Chocolate chip cookies are the quintessential dessert. Homemade cookies can brighten anyone’s day, whether it’s a gift or a plate of cookies left on the work break table with a handwritten sign signaling “Help yourself.”
Like most baked goods, cookies are traditionally made with eggs, milk, and butter — but none of it is necessary. Baking vegan cookies is easy once you know the tips, tricks, and proper substitutions.
Vegan Baking 101
Eggs, milk, butter — as well as honey and white sugar (In the U.S., brands often filter white sugar with animal bone car. Look for organic cane sugar or a “vegan” label.) — are out in vegan baking. But these days, there are plenty of substitutes.
Animal ingredients can be replaced with a vegan alternative (and there are even vegan baking mixes that make life easier).
Alternatives to Eggs
Eggs are critical to baking, providing moisture, fat, and structure or acting as a leavening agent. A lot of ingredients can stand in for eggs. But not every vegan egg substitute is right for every task.
Flax or chia seeds — ground up and mixed with water at a ratio of 1:3 tablespoons and left to sit for about 15 minutes — work in cakes and brownies. A quarter cup of pumpkin (or sweet potato!) or fruit puree replaces one egg in breads, muffins, and cake-y cookies. Aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas) can be whipped up like egg whites to make meringues, macarons, and pavlovas or lend a fluffier texture to baked goods.
For cookies, go for a flax or chia egg, fruit puree, or a commercial egg replacer. Brands you can use for baking cookies include Ener-G, Follow Your Heart, The Vegg, Bob’s Red Mill, and The Neat Egg.
Outside of baking, there are other options like Orgran and the JUST Egg.
Vegan Butter
To replace butter, look for Earth Balance (Buttery Sticks or Spread), Miyoko’s, Nutiva, Flora, Melt, Naturli’, or WayFair. Dairy brands are also now offering vegan options: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and Country Crock. Unrefined coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature, also works in cookies.
There are also an emerging number of smaller brands. Brooklyn-based startup Fora Foods makes FabaButter, a vegan butter made from aquafaba, was tested by vegan chef and best-selling cookbook author Terry Hope Romero. New Jersey-based vegan bakery Om Sweet Om, makes BKLN BUTTAH, a palm oil-free vegan butter used by several local bakers.
Vegan Cookie Ingredients
For chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need flour, vegan sugar, your egg substitute of choice (different uses are shown in the recipes below), dairy-free milk vanilla extract, and add-ins (chopped nuts, dried fruit, candied ginger, peanut butter, fancy sea salt, vegan marshmallows, etc) — oh, and chocolate chips.
Vegan Chocolate Chips
Good chocolate chips don’t need dairy. Look for Enjoy Life, Lily’s Dark Chocolate Premium Baking Chips, Pascha, Equal Exchange Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, or Trader Joe’s (Chips, the Chunks have dairy). For some recipes, you can chop up high-quality chocolate bars instead of using chips. King David makes vegan white chocolate chips.
The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
1. Soft, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These perfectly sweet vegan chocolate chip cookies are packed with chocolate chunks. This beginner recipe uses vegan butter in place of traditional and corn starch instead of an egg. Pro-tip: press more dairy-free chocolate chunks into the cookies right before you pop them into the oven.
Get the recipe here.
2. Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
This one-bowl cookie recipe is ready-to-bake in just 10 minutes — no dough refrigeration necessary. A blend of rice and oat flour stands in for wheat flour, providing a slightly chewy texture that’s perfectly browned around the edges. Grab a glass of dairy-free milk for dunking.
Get the recipe here.
3. ‘The Most Genius’ Chocolate Chip Cookies
This chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from the founders of award-winning New York City bakery Ovenly. Food52 writer Kristen Milgore describes the flavor as: “soft-bellied, chewy, caramelly-crisp-edged, rippled and ringed and puddled with melty chocolate, well-salted.”
These cookies use dark chocolate chips (60 percent or higher), canola oil replaces the egg, a mix of brown and regular vegan sugar, and is garnished with flaky sea salt.
Get the recipe here.
4. Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
Crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, these oat-some chocolate chunk cookies are wholesome, delicious, and perfect for dunking into a glass of non-dairy milk. This can be made one of two ways. For a crispier cookie, use peanut or almond butter. For a cakey cookie, go for applesauce.
Get the recipe here.
5. Paleo Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
You’d never guess that these vegan chocolate chip cookies are paleo. Thick and chewy, these cookies are made with blanched almond flour and tapioca flour. Cashew butter and coconut oil gives it a great texture without adding flavor and for chocolate, you can either go for chips or chop up a dark chocolate bar.
Get the recipe here.
6. Serious Chocolate Chip Cookies
These vegan chocolate chip cookies are next level. A touch of dry malt extract gives them a brown butter-like aroma and flavor while nutmeg adds warm, nutty notes. Dark chocolate is roughly chopped and folded in, giving the dough a thicker texture. A unique homemade oat slurry adds water, protein, and emulsification replaces eggs.
Get the recipe here.
7. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut butter cup, but make it a cookie — these vegan chocolate chip delights are also gluten-free, thanks to blanched almond flour. Flax or chia seeds replace eggs. Top with extra dark chocolate chunks, sea salt, and maybe mini vegan peanut butter cups if you’re feeling fancy.
Get the recipe here.
8. Healthier Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
The classic chocolate chip cookie, made healthier. A blend of whole wheat white and oat replaces all-purpose flour, flax stands in for eggs, coconut oil for butter, and organic coconut sugar instead of white granulated. They’re soft and chewy with a perfectly crisp bottom.
Get the recipe here.
9. ‘The Best’ Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vegan, gluten-free, and oil-free, this vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe checks off a lot of the boxes. Brown rice flour and almond butter gives them a soft and chewy texture with a fudgy center. These come together using only eight ingredients in 20 minutes.
Get the recipe here.
