the dough, so you can just roll the room temperature chocolate chip cookie dough into balls and bake.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Like most people, I love homemade chocolate chip cookies! They’re one of my favorite things to bake, eat and gift! What’s better than seeing the look on someone’s face when you give them a fresh batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Warm, sweet, and so gooey… what’s not to love?
Many of my good friends live a vegan lifestyle, which was my inspiration for creating this recipe! I was determined to create a a vegan recipe that tastes just like my classic everyday chocolate chip cookies. And guess what… after exactly 7 recipes fails, I finally created the ultimate vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe!
And it was worth the work, because these are the most wonderful vegan chocolate chip cookies ever. These cookies taste so much like traditional chocolate chip cookies, no one even knows they’re vegan. In fact many of my friends have told me these are the best cookies I’ve ever baked. And I bake a TON of cookies.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
- Coconut Oil: For less coconut flavor, use refined coconut oil.
- Sugar: Light brown sugar adds sweetness and moisture to the cookie dough. And gives the cookies a golden brown color. Feel free to use equal parts granulated sugar and brown sugar instead.
- Vanilla Extract: Use pure vanilla extract, not the imitation stuff.
- Coconut Milk: I like to use the thicker Thai variety, but any coconut milk will work.
- Unsweetened Applesauce: In a pinch, ripe mashed banana will work as a sub. But it will give the cookies a subtle banana flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour: For best results, use all-purpose flour. For gluten free chocolate chip cookies, 1-for-1 gluten free flour may work.
- Baking Soda: Flour, baking soda, and salt make up our dry ingredients. Be sure to use baking soda, not baking powder!
- Salt: I use fine kosher salt in the chocolate chip cookie dough and flaky sea salt on top of the baked cookies.
- Chocolate Chips: Enjoy life makes a great vegan chocolate chip! Or, if you’re not strictly vegan, you can use whatever chocolate chip variety you enjoy!
Let’s Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Instead of vegan butter, this recipe is made with coconut oil. It gives the cookies a delightful taste and texture.
- Instead of beating butter and granulated sugar like traditional cookies, you’ll beat the brown sugar with the coconut oil.
- And if you REALLY love coconut, try adding a 1/2 cup of toasted coconut flakes to the cookie dough. It’s a coconut lovers dream!!!
- I have not tested this recipe with vegan butter or any other alternative, so I cannot advise on substitutions.
- Because coconut oil turns into a liquid state when warm, you’ll want to make sure your coconut oil is solidified before incorporating it in this recipe. It doesn’t need to be rock hard, but it should be solid and easily scoop-able.
- If your coconut oil is too runny, simply stick it in the fridge for a little while. It will firm up.The consistency of the coconut oil is so important because we’re not chilling the dough before baking the cookies. So if the consistency is off, the cookies will spread too much, or not enough.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
I could seriously eat a large bowl of this cookie dough because it tastes so good! And doesn’t have any yucky raw egg in it. But I resist (most of the time) because the baked cookies are even better.
And because eating raw flour isn’t the smartest thing to do. But I digress. Visually, the raw cookie dough should look like this ↓
How to Fix Sticky Dough
- If the cookie dough appears too sticky, add in a little more flour. And if your cookie dough appears too firm, add in a little more non-dairy milk.
- It should be soft but not mushy, and firm but not hard. Basically it should look like traditional cookie dough.
- Unfortunately, I don’t suggest freezing this cookie dough. I’ve done it a few times in the past with not great results. But the vegan cookies will “keep”, stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days. And you can definitely freeze the baked cookies!
Where to find Vegan Chocolate Chips?
There are a ton of vegan and dairy free chocolate brands out there these days! Some are great, and others aren’t… so I suggest trying out a few and finding a brand that you really enjoy. And of course, you don’t have to use chocolate chips. Chocolate chunks would also be delicious in these cookies! And if your not 100% vegan, you can use any chocolate brand you want. I’m not vegan, so I often use my favorite Lindt dark chocolate to make (almost) vegan chocolate chunk cookies. We also love the enjoy life brand!
If you can’t find vegan chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in your local grocery store, search online. I know amazon sells vegan chocolate chips and chocolate bars.
How to Bake Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Unlike most cookie recipes that instruct you to preheat oven to 350, these cookies call for a slightly higher oven temperature of 375. The higher temperature yields cookies that are crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside.
- I like to make these cookies BIG. And use a large cookie scoop to create the monster sized cookies you see in my photos. Of course you may make them smaller or even larger, but will need to adjust the baking time. Small cookies will bake quite fast (I suggest you start checking them around 6 minutes) and larger ones take longer to bake (I suggest you check them around 9 minutes).
