I love making something for my friends to help them through tough times as well as helping them celebrate fun ones — upcoming exams, engagements, and of course birthdays. Well my best friend Kori moved back to North Carolina last week for a new job (she’s from CT too but we both went to undergrad in NC), and she was nervous and excited all at the same time — a perfect opportunity for cookies! Kori offers a particular challenge since she doesn’t eat eggs or butter, but she wouldn’t be Kori if she wasn’t a little difficult, so I started an internet search for the best vegan chocolate chip cookies and voila…
Making vegan chocolate cupcakes as I did for Kori’s birthday doesn’t digress much from a non-vegan recipe, but substituting butter and eggs in cookies is a bit more challenging. As you can see from the photo, the cookies have some cracks in them — this is mostly because the recipe calls for oil, which is a cheaper and somewhat easier alternative in this case to vegan butter, but the stability suffers as a result. Since I made these for her to snack on during the 13 hour road trip, I ended up wrapping them individually in seran wrap so they didn’t crumble too much. With that being said, these cookies were delicious, no matter what kind of diet you adhere to. The addition of molasses really helps achieve the classic chocolate chip cookie taste, and I particularly enjoyed the crunch of the turbinado sugar. I also love the look of chopped dark chocolate in cookies instead of chocolate chips, so that choice made these even more enticing.
If you follow a vegan diet or have a vegan friend moving hundreds of miles away, consider making these cookies and the world will truly be a better place. From this blog you could gather that I’m clearly not vegan, but I do limit my intake of animal products as much as possible — using almond milk in my cereal every morning, incorporating meat into dinners only once a week, and choosing not to eat mammals (i.e. pork and beef). There’s a variety of ethical and health reasons that go into all this, but I just think it’s important to educate yourself on what you choose to put in your body and respect the choices of others. And if you’re interested in other vegan recipes, you have to check out my friend Kori’s fabulous blog: www.kori-lynn.com!
Enough of my soap box, onto the cookies…
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Kirsten’s Kitchen
2 cups flour
1 cup turbinado sugar (or granulated sugar)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks (make sure they’re vegan!)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soy/almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp dark molasses
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees
– In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.
– In another bowl, combine the vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, and molasses.
– Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix well with a wooden spoon or your hands to get the mixture well incorporated.
– Roll dough into compact balls, place on a parchment paper-lined pan, and squish them down to form saucers.
– Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe yields about 16 cookies.
** If you want to try using vegan butter instead to improve the stability of these cookies, just substitute the amount indicated for oil, and cream the room-temperature “butter” in the bowl of an electric mixer with the sugar. Then mix in the rest of the wet ingredients, followed by the dry. Let me know how that turns out if you try it!
you’ve tackled vegan cookies and cupcakes. i bet you can’t make vegan brownies. i bet you can’t. you won’t do it.
Thanks man!!! John and I ate them the entire trip down. Although I felt very fat after sitting for 13 hours and eating a diet of cookies……To be expected
Super yummy recipe. I baked them for a friends’ birthday and she loved them!
Thank you!!! My nursing infant is allergic to milk and eggs, and I live in a country without vegan butter, you are an answer to prayers!!!
so excited to try these! they look wonderful xxo
just baked these and they are so delicious! thanks. the salt does not dissolve if you bake them right away…but i actually liked the taste of the grains.
i made these and they turned out nothing like the picture! did you use chopped chocolate?
These are fabulous! I tripled the recipe for work, as most of my coworkers are vegan. I had to make some substitutions, as I was out of oil (margarine and a banana). But then since I had the banana, I added some coconut and they were crazy delicious.. I’m excited to bring these to work!
I tried it with the “butter” and they “melted” added another 1/3 cup of flour to recipe and it was better but still needs more, maybe up to 1/2 cup
Anonymous, did you see the note at the end of the recipe regarding “butter” substitutions? The butter has to be creamed into the sugar. It should be room temperature and slightly soft, but not melted. Not sure if this helps, but thanks for trying the recipe and providing feedback.
Thanks for this. The egg-laying hens and poor abused dairy cows thank you too. I had a choc chip cookie recipe in one of my vegan cookbooks, but it was a little crumbly. This recipe is just right. I wish more people were aware of just how easy and yummy vegan baking can be.
