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Tender and chewy, slightly crispy on the edges, these vegan cookies are loaded with melty dark chocolate chips and are so addicting! With just one bowl and 9 ingredients, these are simply the best and easiest vegan chocolate chip cookies!
While I have many cookie recipes on the blog, I didn’t have any for classic, old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Not anymore!
⭐️ Why You Should Try These Cookies
- Crispy on the edges, dense and chewy on the inside. Say goodbye to cakey cookies. These soft-baked cookies have the perfect texture!
- Not overly sweet, yet insanely addicting. This recipe is slightly less sweet than your basic cookie recipe without sacrificing flavor. You won’t stop at one cookie, I promise.
- Simple ingredients. This recipe requires only 9 ingredients you most probably already have on hand. Plus, it requires no applesauce, no flax egg, no nut butter, and no aquafaba!
🍪 How to Make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cookie Dough
The dough can be prepared in just one bowl and makes use of ingredients that are super easy to find. If you are cooking or baking regularly, you most probably already have everything on hand. Here is what you will need:
- All-purpose flour – To keep things simple, I went with regular all-purpose flour. If you want to make the cookies gluten-free, feel free to use your favorite 1:1 gluten-free flour blend.
- Vegan butter – You can use store-bought vegan butter or homemade. Want to learn how to make vegan butter? Check out this Cultured Vegan Butter recipe!
- Brown sugar – Brown sugar brings tenderness and chewiness to the cookies. You can use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. The latter will give your cookies a richer caramel flavor and a darker color.
- Granulated sugar – White sugar does what brown sugar doesn’t. It brings crispiness to the edges.
- Vanilla extract – I highly recommend using a high-quality vanilla extract. It will make a huge difference!
- Dark chocolate chips – Regular chocolate chips or mini chips, that’s your choice. Personally, I prefer the larger chocolate chips for more deliciousness. You can definitely use dark chocolate chunks if you prefer!
- Baking soda and baking powder – To help the cookies rise a little bit. Baking soda also helps with caramelization, adding more flavor.
Start by creaming the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and water.
Next, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until it forms a soft dough. Finally, stir in the dark chocolate chips and stir until the chips are evenly distributed into the dough.
Add-ins Ideas
You don’t have to stick to just chocolate chips! Feel free to be creative and add, for example, nuts like pecans, almonds, or macadamia or dried fruits like cranberries, raisins, or dried cherries. You can also swap the dark chocolate chips for vegan white chocolate chips!
When it comes to flavoring, you can add spices like ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, or infuse the cookie dough with finely chopped orange or lime zest!
Chilling
Once your cookie dough is ready, cover it with plastic wrap and let it chill for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight). This step will 1) Allow the dough to harden a little bit so cookies won’t spread too much during baking. 2) Allow the flavors to merge.
Baking
To bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Next, use a cookie scoop (or a regular spoon) to scoop out about 2 tbsp-size balls of dough. Arrange the balls on the baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes.
Note: Do not overbake the cookies. You want the edges to be crisp, but the inside is still slightly underbaked. Depending on your oven, you might have to adjust the baking time, so keep an eye on the cookies after 10-11 minutes.
📔 Tips
- Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature, especially the butter.
- Do not substitute the brown sugar: if you replace the brown sugar with granulated white sugar, your cookies won’t have the same texture and won’t be as chewy.
- Feel free to add a pinch of cinnamon to the dough for that bakery-style flavor!
- To get perfectly round cookies: as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, place a glass or a mug over a cookie and give it a spin by making a circular motion. This will help smooth the edges and give you perfectly round cookies!
- Right out of the oven, gently press extra chocolate chips into the dough. Your cookies will look even more delicious.
- Wait until the cookies have cooled down for at least 20 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack or plate.
- Sprinkle with coarse sea salt for a balance of sweet and salty!
Isn’t that soft baked texture dreamy?
💬 FAQ
Cookies are best kept in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep for up to 5 days. You can also keep the cookies in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Chilled cookies will be a bit less tender but still delicious!
Yes, scoop out balls of cookie dough and place them on a plate or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze for at least 4 hours before transferring to a freezer bag or box.
To bake the cookies: you can bake the frozen dough directly. No need to thaw it. Simply bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.
Unfortunately no, there are still many brands of dark chocolate chips that include milk powder in the ingredients, so make sure to check the packaging.
I hope you are going to love these vegan chocolate chip cookies! They are super chewy, dense, crispy on the edges, and loaded with gooey dark chocolate chips!
🍫 More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- The Complete Cookie Copycat (5 Flavors!)
- Vegan Shortbread Cookies
- Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 6 tbsp vegan butter softened
- 1 tbsp water
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and water. You can use a spatula or a hand-held mixer for this step.
- Once fully combined and creamy, add the flour, salt, baking soda, baking, and powder. Use a spatula to fold in the mixture until it forms a soft dough.
- Add the dark chocolate chips and mix again until the chocolate chips are evenly distributed. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- To bake: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to
350 °F (175°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. - Scoop out 2 tablespoons-size balls using a cookie scoop or a measuring spoon. Arrange the balls of cookie dough on the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each (as the cookies will spread).
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until just golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and press a few extra chocolate chips on each cookie (for decoration). Note: cookies will look a bit puffy right out of the oven but will deflate a bit as they cool down.
- Let the cookies cool for at least 20 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack or serving plate.
- Cookies will keep for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature, especially the butter.
- Do not substitute the brown sugar: if you replace the brown sugar with granulated white sugar, your cookies won’t have the same texture and won’t be as chewy.
- Feel free to add a pinch of cinnamon to the dough for that bakery-style flavor!
- To get perfectly round cookies: as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, place a glass or a mug over a cookie and give it a spin by making a circular motion. This will help smooth the edges and give you perfectly round cookies!
- Right out of the oven, gently press extra chocolate chips into the dough. Your cookies will look even more delicious.
- Wait until the cookies have cooled down for at least 20 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack or plate.
Nutrition
About the Author
Thomas Pagot is the founder, photographer, and recipe developer behind Full of Plants. He created the blog in 2016 as a personal cookbook for vegan recipes. Through years of recipe development, Thomas has successfully grown Full of Plants into a trusted resource for plant-based recipes.
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HI Thomas, I’m in the USA & have a question: I’m unable to have gluten or “regular” sugars, so I typically use Bob’s Red Mill brand of 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour, & as subsitutes for sugar, I use the Lakanto brand of monkfruit+erythritol in both the white granulated & brown sugar-style granulated options.
Will these substitutions work in this recipe?
Thanks very much!
Hi Andrea,
The gluten-free flour should work. However, for the monkfruit and erythritol, I am not sure as I have never baked cookies using artificial sweeteners.
Thank you, Thomas! I’ll try using the GF flour. As for the monkfruit & erythritol, they are not classified as “artificial” (as in “chemical”) sweeteners but as “sugar alternatives” – monkfruit is a plant in the gourd family & erythritol is a sugar alcohol, a carbohydrate fractionated from sugar. I would never dream of using artificial “chemical” sweeteners in anything I consume, much less in any of your wonderful recipes! But since you haven’t used them in your recipe formulations, I’ll experiment & see how they turn out. Thanks very much again for your response & for these great recipes!
Interesting! Thanks for sharing about that Andrea. I hope you will get great results with those substitutes!
Amazing recipe! I’ll try it. Thank you for sharing.
Hope you will like the cookies Tommy!
This is such a great, versatile recipe! I only had a handful of choc chips, so added nuts and raisins to make up the difference. I reduced the sugar a bit for the raisins, and the cookies came out great.
Glad you liked the cookies Izzi!