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
So good!!! I’m so glad I found this recipe! I love chocolate chip cookies and find that the vegan recipes contain a lot of sugar and vegan butter. This recipe was super easy to make and the cookies turned out delicious 🙂
Soooo good!!!! Used almond flour and they were crispy and chewy!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!ps I live at high altitude and no additions needed!!!!
Kirkland (Costco) chocolate chips are no longer vegan friendly. Also not sure about Target chocolate chips. Every time I’ve checked at Target the only vegan friendly chocolate chips I’ve seen are the over priced allergen free certified ones (can get cheaper elsewhere). Some generic store brand ones might be accidentally vegan. But always check the ingredients before buying. Since Ghirardelli used to be vegan friendly and now Kirkland chocolate chips have both had dairy added to them, it’s a good habit to always check.
Are you American? In canada the kirkland chips are still vegan.
I love the simplicity of this recipe. I’ve tried this recipe twice with two different modification and they both worked pretty well. The first one I did was I substituted the oil for peanut butter and white sugar for a monk fruit erythritol blend. The cookies came out amazing. I did have to bake at 350F for 10-12 min. They were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The second modification I tried was also use peanut butter instead of oil, monk fruit erythritol blend instead of white sugar and use half of all purpose flour and half pea protein powder to make protein cookies. I also baked these at 350F but had to bake them for about 15min. The pea protein powder did change the texture a bit. The cookies were way more chewy overall but still delicious.
Very mediocre cookies, not much flavor at all. I highly recommend the Tasty recipe for vegan chocolate chip cookies instead.
Well done Katie, excellent cookie recipe. I’ve missed my recipe from when I was living in Alaska in ’93 and this fits the bill!
Just a tip: I upped the vanilla extract to a tsp and put in a bit more than 1/3 cup choc chip. It’s a paste consistency and I rolled them into balls and squashed down .. lovely
! ( : D
Alright I made a bunch of substitutions so I hope the internet trolls don’t get upset lol. First of all – I was looking for a vegan white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie but every single one of them called for 1/2 to a cup of butter or oil and I am just NOT okay with all that fat + the chips + the nuts. No thanks. So lightbulb went off – find a low fat chocolate chip recipe and sub for vegan white chips + add macadamia and viola! I actually made them even lower fat by doing 1 tbsp oil (instead of 2) + 1 tbsp applesauce. Finally, I used organic whole wheat flour which I know can be hit or miss – but these were a hit! Soft and pillowy. Not raw and fought and not like hard dense little bricks. Absolutely perfect. Allllmost like a muffin top but not quite, still definitely more cookie like. I may have had a slightly heavy hand with my 1/2 tsp baking soda so maybe this is why. Anyway – amazing recipe!
Raw and Doughy* not fought. Can’t figure out how to edit my comment sorry.
Love this recipe! We made them with vegan butter (mostly coconut oil) and didn’t put the dough in the fridge and they still turned out great. So soft!
What kind of oil do you recommend using?
H! Vegetable oil, melted coconut oil, sunflower oil, or canola all work!
Struggled with these a bit. Used gluten free flour. Used coconut oil which I do not recommend unless you feel like a coconut chocolate chip cookie. Taste isn’t bad, but coconut flavor is prominent. Texture was weird. Cookies did not spread at all! They cracked when I pushed them down so I think my dough was still too dry? I had to add extra oat milk to begin with. The sugars didn’t seem to melt well either so cookie is slightly grainy. Will have to play around with this recipe. Could just be the oil I chose. Overall, not bad. I just won’t share them! Lol!
My guess would be the gluten free flour you used. Unfortunately we can only vouch for the recipe with one of the flours listed.
Hey Katy I used GF free flour too and it probably depends on the mix. When I use orgran flour I do not add baking soda, but with other types of premium flour they tend to flatten out my results.
I had two batches one with 2 tablespoons of oat milk and the other just 1 and a wee bit. The first batch was too runny but it spread and was soft / chewy on inside and the second one didn’t spread at all (I feel like it was too much flour) so I pushed it down with the back of a spoon. While it didn’t take a good shape the texture was quite crispy on the outside. I used butter, and haven’t tested with oil.
It’s sad; I got so excited that I could finally have GF vegan cookies (allergies) without crazy ingredients, but they didn’t seem to work.
I hate to say it, but the three recipes (well the ones I can remember off the top of my head anyway) of Katie’s I’ve tried haven’t worked; the blueberry muffins had some kind of cooking problem (I made a separate crumble topping) and I’m sure they got thrown away, the chickpea cookie dough hummus dip that’s supposed to taste like cookies tasted like chickpeas, and I’m not sure what happened with these.
I had to quadruple the batch to get a ‘normal’ amount of cookie dough (which made 17 20-25g cookies) that would hold 100g of chopped chocolate. Used GF oat flour (I ground up GF oats in a Vitamix), xylitol, coconut sugar, vegetable oil and almond milk (and obviously salt and bicarbonate of soda and chopped up dark chocolate). The dough came together successfully and I froze it for an hour. After a while it became very difficult to roll balls as it kept softening and sticking to my hands. Baked for 5 ½ mins, turned the tray around and baked for another 5 ½ mins (for a total of 11 mins). Didn’t spread at all, so I pressed them with a spoon. They’ve been cooling for over an hour and they have not firmed up at all; I picked up one of the smaller cookies and it broke apart and split in my hands. I tasted and it was slightly salty (odd because I couldn’t taste that in the cookie dough; maybe because I started to run out of normal chocolate and use mint chocolate?) and had the texture and mouthfeel of peanut butter. Not a complete failure, but they also stuck to and coated my mouth a bit like peanut butter does.
I’m in the UK if that is causing any issues with my baking but I haven’t really had problems with recipes from other blogs based in the US/overseas.
I’ve had better success making the chocolate chip cookies in the Byron cookbook and using Bob’s Red Mill GF or Paleo flour and chia eggs. At least that gives me an actual soft chewy cookie instead of basically salted chocolate peanut butter. I wish Katie all the success she deserves, and it seems like a lot of people love her recipes. I’m not sure why, but they have caused me issues in the past.
I think your problem isn’t that you live in the UK but that you used Xylitol when the recipe doesn’t call for that. Xylitol makes things soft so it would change the texture of your cookies for sure. I found this recipe from a friend who brought them to a picnic last week and both of ours turned out great, so I’d try them again with regular sugar like the recipe calls for and you should probably be fine.
So you completely changed the recipe and then comment that it didn’t work?
That is the nicest thumbs down review I have ever read. 😉. But…I have to say that I have made these cookies probably 6 times and they are always perfect. My husband’s favorite cookie and he isn’t even vegan. I do use regular AP flour, so not sure if that’s the difference? I also put the dough in the fridge. Anyway- so nice of you to comment even though they didn’t work for you- I like when people do that so I can have more info!
I just made these after getting the recipe from a friend who brought them to a picnic last week. We are not vegan but were so impressed with hers that I had to try them again, and I think it’s my first cookie recipe I’ve ever tried without eggs. You don’t need them!
This is the first recipe I’ve tried from this site but I plan to try more. Thanks!
I love these cookies and make them often.
These are SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!
This is the best recipie I have found yet! TY!! Be sure to allow cookies to firm in the fridge completely that step is the difference between cookies and mess! Also I subbed my vegan butter for the oil and did 12 min in the oven.