Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I would be lying if I said vegan baking wasn't a challenge. As both a professional and home baker, butter and cream have become my nearest and dearest of friends. Scarcely a day has passed in the last few years where we haven't created beautiful things together (or, at the very least, greeted one another when I opened the refrigerator door). I like to imagine I've developed a feel for baking—for the elasticity of bread dough beneath my fingertips or the proper weight of a cookie balanced on an outstretched hand. I've grown so much as a baker in the last couple years, from my hesitant beginnings to here and now.

Vegan baking, however, makes me feel like I've started back at square one.

I made a promise to you when I took on this challenge—to use familiar, everyday ingredients and keep the recipes approachable. Little did I know it was much easier said than done. There are so many recipes out there that use "faux" versions of butter, eggs, and cream in place of their real counterparts (and the recipes just don't measure up). While I know butter isn't good for me, I can't imagine partially hydrogenated soybean oil is going to be any better. I can't even buy vegan egg replacement in my neck of the woods.

The vegan recipes I want to share with you aren't intended to be lesser versions of originals, but rather unique and delicious on their own accord.

With these lofty goals, I approached the kitchen last weekend feeling confident. After scraping half a dozen inedible delights into the garbage can, it was obvious I had come up short. Somewhere between the banana bread and the brownies, I lost hope in any of my baking abilities, growing frustrated by the deceiving scents wafting throughout the apartment. I gave up. Good riddance, I yelled at the batter splatted spatula and dirty mixing bowls as I threw them in the sink.

I made granola instead.

Late Sunday evening, when the sun hung low in the sky, I crossed my fingers and gave vegan baking one last chance. And it worked.

Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies are soft baked and chewy. The batter may be a little unusual to put together, but the final product, scattered with chocolate chunks, is a treat. While these may not replace your go-to recipe, they are a lovely dairy-free, egg-free cookie for feeding friends and family who may have allergies. I brought them to work and nobody could guess they were made without butter. I call that a success.

One Year Ago: Chocolate Almond Oat Bars
Two Years Ago: Simple Rhubarb Jam

Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Adapted from Post Punk Kitchen

Yields 2 dozen cookies

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup almond or soy milk (regular milk will also work for non-vegans)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (use dairy-free chocolate to keep it vegan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, and milk for several minutes until the mixture resembles a smooth caramel sauce. Stir in the vanilla.

Fold in the flour, baking soda, salt. If the dough is not stiff enough to hold its shape, add more flour by the tablespoon until it holds together. Mix in the chocolate chunks.

Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto a baking sheet, keeping the cookies at least 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until lightly browned on the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for several minutes until transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Comments

[Miriam @ Overtimecook]

These cookies look super delicious. Impressive that you made such nice vegan cookies.

[Spencer]

Looks absolutely delicious! I love a good cookie and this one looks fantastic. I would so love to try some.

[Amy]

Hey there! I just wanted to stop by and say how much I LOVE your blog, and how inspired I have been by it! Your photos are so beautiful and it is a treat to click onto your page everyday!

These cookies look delicious! Might have to try them out and see if my family also doesn't notice the difference!

Please check out my blog, and see what you think, it would really mean a lot, thank you! Amy x

[Karen]

They look delicious and it's super nice for people with dairy product and egg allergies. Highly appreciated as the recipes are so simple but still yummy.
Greetings from Germany.

[Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar]

I can only imagine how hard your challenge has been! These cookies sure turned out though - love them!

[anita]

It is such a pleasure to go through your blog. Every picture has a story to tell. Simply amazing. My best!

[Steph]

These are so pretty and puffy looking! Do you think I could sub some of the AP flour for whole wheat pastry?

[StarGazer]

They look yummy! I use vegan butter by earth balance it's really good; you should give it a try.