Ok, this recipe is by far the best vegan cookie recipe I’ve come across. I made these last night and they are seriously the best cookie I’ve had – vegan or not. They held up perfectly and they taste even better than some that I’ve had at various vegan bakeries. Thanks so much for this!
Awesome!
These cookies were AMAZING!!! The BEST recipe EVER!! These tastes better than Mrs. Field’s cookies. I will always make these from now on. The original recipe with the vegetable oil worked well for me. Thanks!!
I found this recipe online. I used vegan butter and they were absolutely delicious. I added walnuts to mine – YUMMY!
This is the best cookie I have ever had….omg thank you for this. I came home to a large plate of cookies my boyfriend mad me and these were them. You’re recipe is a gift from the vegan gods!
i made these today and OMG!!! i used earth balance instead of oil and put the dough in the fridge for about an hour before shaping and baking. so delicious!! my batch made 12 and needed 11 minutes to be chewy on the inside and a little crunchier on the outside. incredible! since becoming vegan, ive always missed that chewy kind of cookie. but these are perfect!
I tried these and they were wonderful. The only thing is they took 15-20 minutes to bake without falling apart.
These were very good cookies {except if you make the first batch without sugar! LOL. And honestly those weren’t that bad, you could taste the salt a lot in those} the 2nd batch I made were very good, couldn’t even tell it was a vegan cookie!! So delicious.
My only probably was it was a dry batter. I don’t know what happened but I had to add some more oil to it. Next time though I am going to try butter instead and see if that makes a difference.
I will definitely be making these again though, very good!
e.
These were delicious!!! Thanks!
I used a dark chocolate bar that I chopped in my blender first. I then added 1 1/2 teaspoons of cayanne pepper for a little kick at the end. DELICIOUS!
Shouldn’t the sugar be mixed with the wet ingredients?
Hi, is there anyway to substitute the molasses with something easier to find in a store, or just leave it out? It’s just very hard to come by it where I live :)
Thanks for the recipe, looks great!
Erica — February 13th, 2012 @ 1:20 pm
I think the molasses is important for adding the “Chocolate chip cookie” flavor, but maybe substitute brown sugar for the granulated/tubinado sugar? I’m not sure what else could be substituted, but you could see what Google comes up with :) Good luck!
Anonymous — February 21st, 2012 @ 3:28 am
I decided to use maple syrup in the batter since I have the same problem of finding stuff in the small town where I live and it did a good job of adding that brown sugary flavor :)
This cookies are delicious! A complete success with my kids and husband. Thanks!
Anonymous — February 19th, 2012 @ 1:01 am
Sorry for the misspelled word. I meant to say: “These cookies are delicious! A complete success with my kids and husband. Thanks!”
I’m in the process of turning Vegan from Vegetarian and my 5 year old just loved these cookies. Thanks so much for the recipe.
I made these today with a few minor changes and they were a hit! I used Earth Balance Margarine instead of the oil and unpacked, dark brown sugar instead of the molasses/sugar combo. Mine didn’t look anything like the pictures here, but held together just as well “regular” cookies.
Hi Erica, this was a fantastic recipe and I hope you don’t mind that I linked to your recipe from my vegan baking blog! http://dessertface-adventures.blogspot.com/2012/02/sorghum-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan.html
Keep it up!! I would love to see more vegan recipes as I would definitely try all of them in the near future :)
Erica — February 28th, 2012 @ 1:35 pm
Connie yours look wonderful! Glad you like the recipe :) I’ll make sure to try some more vegan recipes for my blog soon
I made these twice, once with turbinado sugar and once with brown sugar. Both were delicious, but came out totally different. The turbinado cookies came out quite crunchy and were very dark in color. The brown sugar cookies looked like a traditional cookie and were moist and chewy. Thanks so much! Finally a vegan cookie recipe that tastes good and doesn’t call for 3 kinds of flour and hard to find ingredients!
I made a similar cookie to this recipe except it said ‘use oil or vegan butter’. For some stupid reason I added BOTH. Well they turned out awesome. Super gooey just like a ‘normal’ chocolate chip cookie. Double the fat but oh well it’s a cookie!
