Easy vegan chocolate chip cookies
These dairy free chocolate chip cookies are crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Absolute best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. Easy to make and uses easy to find ingredients.
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Wow! I have an amazing vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe for your sweet tooth this week.
I recently went on our annual holiday family vacation. Every night, I recipe tested these cookies and shared them with my (non-vegan, but very accepting) family.
I didn’t stop recipe testing these delicious cookies until every single member of my family said they loved them.
So, here is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for my friends with a dairy allergy or vegans.
Why you'll love these cookies
- Egg free, dairy free and absolutely delicious.
- Made with easy to find, simple ingredients.
- Kid friendly and can be made either crispy or chewy, depending on the baking time.
- Can be made all in one bowl.
Ingredients
This recipe uses very simple ingredients. There are no need for eggs in this recipe since they're replaced by baking powder and soy milk to create lift and binding.
- All purpose flour
- Sugar - I use both granulated white sugar and brown sugar. Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar are both fine. You can also use half brown sugar and half white sugar if you'd like. You can also substitute coconut sugar for brown sugar, but the flavor will be different.
- Baking powder and baking soda - these are our leavening agents instead of eggs.
- Vanilla extract
- Soy milk - or any other dairy free milk.
- Sea salt - this helps bring out the flavors even more. Use some flaky salt to top the cookies with for even more flavor.
- Dairy free chocolate chips - Kroger's Simple Truth brand is vegan, and so are Tollhouse's allergy friendly chips.
- Vegan butter or margarine - You can use dairy free butter, or margarine (but check that it’s vegan. Most naturally are) If you find it hard to find vegan butter like Miyokos or Earth balance, don’t sweat it. I’ve also just used Country Crock and it turned out amazingly well.
Pro tips
- Set the margarine out so it softens and is easier to mix with the sugar.
- Don’t over mix the cookie dough once you add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl. Only mix as much as you need to roughly blend the flour in. If you over mix it, it will make the dough tough.
- If you want to make these vegan cookies even more decadent, chop up a dairy free chocolate bar and add it in in addition to the chocolate chips.
- Let the cookie dough sit for at least 30 minutes in the fridge. This rehydrates the flour and makes the texture nice and chewy and prevents them from over spreading.
- To make all of your cookies the same size, use a cookie scoop.
- Use some parchment paper to prevent the cookies from sticking to the cookie sheet and to help them to cook more evenly, if you don't have a non-stick pan.
The best way to measure flour
To make sure that you're not using too much flour and making these cookies too doughy and cake like, it's important to stir up the flour before putting it into your measuring cup.
Step one: Stir the flour.
Step two: Spoon flour into the measuring cup.
Step three: Level off the flour with the flat end of a knife, putting excess flour back into the bag.
Bonus: Use a kitchen weight and measure out the flour in grams. This is the most accurate way to measure flour.
If you want chewy cookies
If you want chewy chocolate chip cookies, then the first thing is to make sure not to over bake them. Take the cookies out after 9-12 minutes, depending on where you live and your oven (if you made the balls of dough about 1.5” big) or until the edges are slightly golden and the middle of the cookie is puffed up.
Let them finish baking on the baking sheet, out of the oven for 5 minutes. They may look a little under done, but letting them sit on the sheet for about 5 minutes makes them nice and chewy.
How to replace eggs in cookies
There are a lot of different ways to replace eggs in baking. Check out my 11 best egg substitutes article if you'd like a full detailed list.
In this recipe we're using baking soda, baking powder and soy milk to replace eggs.
In vegan baking, we rely on the gluten in the flour to be used as binding. That's why we add in soy milk, to get the flour a little bit wet and activate the gluten.
The baking soda and baking powder are used as the leavening agent in this recipe.
Storing tips
Freezer - You can freeze this cookie dough to have on hand any time a cooke craving hits. Just use a cookie scooper to roll the dough into balls. Freeze in a freezer friendly container for up to three months. No need to thaw, just pop them in the oven and add an extra 1-2 minutes on the baking time.
Store in an airtight container in the pantry for 2-3 days. For softer cookies, store with a slice of bread. For crispier cookies, store in an airtight glass container. To have them last even longer, store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
FAQ's
Nestle Toll House - their allergen free Simply Delicious chocolate chips
Enjoy Life brand vegan chocolate chips
Simple Truth (Kroger brand) vegan chocolate chips
Some semi-sweet chocolate chips are accidentally vegan. Just read the ingredients and look for one without milk fat.
In this recipe, I use margarine or vegan butter. Here are some brands I use.
Vegan butter (like Miyokos or Earth Balance brands)
Country crock plant butter
Coconut oil - melted coconut oil or room temperature is fine
Margarine - just double check the ingredients to make sure there isn't any dairy.
As long as the chocolate doesn't have milk or dairy ingredients in it, it's vegan. Many brands don't. Cocoa butter comes from cacao beans and is not dairy derived, so it's ok for vegans to eat.
Chocolate chip cookies can easily be frozen after baking, if you make a large batch. Just store in a freezer friendly, airtight bag for up to three months. Let them thaw in the fridge or on the counter.
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If you loved this recipe, leave a 5 ⭐️ rating on the recipe card and comment below!
📖 Recipe
Best vegan chocolate chip cookies
Equipment
- Hand mixer
Ingredients
- ½ cup margarine or vegan butter (Miyokos, Earth balance or Country Crock plant butter are good.)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar (packed)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons soymilk
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- With an electric mixer, or by hand, cream together the margarine and sugar for 1-2 minutes, making sure it whips up into a creamy mixture. Add the vanilla and soymilk and mix until it starts to look like caramel½ cup margarine or vegan butter, ¾ cup light brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 3 tablespoons soymilk, ¼ cup granulated sugar
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda1 ½ cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. If the dough seems too dry still, add 1 more tablespoon of soymilk. DON'T OVER MIX! Fold in the chocolate chips once batter seems right.1 cup vegan chocolate chips
- Put the batter in the fridge and chill for AT LEAST 30 minutes (24 hours is best, but 30 minutes does the trick as well.) If you're in a hurry you can skip this, but they taste better when they've had time to sit.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Using a 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop, form dough into balls and put on a lined or oiled baking sheet. Bake for 11-12 minutes, or until edges start to look a little golden brown and center is puffed. Every oven is different, so watch your cookies! You may have to bake them a little longer depending on your oven.
- It may still look undercooked in the middle, but it's all good. Once the edges start to look cooked, take cookies out of the oven and let them sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes to finish baking. Place cookies on a cooling rack to finish. If you want crispier cookies, let the cookies bake longer. If you want softer, chewier cookies, bake them less.
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Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Ellen Mee
It worked! The cookies came out soft and delicious. I was looking for a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe for the soft sort of Country Crock-style spread. Thanks for the notes on different vegan butters having different levels of moisture and how to adjust for them.
Maria
So glad you loved the cookies!
Maria
So glad you enjoyed the cookies! Thanks for the kind comment
Lori Fournier
Delicious, easy, perfect texture.