This is the best recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies you will ever find. Soft, chewy, and melt in your mouth delicious, they are everything you could ever want in a chocolate chip cookie recipe!
The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
No flaxmeal
No chia seeds or egg replacer
Just 9 ingredients
No chickpeas
This is my tried-and-true best vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe that both vegans AND meat eaters love. Try the recipe out on all your friends.
How is it possible that these secretly vegan cookies taste so much like regular traditional chocolate chip cookies? It’s because the cookies are made with ONLY traditional chocolate chip cookie ingredients!
You may 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 tall enough to see above the kitchen table, I earned the nickname Cookie Monster.
Any time there were cookies around, I would be sure to find them.
So it makes sense that, upon going vegan, they were one of the very first recipes I veganized, along with these Vegan Pancakes and Vegan Cinnamon Rolls.
No one who tries the recipe can ever believe these soft and classic chocolate chip cookies are actually vegan!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
The one bowl recipe is easy to make using basic ingredients, with no almond flour or applesauce, and no coconut oil required.
For the flour: Try the cookies with spelt flour, oat flour, or regular white all purpose flour. I have not tried using whole wheat flour so can’t vouch for that substitution. Be sure to leave a comment with results if you do try.
The fat source: Options that work include sunflower, coconut, or vegetable oil. Or sub a full fat vegan butter spread such as Melt Organic, Miyoko’s, or Earth Balance.
For the sweetener: Feel free to experiment with different types of sugar or sugar free alternatives such as xylitol or granulated erythritol.
You can also just use all of one type of sugar instead of two. The resulting cookies might be crunchy or spread more, or they might need more or less time in the oven, 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’m asked these questions quite often, and thankfully the answer is that yes, chocolate itself is vegan.
While 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 seek out vegan chocolate chips at a regular grocery store, the best place to start is the natural food aisle. Most regular grocery stores should have a natural food section. Just ask an employee if you’re not sure where it’s located.
Look for one of the following brands: Enjoy Life, Simple Truth Organic, Target Simply Balanced, Lily’s Sweet Stevia Sweetened, Kirkland semi sweet (Costco brand), Guittard semi sweet or extra dark, Equal Exchange, Scharffen Berger dark chocolate baking chunks, Trader Joe’s semi sweet, Sprouts semi sweet, or Pascha.
(Note: Some of these packages say “may contain milk” on the label because the chocolate chips are made in a facility where non-vegan products are also produced.
Most vegans still consider such products to be vegan, but of course it’s a personal choice, especially if the reason to avoid milk is due to an allergy. At press time, Enjoy Life and Pascha brands 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 Whole Foods, local health food stores, Amazon, or iHerb.
Sometimes online stores will offer a lower price. If nothing else, 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 brands. And there are so many more.
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How To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gather all of the cookie ingredients as well as a medium mixing bowl.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips in the bowl. Stir well.
Add the nondairy milk, oil, and pure vanilla extract. Stir to form a cookie dough. It will be dry at first, so just keep stirring and it will suddenly turn into cookie dough.
Press the dough into one big ball. Refrigerate at least two hours or overnight, or freeze until the dough is cold.
Once chilled, preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll chocolate chip cookie dough balls, and place the balls on a greased cookie tray. Leave enough room between cookies for spreading when they bake.
Cook for eleven minutes on the oven’s center rack. The cookies will look underdone when you remove them from the oven. This is what you want, because they 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 (climate sometimes interferes), simply press down with a spoon after baking.
Storage And Baking Tricks
- If you’d like to freeze the cookie dough to have on hand whenever a chocolate chip cookie craving hits, roll 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 additional 1-2 minutes to the cooking time.
- For soft chocolate chip cookies, store leftovers in an airtight plastic container, and add about 1/4 slice of bread if you have one, which helps keep the cookies soft. For crispier cookies, store in a glass container. Baked cookies will last for 2-3 days.
- I’ve made these cookies so many times, and climate can definitely affect the shape and texture of the results. But despite not always looking the same, each batch has always tasted ridiculously delicious. I’ve never made a bad batch yet.
- The vegan chocolate chip cookies are great for lunchboxes or parties where someone else is hosting and you need a portable vegan dessert that you can take from point A to B without a mess.