Holy MOLY!!!! I used 1/4 brown sugar and 1/2 turbinado and I swear they dont taste at all vegan! So moist and chewy, my family LOVES this recipe… in fact, we’re making heart shaped ones and using them in our wedding shoot (the couple is vegan) on the 24th (of march), can we link back to you as the inventor of this INCREDIBLE recipe? The world needs to try these cookies!
Erica — March 8th, 2012 @ 1:11 pm
Sooo glad you enjoyed them! Yes, please link back :)
Kim & Kelley — March 19th, 2012 @ 2:16 am
After we do the wedding this Saturday, I will make sure to send you the link… eating more of those fab cookies, I just can’t get enough! There’s just something about the Molasses that makes them extra amazing…
Holy MOLY!!!! I used 1/4 brown sugar and 1/2 turbinado and I swear they dont taste at all vegan! So moist and chewy, my family LOVES this recipe… in fact, we’re making heart shaped ones and using them in our wedding shoot (the couple is vegan) on the 24th (of march), can we link back to you as the inventor of this INCREDIBLE recipe? The world needs to try these cookies!
Kim & Kelley — March 19th, 2012 @ 2:16 am
After we do the wedding this Saturday, I will make sure to send you the link… eating more of those fab cookies, I just can’t get enough! There’s just something about the Molasses that makes them extra amazing…
I’ve pinned these on Pinterest – they are my go to chocolate chip cookie. I’ve made them several times now. I typically substitute 1/3 cup of applesauce for 1/3 of the oil to lower the fat and I use sucanut instead of turbinado (and only 3/4 cup at most). Every time they come out delicious and I love that they freeze well so I’m not tempted to eat them all at once. I really dislike day old cookies but freezing these keeps them remarkably “fresh” tasting. Thank you so much for the fabulous recipe!
amazing!!!! just made them today and everyone in my family is going crazy over them. so easy – in fact, easiest choc chip cookie recipe I’ve ever used and so incredibly delicious. followed the recipe to a “T” with 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup stone ground flour (just because that’s what I had available). these were the perfect consistency – nice and gooey chocolate chips and melt in your mouth taste. thanks so much – there is no other chocolate chip recipe for me!!!
Made these with a little over 1/2 c oat fiber subbing some flour (maybe around 2/3 c), 1/2 c sugar (tasted plenty sweet! used turbinado), 1/3 applesauce subbing half the oil (had to add another dash oil AND almond milk to the batter though, it was dry), almond milk, 1 TB flaxmeal (added into the wet ingredients), and no chocolate chips (had none on hand). Puffy and soft, didn’t spread much but were DELICIOUS. Since I didn’t have any “mix-ins” I told my roomie to think of them as snickerdoodles and she thought they were delicious…as did I. [: Of course, the fiber changes the texture somewhat, but I would say that making these with flour would still have amazing results! Thanks! Easy, fast, awesome.
I just made these and they are SO good I had to comment – which I never do. I just ate 3 in a row – which I also never do. Good thing I halved the recipe because I’ll probably end up eating all of them. Such a good treat…THANKS!
These are so good! Number 1 favorite
Anonymous — March 21st, 2012 @ 10:11 pm
this is me again! I just had another! Wish I could have the whole batter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unbelievably delicious. My 4 year old son has allergies to dairy, egg and corn. Finding treats for him has been a challenge but this are the BEST chocolate cookies – vegan or not. My husband has NOT stopped raving about them and my 7 year took one bite and said, “Are you serious????”.
Your recipe is really good. This was the first vegan dessert I’ve ever made as I’m learning about vegan cooking… and eating. I used Earth Balance butter (didn’t cream it first and was a little freaked out when I mixed it in the mixer with the other wet ingredients and it didn’t want to mix like normal butter), used unbleached flower and substituted 2/3 cup Madhava raw agave nectar for the sugar (first time ever using agave). The end result was a very sticky batter, but once baked for 11 minutes, the cookies are delicious. I used about a 1/4 cup more flour in the second batch and they were much easier to work with and also turned out perfectly. Thanks for sharing!
I was wondering if i could substitute coconut oil for the vegetable oil, has any one tried it before?
