Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Tried and true, these are the most perfect vegan chocolate chip cookies ever! Made in 1 bowl and oh-so-soft, chewy and full of chocolate chips!
Everybody has their go-to, tried and true chocolate chip cookie recipe, right? Well, I used to before going vegan and since then it’s been hit or miss. I have tried countless recipes over the years, and some have been pretty good but I had yet to find the PERFECT recipe I was looking for. Until now.
What makes these cookies so perfect?
- They are SO soft, chewy and full of chocolate chips. They aren’t too flat, and they aren’t too puffy and cake-like. No one would guess they’re vegan, unlike some cookie recipes I’ve tried.
- They’re made in 1 bowl.
- No chilling time is required for the dough. So you can have cookies to eat FAST!
How to make vegan chocolate chip cookies
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the softened vegan butter and brown sugar.
- Mix in the flax egg and vanilla.
- Add the flour, and then sprinkle the cornstarch, baking soda and salt on top of the flour. Mix on low to combine.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Look at that cookie dough! Perfection.
- Roll the dough into 1-2 tablespoons sized balls. Bake for about 10 minutes for smaller cookies, or 12 for larger cookies, until puffy and just slightly golden on the sides. They will look underdone, but will firm up considerably as they cool. Do not over bake!
Are all chocolate chips vegan?
No, a lot of brands have milk fat or butter oil in them. Check the ingredients to ensure vegan friendliness. Trader Joe’s brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips happen to be vegan, as are Guittard. Costco sometimes carries the Kirkland brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips, which are also vegan and a great price if you can find them! There is also Enjoy Life, which you can find on Amazon or Whole Foods.
If you are really having trouble finding vegan chocolate chips, you can always look for dairy free chocolate bars, and chop them into chunks.
What should the cookie dough feel like?
The cookie dough should be soft and mushy, but not too wet or too dry. You should be able to easily roll it into balls. If it feels too wet, add a few tablespoons of flour at a time until it’s just right. If it’s too dry, add a tablespoon or two of almond milk.
This is important because the kind of vegan butter (or coconut oil) you use will affect the dough, as well as how you measure your flour, and just the temperature and altitude of where you live. If your dough is too wet, the cookies will spread; if too dry the cookies won’t spread enough.
That said, I never have to add extra flour or milk when I make them exactly as written.
How to freeze the dough
Roll the cookie dough into balls and freeze in a large ziplock type bag. When you want to bake cookies simply preheat the oven and bake, adding a few more minutes since the dough was frozen.
Baked cookies also freeze well and are wonderful straight from the freezer. I love having frozen cookies to throw in my kid’s lunch box on school days.
Want more vegan cookie recipes?
- Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Classic Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Vegan Ginger Cookies
Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 2.5 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) vegan butter, slightly softened to room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups non-dairy chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or lightly spray with oil.
- Mix the ground flaxseed and water in a small bowl and set aside to make your flax egg.
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the softened vegan butter and brown sugar for 1-2 minutes until creamy.
- Add the vanilla and the flax egg and mix to combine.
- Next, stop the mixer and add the flour. Sprinkle the cornstarch, baking soda and salt on top of the flour. Turn the mixer on low speed, and mix until just combined.
- Add in the chocolate chips to incorporate, either by hand or using the mixer.
- Roll the dough into balls, about 1-2 tablespoons each. Place on the prepared pans and bake for 10 minutes (12 minutes for larger cookies), until they are barely golden around the edges. Do not over bake! They will be puffy and lightly colored.
- Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies will firm up as they cool, and become the most perfect chewy cookies ever! Enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Cookies will stay fresh for 3-4 days, if they last that long.
- TIP: Freeze cookie dough balls to have on hand to make just a few cookies at a time! Simply cook for 1-2 minutes more, no need to thaw.
- May substitute coconut oil for the vegan butter if desired. Just make sure it's not melted, you want it to be semi-firm.
- If you don't like salt in your cookies or your vegan butter is very salty already, you may omit the salt.
- Recipe inspired by Sally's Baking Addiction.
Nutrition
*Post last updated August 15th, 2019.
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865 Comments on “Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies”
Any ideas what I could replace the corn starch with? My baby has an intolerance to corn!
Thanks:)
Sure! Leave it out if needed, they are fine without it. Or you can substitute tapioca starch or arrowroot. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
These cookies are amazing. My son said they taste just like regular…even better. They freeze perfect. I’m so happy I found this recipe since changing to a plant based diet. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Joanne. Thank you for sharing your wonderful review! I’m so glad you and your son like the cookies, and I’m glad you found my recipe as well! I hope you enjoy exploring many more of my recipes. Happy cooking!
one of the best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Thank you, Jessica! I’m glad you love the cookies!
Hi Nora! I love your recipes and have made so many tasty dishes! I made these vegan chocolate chip cookies, but my partner and I found them too sweet; the texture and everything were great. I’d like to make it again but with half the amount of brown sugar – I know that’s knew to moist cookies so do you have any other recommendations for how to make-up for cutting out the brown sugar? Thank you!
Thanks so much! Honestly, I’ve tried using regular sugar before and they were pretty bad. You might be able to cut the brown sugar in half, or decrease it a bit, but if you decrease it too much the texture will probably be quite different.
These were great – I like a crispier cookie, so I used half white and half brown sugar, and reduced the temp to 310, baked for 15 mins, then raised the temp to 375 for 5 mins to crisp. I also used just 1 cup of chips because that’s what I had. But these were the best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever!