- Over one hundred more dairy free and plant based vegan cookie recipes can be found by visiting the following page: Healthy Cookies Recipes
Above, watch the vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe video
The recipe was adapted from these Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup white, oat, or spelt flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar, unrefined if desired (For no sugar, try these Breakfast Cookies)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp milk of choice, plus more if needed
- 2 tbsp oil or melted vegan butter
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, then stir in wet to form a dough – it will be dry at first, so keep stirring until a cookie-dough texture is achieved. If needed, add 1-2 tbsp extra milk of choice. Form into one big ball, then either refrigerate at least 2 hours or freeze until the dough is cold. Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 325 F. Form dough balls, and place on a greased baking tray, leaving enough room between cookies for them to spread. Bake 11 minutes on the center rack. They’ll look underdone when you take them out. Let them cool on the baking tray 10 minutes before touching, during which time they will firm up. If for whatever reason the cookies don't spread enough (climate can play a huge role), just press down with a spoon after baking. You can also choose to make extra cookie dough balls and freeze them to bake at a later date. I can only vouch for the flours listed, but feel free to experiment!View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Vegan Dessert Recipes
These are really good! I used Namesta gf flour, because it called for oat, I figured it would be closer then Bobs. I will try Bobs GF next time to compare. I also used vegan butter, because I love the taste of butter. Haha anyways worked great! Thank you! I made these tonight because the blueberry bars needed to rest, so I made these. Rolled these into balls and put in the freezer while the bars cooked. Then baked!
I used oat flour for this recipe. The texture of the cookies turned out great. Crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. However, they were way TOO sweet. I will be halving the sugar next time to fix this.
These cookies are great although I cooked these for 15 minutes and they are still very undercooked. I will cook at higher temp or for even longer next time.
Added extra choc chunks and which made them a bit “melty”. A little bicarb tasting, i’ll use half as much next time. Regardless, the best cookies i’ve ever made. Pretty proud since i dont usually bake cookies.
Hi, I would like to bake this into a cookie cake. What size pan would you recommend considering the amount of batter it makes, and what temperature/baking time would you also recommend when cooking the batter all at once. Thank you!
Hmm, we haven’t tried it so can’t say. But be sure to report back if you experiment before we do!
Jason (media relations)
Thanks! So I tested it out, and this recipe is perfect for a 7-8inch pie/cake pan, and goes in the oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes!
We love this recipe and playing around with it. Our go to is oat flour, we halve the sugar, use avocado oil and soy milk, and add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum. Then chill the dough in the freezer for 10 min then bake. This yields soft and chewy cookies that are loved by everyone— and it helps that it’s so allergy friendly and easy + quick to put together.
Today I didn’t chill the dough, used coconut sugar and some monkfruit white sugar, no xanthan gum, and the result was larger and more thin and crispy cookies. Regardless, very good! This recipe is a great one for learning the science of chocolate chip cookies. Love it!!
These cookies are THE BEST. My whole family says better than Tollhouse. We have made them 4 times now. And I used oat flour and diary free choc chips. Thank you Katie!
I did try coconut flour once and it did not work at all 🙁 dough wouldn’t stick and crumbled at the touch. Stick to oat!
I make these for non vegans so they stop roasting the vegan community, works every time!
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! My dad, who’s very picky about foods (especially vegan food) devoured these cookies! I can’t wait to make some more!
I miss the days when ads weren’t plastered all over every single website I visited. There’s no escaping them anymore!
These are the easiest, healthiest chocolate chip cookies. I have made them so many times with different flours and they come out perfect every time. I prefer the oat flour the best. Thanks for such a great recipe. As someone who has dairy, egg and gluten allergies it is great!
These cookies are delicious! I used less sugar. Thank you for another great recipe!
This recipe SLAPPED. Aka, it was DELICIOUS. I used Almond milk, added almond extract, cinnamon and nutmeg. Yo…. it was awesome. This is hands down one of the best vegan desserts I’ve had the pleasure of making/eating. It’s so good, and easy to do. I like adding my own flare. But, the base recipe is great. Better than non vegan cookies tbh!
Thanks for this. I just recently went Vegan and it’s so much fun figuring out how everything works. 10/10 would reccomend.
I absolutely love this cookie,but ,so easy and simple . I made changes to almond flour so that I can eat them for Passover.
I saw all the reviews and decided to bake these under the impression that it would taste magnificent. Decided to double the batch and was extremely disappointed, I followed this recipe to the T, but it was just not as tasteful as I have predicted. To describe the taste it tasted heavily of baking soda and did not spread at all. I would not try again sadly and this batch has ended up in the trash :((
Hmm, what other ingredients did you use? There are so many positive reviews that there’s definitely not a typo in the recipe, but I’d love to help troubleshoot yours!
I also doubled it and had trouble but when I made a regular batch they were amazing!!! Sometimes doubling doesn’t work.
I loved them so much! I am a cookie master and I am impressed! Also, I made them with 100% non-fine (or- well… I don’t know the name but yea um… it dosn’t make white bread) and I still managed to get the cookies to stick together and not fall apart all over the place! Ô_Ô
💗💗
I have made these so many times since I found this recipe last month. My BF and I are obsessed!!!!!