America's favorite cookie made vegan! Soft and chewy, full of yummy chocolate chips with just the right amount of sweetness. This recipe for Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies is freaking amazing!
The prized chocolate chip cookie. Queen of all cookies, sought after by almost everyone on any diet. All eaters adore the beloved chocolate chip cookie!
So I set out to create the best plant based chocolate chip cookie recipe there ever was! Did I succeed? Well, that will be up to you. But I think these soft, chewy, chocolatey, gooey cookies are really good.
Before my plant based journey began, Alton Brown's the Chewy was my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I used it all the time. So when it came time to develop my own version of vegan chocolate chip cookies, I used that same recipe for some inspiration.
As most of you know, baking is a science. It's not like cooking where you can turn a failed recipe into something else. In baking, if a recipe doesn't work, it just doesn't work. It can be frustrating at times, but once you figure out the equation it's like magic.
Fortunately, for me I've dabbled in plant based baking for quite a few years now. And cookies are one of the most forgiving baked goods when it comes to plant based baking. I'm proud to say that this recipe only took two tests to develop and two more tests to verify the taste.
History of Chocolate Chip Cookies
The chocolate chip cookie was invented in the late 1930's by the American chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides. At the time, Wakefield owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts where she served delicious cookies full of chocolate chips that would soon become America's favorite cookie. These cookies would eventually come to be known as Toll House chocolate chip cookies. The same trademark name many still use today.
There is a myth that Wakefield accidentally developed the recipe. The myth says that she expected the chunks of chocolate to melt away, which would have created a cookie with chocolate flavor, but no chips. Yet, that is not the case. In fact, chocolate chip cookies were purposely created by the talented chef to be the cookie that we all know and came to love.
Eventually, Wakefield gave her famous cookie recipe to Nestle. She was paid with a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Ingredients Needed
Get out your baking supplies! No crazy ingredients needed for this recipe. Just your typical cookie ingredients and some plant based baking love.
- Chocolate Chips
- Vegan Butter
- Flour
- Sugar
- Light Brown Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Ground Flaxseed
- Almond Milk
- Vanilla
It goes without saying that chocolate chips are the primary ingredient of this recipe.
But the base of this recipe is the dough just like any other cookie recipe. Vegan butter is used in place of real butter along with the standard flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda combination. Like most chocolate chip cookie recipes light brown sugar is the primary sweetener bringing a hint of molasses to the cookies. I used both baking powder and baking soda in this recipe to get the right amount of rise in this vegan version.
Ground flaxseed is used as a replacement for eggs and to help bind the cookies together. Unsweetened almond milk is the dairy free alternative used to both add moisture and make the flax egg.
And last but not least, vanilla and salt play an important role in this recipe. Both ingredients give the chocolate chips a boost in flavor highlighting the star ingredient of the cookie.
How to Make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is simple to make!
It is recommended that a stand or hand mixer is used to make the dough, but it isn't necessary. So don't worry if you don't own a mixer. I will admit that making the recipe without a mixer will mean putting some elbow grease into it, but the results will be the same delicious cookies.
The recipe begins by melting the vegan butter and then setting it aside to cool. Then you prep your ground flaxseeds that will bind the cookies together by mixing the ground flaxseeds with the vanilla and almond milk.
Next, you get your dry ingredients ready by sifting them together into a medium size bowl. Now, pour your melted butter into the bowl of your stand mixer along with the sugars and beat together with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes until nice and fluffy. Then reduce the speed of your mixer and add in the flaxseed mixture beating again until thoroughly combined. Once the mixture is good and creamy, keep the mixer running on low while gradually adding the sifted ingredients a little at a time making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips.
And there you have it! You've made chocolate chip cookie dough! You will need to chill the dough in the fridge for an hour before baking.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, heat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Now, scoop 2 tablespoon size portions of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. There should be 6 cookies per sheet pan. Crowding the sheet pan will result in cookies that spread into each other.
Finally, bake the cookies 2 sheet pans at a time for 15 minutes rotating them halfway through. Be sure to leave the baked cookies on the sheet pan for 5 minutes to cool before placing them on a cooling rack.
Now eat a cookie! And repeat.
Leftovers & Variations
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. They make fantastic ice cream cookie sandwiches!
For variations to the recipe, I suggest you leave it exactly as it is in terms of the dough itself. Remember baking is kitchen chemistry in some ways. But you can add whatever you like to the dough in place of or in addition to the chocolate chips and the cookies will still come out great. Nuts could be a nice addition to the chocolate chips. Half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips could be amazing too. The add ins are up to you.
These Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies are amazing because they are...
- Plant based magic in a cookie
- Soft, chewy, gooey good
- Packed with chocolate chips
- Divine without the dairy
- Store well in the freezer
I hope you love my Vegan Chocolate Chip cookies recipe!
If you try this recipe please let me know how it turns out by leaving a comment and rating. You can also hashtag #danceswithknives with a photo of your creation on Instagram where you can find me @dances_with_knives.
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The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegan butter, melted
- 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, 340 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup sugar, 150 grams
- ½ cup light brown sugar, 108 grams
- 1 ½ tablespoon ground flaxseed meal
- ⅓ cup plant based milk, unsweetened
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups vegan chocolate chips, 12 ounces
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove or in the microwave. Then set aside to cool.
- Combine the ground flaxseed meal, almond milk, and vanilla. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside
- Pour the melted butter into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Add the sugar and light brown sugar. Beat together with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer or with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. You can also do this by hand, but will take more effort.
- Now reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add the flaxseed, almond milk, and vanilla mixture to the vegan butter and sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined. This will take about 30 seconds to a minute.
- Next, with the mixer still on low speed, gradually add the sifted dry ingredients a little at a time to the mixture. I usually add a third of the flour mixture at a time. Stop the mixer from time to time to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Again, you can do this by hand.
- Once the flour is fully mixed in, add the chocolate chips. Or fold in by hand.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour.
- To bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon size portions of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Six cookies per sheet pan. If you are like me and want perfectly sized cookies you may want to weigh your dough. 2 tablespoon size portions comes out to be about 1.5 ounces or 42 grams in weight per cookie. You don't need to do this, but it is something professional chefs do to get cookies the exact same size.
- Bake the cookies 2 sheets at a time for 14 minutes rotating the pans halfway through. Allow the baked cookies to cool on the sheet pan for about 5 minutes before removing. Then finish cooling on a cooling rack or treat yourself to the yummy goodness right away!
Mark says
Really is one of the best vegan chocolate chip recipes I have tried. How do you think it would do using gluten free flour? Any specific brands you suggest?
Kim says
Gluten free flour will work. Cookie recipes are pretty forgiving, so any brand of one to one gluten free flour will work as long as it has xanthan gum on the ingredient list. Thanks for following me! Happy baking.