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
Another good one Katie!
I like my chocolate chip cookies to be soft and rather plump. Would adding a bit more flour and perhaps more baking soda make these a little less flat?
I love this recipe, we are addicted with hubby. 😀
I just made this recipe a few days ago.. placed it in fridge overnight then baked the next day. Accidentally did at 350 but they were still perfect. Husband loved the cookies so much he ate them all up and asked for a double batch. I made a double batch last night and omg the dough is better than the first time. Can’t wait to bake them, but the dough is amazing too. This is truly the best recipe and I’m not looking for another! Thank you so much for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. My husband says he wants me to freeze them just like you said to always have them ready. Thanks again!
These were outstanding. I did have to bake them twice as long as the recipe stated though. At 11 minutes they weren’t close to being done. May have been my oven as I portioned each cookie so I had 11 in total (as directed in the recipe). We ate them warm and they were delicious. Did not miss the butter one bit. Would definitely make again.
These were absolutely perfect. I really thought when the timer went off , there’s no way these are done. They were glistening and looked a bit wet. I shut the oven off and left them in for another minute or 2. Left them to cool for 10 minutes and they were chewy perfection. Next time I’ll double up on the batches. I also added walnuts which were nice.
This makes us so happy 🙂
Can you provide the recipe in grams? I live outside of the US and cups where I live is not the standard measurement :/
Thanks for providing a tasty vegan cookie recipe! My only trouble was telling if they were fully cooked. You say they’re supposed to look underdone but when I tried one after 10min of cooling it seemed still raw in the middle? I don’t usually bake vegan so wasn’t sure if this is how they’re supposed to look inside or if I need to adjust my cooking time!
Hi Hillary! They should be chewy like traditional chocolate chip cookies after firming up. What specific ingredients did you use, and are you at a high elevation or humid climate? Is your oven calibrated and was it preheated? Glad they tasted good in any case!
I’ll never make really CC cookies again! These are AMAZING! My kids love them! Thank you for a great super simple recipe!
Love this recipe!! I used all purpose flour, unsweetened oat milk, extra light olive oil, and for the brown sugar I used dark brown sugar. I ended up doubling the recipe because it made such a teeny tiny amount of dough! Recipe says it makes 11-14 cookies.. assuming they mean tiny cookies! The dough was a bit dry and crumbly at first as the recipe says, so I did end up using about a tablespoon extra of oat milk and it came together nicely. I made decently sized cookies so they baked a bit longer than stated — I didn’t time it, I just kept my eye on them. They came out chewy and delicious!!! Will definitely make again.
thank you so much for making it 🙂
These were DELICIOUS! I’ll be using this recipe from now on! Do you happen to have a recipe just like this one for edible cookie dough or can you please tell me how to convert this recipe into edible cookie dough? Thanks!
Thank you so much for trying them! This cookie dough is actually already eggless as-is 🙂
Great recipe. For some reason, (maybe dough balls being too big or oven not hot enough), the cookies came a little undone. I set oven to 350 and baked another 5 minutes it came out perfect. Thank you!
This makes us so happy 🙂
I’ve tried so many vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes and this is by far THE BEST!! So grateful I stumbled upon this one! Soft, pillowy, and delicious!
Thank you so much for trying them 🙂
I have tried this recipe so many times and my cookies always look lumpy. They taste fine but they look like they are oatmeal cookies even though I didn’t put any oats in them. Everyone else seems to have great results and in your pictures they look beautiful but mine are so ugly and plump I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. Please help!
Hi! This can be due to many things, including type of sugar or flour, humidity in the air, or elevation. You can press the cookies down with a spoon before or after baking 🙂
Works to perfection! Follow the instructions and melt the butter, if you’re using it. I get allergen free chocolate chips from tollhouse and these cookies are divine. I also appreciate that the lack of egg replacer means the dough is not runny. (Some recipes call for applesauce or non-dairy yogurt.) BEST COOKIES I’VE EVER HAD!!
Does anyone have tried and tested metric measurements please? Google always gives different amounts dependant on site and I want to get it right..! Thank you.
Katie just sent a reply to your question where you asked it on facebook. Let us know if you don’t see it!