Instead of vegetable oil I used half peanut oil and half coconut oil and it worked out fine. They are good but too sweet for my liking!
I just made these for my husband and I and they are AMAZING! YUM! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Just made these with Earth Balance margarine and they turned out FANTASTIC!
These are absolutely delicious. Instead of molasses and regular sugar I used brown sugar. I also added chopped walnuts and coconut to half of the batch. These were absolutely delicious, you can’t even tell they are vegan. As a vegan I appreciate your original recipe -THANKS!
I just baked them, I am a vegan, and I am going to blog this Saturday, holy cats they are AWESOME! Used regular sugar, soy milk, and baked them 8 minutes. THANK YOU.
Just made these subbing the veggie oil for coconut oil and organic agave for molasses. Turned out great! Wonderful texture – what a great recipe! XO
Love these!! I am nursing a sensitive baby can’t have dairy, soy, or eggs. I used the earth balance soy and dairy free butter. I also added about 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Sooooooo many compliments and no one believes me they are vegan!! Thanks!!!
I just made these cookies. I used 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar but did not use the molasses. I used vegetable oil. I got 2 dozen really good sized cookies. These cookies are better then a regular cookie and so easy to make.. Thanks for the recipe :)
I have the giant cookie baking as I type. I used about a 1/2 cup of soy milk to get the dough to stick together well. And I used a 1/3 of olive oil and 1/3 of vegan margarine. i also used my leftover easter chocolate bunny chopped up as the chips :) the dough was delicious and the cookie itself is almost done…. It’s taking about 15 minutes total in the oven on 325. first on the middle rack and then on the top one.
Thanks for the great recipe. They were delicious and not difficult at all to make. Hope it will help people to realize how delicious vegan can be, and that it’s not difficult at all.
These were the first vegan treats I have ever baked and I was so pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully they turned out. I am not a vegan, but my friend is. I used nuttellex (Australian vegan butter) instead of oil. Yum!
I’ve made these so many times. These are absolutely the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookies ever. I’ve made these for so many dinner parties and events. People love them! Thank you so much!
just made some of these with some thc-infused veggie oil and hoowee they were damn good. normally i’d have to make a separate batch for my girlfriend since she’s vegan, but now i can just make these and not only do they get you BAKED, but they are also quite delicious
When I made the batter it was really soft but it tasted good. I just took the cookies out of the oven so I haven’t tried them. When I was making them into balls it was really sticky. My sister is allergic to milk eggs butter peanuts all that so I wanted to make her something tattle whole family would enjoy. Is there anything I could do to not male the batter so sticky and soft??
I just made these for my step-dad with non-vegan chocolate chunks (that’s what he bought and wanted). I didn’t tell him the batter was vegan until he ate one and declared them “excellent.” :)
I just wanted to say.. I’ve made these several times. They are totally awesome, especially if you “smush” them down on the cookie sheet and they’re pretty flat.. very chewy! I’ve baked them for friends, colleagues .. and coworkers. They all love them! They couldn’t tell they were vegan until I told them.
These are awesome! I added cocoa powder to make them double chocolate chip cookies and used applesauce instead of oil. Delicious! I’ll be saving this recipe for sure!
These are delicious! I’ve made them three times, each time adding my own little touch to them. Two times I added cocoa powder, used 1/3 c applesauce and 1/3 oil. This last time I used 1 cup flour, 1 1/4 c oats, used 1/3 + 1/6 applesauce and 1/6 olive oil, 1/2 c white sugar and 1/2 c brown sugar, and i used a little extra vanilla. sooo good!
Made these and my non vegan friend said they were nice but could tell they were vegan, and butter was missing … Lol next time I will make this with vegan butter. I’d give them a 9/10 though. I added coca powder to make them extra chocolatey.
These exceeded my expectations. I used to pride myself on my chocolate chip cookies, then I converted to veganism and was unsure I would be able to find a recipe that met my standards. I am now in love with these. I used whole wheat flour, almond milk, half olive oil and half coconut oil, half white sugar and half brown and I added almost a cup of coarsely chopped cashews. I used regular (non-vegan) chocolate chips that I had leftover. I think with the addition of the nuts the batter was a little dry and crumbly, so I added a bit more oil and almond milk and they turned out perfect. Once they cool, they are not too crumbly at all, the texture is perfectly chewy with just a bit of crunch around the edges. :)
Wow. These cookies are awesome. I made a couple of changes though, instead of chocolate chips, I used vegan carob chips ( can’t tell the difference) and I melted 2/3 cups of Earth Balance vegan butter sticks instead of vegetable oil. Great vegan Recipe. Love it! Thanks.