Thank you for sharing, Nanette! I’m glad you loved the cookies!
These are one of the best chocolate chip cookies I ever made, vegan or otherwise.
I think I overbaked a minute or two, as they don’t really spread or flatten much and I made them small, so was able to get 37 cookies. My vegan daughter loved them, said they reminded her of the little David’s cookies, small and crisp. I also added a smidge more salt as I love the salty /sweet thing.
I did not have cornstarch, so subbed same amount of arrow root.
Nora, your recipes are always spot on. Thanks so much, this a keeper.
Thank you for sharing your comments, Patty. I’m glad you guys love the cookies! Thank. you for using my recipes, and happy cooking!
SO. GOOD. I can’t believe how delicious these are. I’m slowly transitioning into veganism, but I love to bake and have a huge sweet tooth. I can honestly say the dessert recipes on this website (especially the brownies, french toast, chocolate cake, and now these!) have made a big difference and helped to ease the transition. Thank you!!!
Hi Mary! I’m thrilled you are loving my recipes! Thank you for sharing your great review, and happy cooking!
I loved these!!! Mine were thicker at the end as they didn’t fall as much as the ones in the picture, but they were great. I didn’t have enough chocolate chips so I added half pecans and chefs kiss perfection. I’m going to try half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips next. Yay to finally having a go to cookie recipe!!
I’m really glad you love these cookies, Lauren, and that they will be your go to cookie recipe! The peanut butter chips sound delicious! Thank you for sharing!
I make these all of the time and they are amazing. My go-to cookie.
Thanks Catherine! I’m thrilled these are your go to cookies!
Thank you for creating delicious and simple recipes that are enjoyed by everyone! These vegan chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING!
Thank you, Kristi! I appreciate your kind review!
Your recipes are foolproof! Love it, Nora. Thank you so much!
This recipe is amazing. Thank You!
I’m really glad you love the cookies, Lisa! Thank you for sharing!
Not only is this THE best vegan cookie recipe, all of her recipes are the best vegan recipes I’ve ever tried! They’re always a hit with everyone I share them with; all being people who aren’t even vegan! Honestly, any time you’re looking to bake something vegan, I’d recommend if noracooks has a recipe first before trying anything else, it’s bound to be the best.
Hi there! Thank you for your kind and wonderful review! It means a lot to me! I’m glad you love the cookies! Happy cooking!
These are my favorite vegan chocolate chip cookies!
I’m so glad, Tracy! Thank you!
Best vegan cookies! Correction: best cookies ever.
Thank you!
Nora!! These were seriously amazing. I’ve been working for months trying to find a vegan choc chip cookie recipe that works (all others I’ve tried haven’t even been edible) and then I came across this delight! Your recipes never fail!
Thank you, Bre, for your great review. I am thrilled that you love my cookie recipe! Thank you for using my recipes, and happy cooking!
This is the first chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ve tried since becoming vegan about two months ago and I just made them for the third time! They are so, so good, some of the best cookies I’ve ever had (and definitely the best cookies I’ve ever made myself)!
I’ve found that I prefer the taste when I halve the cornstarch, and I usually only include just over 1 cup of dairy free chocolate chips so that I don’t have extras rolling around in the bottom of the bowl.
I highly recommend this recipe! Thank you for publishing it!
I”m glad you love the cookies, Jacob! Thank you for taking you time to share your comments!
soooooo good. i only used 1/2c of chocolate chips, and found that was enough
I’m glad you love the cookies, Nicole! Thank you for sharing!
Cookies were SO good! Thank you so much for this recipe Nora!
I’m glad you loved them, Eva! Thank you for sharing!
Best. Cookies. Ever! Just like your chocolate cake & brownie recipes, everyone who tries them loves them & no one ever guesses they’re vegan.
Quick question on substitutions… we’re trying to lower our refined sugar intake. Have you tried these with coconut sugar, date paste, agave syrup, monk fruit sweetener or any combination of the above? Thanks so much in advance!
Thanks Lara, I’m so glad you like the cookies! You could totally try using coconut sugar or monk fruit, but I would advise against any liquid sweetener. The cookies will taste different without brown sugar, which adds a lot of moisture, but the recipe will still work with something like coconut sugar. Thanks!
Tastes really good. We used Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, so we needed to add about 1 more Tablespoon of water. I don’t think anyone would guess that these are vegan. Children are making yummy noises.
Hi Kristen. Thank you! I’m glad the children liked the cookies and made yummy noises! So fun!
Daaaaayummn! These cookies are delicious! 💃🏼💯
Glad you love them! Thank you and Happy Valentine’s Day!
Delish! I made per recipe and they were gobbled up. Wondering about adding some chopped walnuts next time not sure how much to add without messing up bake time. Going to try 3/4 a 1/4 cup chopped
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies. Yes, you could add anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, however much you prefer really.
Wow! These cookies are awesome. My boys and I love them. They turned out so good. I used organic stone ground whole grain wheat flour and Becel Vegan Margarine and Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer instead of the flax egg. Thanks for the recipe. Bookmarked:)
Hi Blaine! Thank you! I’m glad the cookies are a hit!
My go-to recipe. I make half a batch with chocolate chunks, the other half with sprinkles. Everyone loves them!
Sounds great, I’m so glad they are your go-to recipe! Love the sprinkles idea, I’ll have to try that sometime.
These are SO GOOD! they are actually better the 2nd day. I can really taste the flax but I think mine was just too old and maybe slightly rancid. I will totally be trying this again (with fresh flax). Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Larissa!