- Finally, be sure you don’t over bake these cookies! They only need 9 to 12 minutes in the oven, and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Over baked cookies will be dry and crumbly… not chewy like we want!
- Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely! These cookies taste SO good once they’ve firmed up a bit. So let them cool at least 20 minutes before digging in.
I like to press a few extra chocolate chips on top of the warm vegan chocolate chip cookies right when they come out of the oven. This step is optional. Personally I can never have too much chocolate in, ON, or around my cookies lolol. But I’m a chocoholic… so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. You can also sprinkle the cookies with flaky sea salt, which adds a nice flavor contrast. And if you really want to go over the top, pick up some vegan ice cream and use these cookies to make homemade vegan ice cream cookie sandwiches. You’ll thank me for that little tip this Summer haha.
The hardest part of this recipe? WAITING FOR THE COOKIES TO COOL!!! I suggest cooling these cookies at least 15 minutes before moving them from the baking sheet. But they taste the best when you wait at least 30 minutes before eating them, so I suggest placing them on a cooling rack to firm up for a bit. This brief cooling period allows the cookies to firm up a bit, but they’ll still be warm and gooey when you bite in.
Vegan chocolate chip cookies that don’t taste one bit vegan. Bake now, thank me later 😉
More Vegan Cookie Recipes:
- Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Fudge Cookies (Vegan)
- Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Most Wonderful Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, solid but scoop-able
- 1 and 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup coconut milk (I like to use the thicker Thai variety, but any coconut milk will work)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (be sure not to pack your flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips (use vegan chocolate chips if vegan), divided
- Flaky sea salt, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the coconut oil, brown sugar, and vanilla, beating until well combined. Add in the coconut milk and applesauce and whisk until well combined; set aside. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; whisk well to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and, using a wooden spoon or very sturdy spatula, stir until ingredients are combined. The batter will be very thick! Fold in 1 and 3/4 cups of the chocolate chips.
- Scoop three tablespoon sized mounds of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, leaving a few inches between each cookies for spreading. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the centers have set. Press remaining chocolate chips on top of warm cookies, and sprinkle with sea salt, if using. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
i LOVE these cookies! so delicious and all my non vegan friends love them too!
These are the BEST vegan cookies I have tried. They have become a regular staple in my baking rotation. Thank you!
YES! I’d LOOOOVE more vegan recipes! I’m trying to stay away from dairy to see if it’ll help my occasional cystic acne. Vegan cinnamon rolls, mac and cheese, classic vegan fun fetti cake, and waffles.
I just baked these for a party at my yoga studio, as several members are Vegan. Wow, they came out perfect! I doubled the recipe, but used 50/50 vanilla / almond extract. Also pressed my chips into the top before baking. Will def make these again. Soon!
These are delicious and they adapt very easily to recipe adjustments. I didn’t have enough AP flour, so I used some self-rising (but didn’t decrease the baking soda bc the flour had been open for a while). I also ran out of brown sugar so I I used 1/4 cup plus a little more of regular sugar. I also used almond milk because I didn’t want to open a can of coconut milk. They turned out great! I made mine ~2 Tbsp each so I ended up with 25 total, and I baked for 8 minutes. The only trouble I had was my coconut oil was so hard (it’s a cold day), that it was difficult to mix. I should have left it out for a bit longer so it was slightly softer. I don’t like coconut flavor, and I didn’t get that flavor from these cookies. Great recipe!
I’ve made these cookies twice now. Used flax egg instead of the applesauce. Had to add a little more milk than instructed but I am very happy with the results, and so is the fam. So glad I came across your page, many thanks!
These are amazing! I am fairly new to vegan baking and many of the things I have made have not turned out the best. But these… oh my. I finally found THE one! The only thing that I did differently was, I just put the dough into a 9×13, ungreased glass dish. I was too lazy to make them into cookies. I didn’t spread the dough out much. Because I didn’t want to “overwork” the dough. I cooked them at 375 for about 15 minutes, then turned it down to 350 for another 20 or so. I did the toothpick trick to test for doneness. Crispy edges, a little gooey inside. Perfect for me!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Best cookie recipe.
Question for you, I baked the cookies for 10min, they appeared to not be done, I baked them for two additional minutes. They were very pale in color.
How can I make them so they have more color with out baking them for too long?
Thank you
my family has a coconut allergy. Can’t use any coconut products. Your recipe says not to make substitutions, but I can’t use a recipe containing coconut. Can you suggest substitutions that will work but not make our coconut allergic, vegan family members ill?
I have made these DELICIOUS cookies twice now and the second time I didn’t have any coconut milk so I used original unsweetened almond milk instead and tasted zero difference. Also I found just one cup of chocolate chips to be plenty.
May i ask what vegan chocolate chips you used?