How do we feel about me not having any molasses?
Erica — October 16th, 2012 @ 12:45 pm
I think the molasses is pretty important for getting that signature chocolate chip cookie taste, but just substitute some brown sugar for the turbinado and you could still get enough of the molasses flavor.
I made these in a slightly different fashion and just posted the recipe to my blog! Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe.
<3 Melissa
wildflwrchild.blogspot.com
This is my favorite veganified chocolate chip cookie recipe! Thank you, thank you! A friend and I just made a batch with crushed candy canes and a bit of peppermint extract. Chocolate peppermint chip cookies, anyone? Definitely worth a try.
Wow, your eating philosophy is so much like mine! I’d like to be high-raw vegan, but while my tastes and habits adjust, I have meat maybe twice a week (usually only a half serving or less), I average less than half a serving of dairy per day, and never buy jugs of milk anymore. I call myself a “meat minimalist”, though maybe it’s really “animal minimalist” (“ani-minimist” for short? Hehe, what a mouthful.)
I doubled the recipe and used whole wheat pastry flour, subbing almond flour for a quarter of it. I actually went over to Kirsten’s Kitchen and printed that up to go off of, which uses a little less oil than this one, and I used Earth Balance for half, grapeseed oil for a quarter, and applesauce for a quarter. I added almond extract, and used almond milk. I think I made them too big, but the dough was so hard to work with, and I didn’t have time to chill it (ended up an hour late to the ward christmas party making these!)… so after baking them all for about 12 minutes, they still stayed almost too soft to hold together. I had to put wax paper between layers… but boy-golly were they tasty!
Thanks for sharing this along with the link to the original!
I just found this recipe and made them. We have recently gone vegetarian and are trying to go vegan as well gradually. These are soooo good! i ended up using half regular flour and half whole wheat, Vanilla Flax Milk and Earth Balance Soy Free spread and they turned out excellent! Definitely a keeper! My picky son even likes them too!
I just made these and they are delicious! I used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 spelt flour. I also ran out of vanilla extract, but happened to have a whole vanilla bean that I scraped the seeds from…Yum :) I used Earth Balance, slightly too much due to a miscalculation (oops), and they came out nice and crispy on the outside at 10 minutes in the oven. I assume if I used the right amount of EB, they would have been somewhat thicker and just as crisp on the outside. I usually try to bake low-fat, but every now and then I just need a yummy chocolate chip cookie…I think this will be my recipe from now on!
Just wanted to say that I’ve been making these cookies for the last year or so and my son loves them, he even tells his friends that his mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever. Thanks for the great recipe!
Holy Wow! these cookies are Fan-fricken-tabulous!! This is one recipe everyone ( vegan or not ) should try at least once, and then continue making them because they are that good. Thank you Erica for sharing this little piece heaven – Sincerely one non vegan who ls watering at the mouth.
Each cookie has 17g of fat :(
This is my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. My best success was using vegan butter and substituting half the sugar for maple syrup. The cookies came out thick, moist, soft, and chewy. Yum!
I love this recipe, but honestly, you state to respect others “choices” about what they put into their bodies. Ummm if your choice includes the destruction, murder, rape and torment of others, you clearly do not respect their choice not to have their children stolen, be stabbed in the neck, be hooked and drowned in a most painful manner. So please do not discuss ethics, or choices when discussing so blatant a lie. If you think your “choice” does not effect others look at their bodies and respect them. http://www.earthlings.com
Just made these for the first time today. I used earth balance butter and brown sugar and they are amazing! I also used whole wheat pastry flour because it is what I have. My new favorite cookie recipe!
Thats sweet!
Thank you for providing the information. I agree with you. i try to implement in my site
Great Article! Keep sharing such beautiful information regarding chocolate chip cookies, Going to get some cookies!
Austintrim