The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies; perfectly chewy cookies, crammed with chocolate chips and absolutely no animal products!
I will happily take on any person, living or dead, in a formal debate on whether or not chocolate chip cookies are the best snack in existence. My aggression may be misplaced, but seriously they’re great.
There is an irresistible, magnetic pull from a big fat chocolate chip cookie. The kind that tease you with their chocolate chunks and yield so willingly when you bite into that soft centre.
Is it possible though, to create the same delicious appeal without using any animal products? Yes. Yes it is.
Skeptical though I was that a cookie could taste good without the aid of delicious ever-welcome butter, I was happily proven wrong. Butter and eggs are usually two keys ingredients in cookies. The butter provides flavour, and helps the cookies spread and rise when baked. The eggs help to bind the ingredients together and to add moisture and richness. However, it transpires, they are not essential.
Last week was spent in a haze of cookie baking and cookie eating (a good week overall). The (temporarily vegan) Maverick Baking kitchen saw experiments with different kinds of fats, chocolates and flours. We were literally eating cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Finally though, we’ve struck gold.
The secret to the best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies? Extra virgin olive oil.
The oil helps to emulsify and bind the ingredients. The oil prevents the dough from flattening out too quickly in the oven. Above all, the oil adds exceptional and unique flavour. Though you may be used to eating it via salad dressings or pasta dishes, extra virgin olive oil adds a surprisingly welcome bold richness to the cookie dough.
On that basis, not only are these cookies completely vegan, they are also incredibly delicious. But what makes them the best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies? The just-crispy edge, the heavenly soft and chewy centre, the melting chocolate chunks, and the lingering flavour even after you’ve finished the last mouthful.
Plus, they will take less than an hour from start to finish too, so you really have no excuse not to make them.
To make the best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, simply follow the recipe below!
If you want to see how the Maverick Baking VEGANUARY challenge is going, check out the weekly vlog/update!
The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: why not add some chopped hazelnuts or salted peanuts to these cookies?
These Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies will last for up to 5 days in an airtight container or on a covered cake stand. No need to refrigerate!
Ingredients
- 60ml (¼ cup) rapeseed oil (or good quality vegetable oil)
- 60ml (¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil
- 130g (¾ cup, packed) soft light brown sugar
- 130g (¾ cup) caster sugar
- 3 tbsp non-dairy milk (I use oat milk)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 275g (2 ¼ cups) self-raising flour (or plain flour + 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda + ½ tsp baking powder)
- 200g (7 oz) dairy-free chocolate chips or chunks (I use Callebaut dark callets)
- Generous pinch of sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven – 190 C / 170 C fan / 375 F / gas mark 5.
- In a large bowl, beat together your oils and sugars until they resemble wet sand.
- Add your milk and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat again until smooth.
- Gently stir in your flour, chocolate and salt until you have a thick golden cookie dough.
- Line a couple of baking trays with some greaseproof paper.
- Use your hands to roll 12-18 balls of cookie dough and space them out evenly on your lined trays.
- Bake the trays of dough balls (1 tray at a time for best results) for 9-11 minutes. The cookies should look puffed and dry on top.
- Allow the cookies to cool on their trays for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy!
[THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS]
Find them too sweet, can I reduce the sugar to around 200g in total
Hi Tracey, thanks for your comment. Honestly I’ve never tried scaling back the sugar in this recipe as I find it just right both in taste/texture. Feel free to experiment and let me know your thoughts! I predict they will be slightly paler once baked, and the oil flavour may be more prevalent, but go ahead if you enjoy them less sweet! 🙂
I love this recipe! They taste so delicious, my family and I have made them 3 times I the past 4 days now 😀
My only problem I had, was that the edges were getting really “thin” and basically doing the opposite of what a crust does. The edges were getting too hard and thin..I tried to make them big and small but it didn’t help.
The solution I had was to flatten the balls (to look like a mini-hamburger-patty-shape) because once I did that they turned out perfect and look way WAY better.
Thank you for an amazing vegan recipe Kelly, and I hope anyone who had the same issue as me gets to see my comment and doesn’t abandon the recipe!
Thanks so much for the comment and for the tip too! Glad you enjoyed!
I love this recipe! They taste so delicious, my family and I have made them 3 times I the past 4 days now 😀
My only problem I had, was that the edges were getting really “thin” and basically doing the opposite of a crust does. The edges were getting too hard and thin..I tried to make them big and small but it didn’t help.
The solution I had was to flatten the balls (to look like a mini-hamburger-patty-shape) because once I did that they turned out perfect and look way WAY better.
Thank you for an amazing vegan recipe Kelly, and I hope anyone who had the same issue as me gets to see my comment and doesn’t abandon the recipe!
I’ve just finished making these cookies and they are delicious. The sea salt hit and texture make them lush. I added 10g of light muscovado sugar because I didn’t have enough light brown sugar and added 50g each of walnuts and white cookies and cream chips, everything else I kept the same. You have a fab site, E-cookbook and YouTube channel, plus a charming funny personality.
Thanks so much for your lovely comment, Taz! I’m really happy to hear you loved the cookies, and your tweaks sound delicious!