[Stephanie Watkins]

As someone from the vegan community, I would really just like to thank you for branching out and making these dairy-free cookies! And I'd like to thank you for keeping the recipe SO simple, most vegan cookie recipes call for such weird things that are intimidating! These look amazing and I will be trying these today :-)

[Becca - cookie jar treats]

I think you're doing well considering you've never worked with vegan replacements. These cookies lookso puffy and gorgeous! I would love to try some :)

[Alex]

It's great to see you actually use 'normal' ingredients with these vegan recipes, rather than just replacement products, making these good recipes in their own right rather than just 'make-do' versions. These cookies look delicious, you're tempting me to try out a challenge like this! Looking forward to seeing what other vegan goodies you come up with.
xx

[Elizabeth]

These look so soft and delicious!

[qooapfel]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
Actually I'm trying to eat vegan too. It's my first week and these cookies make it a little bit easier for me to hang in there!

[Aaron]

My wife makes cookies using flax seed meal as an egg replacement. 1 Tbs flax seeds meal and 3 Tbs of warm water mixed together to replace 1 egg.

[Jill]

This recipe is genius. I changed the recipe, but not because it didn't look perfect just the way it was, but because I needed a different flavor profile to pair with some grilled mangos. I replaced 1 cup of the flour for cornmeal, omitted the chocolate chips, and added a full teaspoon of salt... and HOLY MOLY! It's like eating cornbread already slathered with butter and honey (which is incredible since there isn't even butter in it). Thank you so much again! P.S. don't judge me on my blog; its been awhile to say the least.

[Julie]

This recipe looks awesome, something I'll have to try in the coming weeks. If you aren't already familiar with her recipes, you may have a look at loveandoliveoil.com. She has a lot of cupcakes that can easily be made vegan using soy or coconut milk. No butter, no eggs. and they are delicious. Good luck with your vegan journey!

[Stephanie Watkins]

I've already made these twice this week! I think I'm in love...
http://trans-planted.com/vegan-chocolate-chip-cookies/

[Sasha]

I'm not sure what went wrong but my cookies never flattened out. I think I'm gonna end up with cookie balls haha, which probably still taste good but I would prefer for them to have flattened out. Any idea what happened?

[Kristin Rosenau]

Sasha-- It sounds like there may have been too much flour in the batter (too much flour prevents cookies from spreading out). Next time, just flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand before baking and it should prevent this cookie (or any cookie) from staying in a cookie ball.

[Jennifer E]

Very simple, yummy cookie recipe, but for some reason I needed to add a lot more flour...and the dough still didn't hold up. My cookies were melted out a bit and flattened more than expected. What did I do wrong?

[Kristin Rosenau]

Jennifer E-- Was your kitchen quite warm? The cookies have a tendency to melt out and flatten quite a bit if the kitchen is too hot. You can counter this problem by chilling the cookie dough until cool before baking.

[Alaina]

Made these with coconut oil and they turned out awesome! Great texture, just soft enough and just chewy enough!

[Steph]

I've made these a couple times now with different add ins and substitutions and they always turn out lovely. Thanks for a great base recipe! If anyone else is semi health conscious, I've done half whole wheat pastry flour and half AP, reduced the oil to 1/2 cup and used unpacked brown sugar without sacrificing flavor or texture.

[Valerie]

These were very good! The best vegan cookie I have made. It really tasted like the "real thing" and the dough also tasted the same. My only problem was that I just wanted to sit on the couch and eat the dough and since there were not any raw eggs in it, what's to stop me??

[nick p]

I loved these. I made one of each soy milk-based and almond milk-based, and the almond milk ones tasted a lot better (sweeter.) i loved the taste of both, though, as soy milk is one of my favorite things to drink. i do miss the buttery caramel taste of dairy cookies, but these sweet and full, and the dark chocolate chunks are perfect in the recipe! thank you, and i hope your vegan endeavors go well!

[Rebecca]

I opted for Coconut Oil & Chocolate Soya Milk and I used Spelt Flour, they turned out really well. My first vegan cookies! I had to do one batch at a time in the oven, and obviously in the 2nd batch there weren't as many as I kept eating the dough! ;)
Thanks for the recipe :)

[mrsblocko]

I made these and wrote about them here: http://tomatoesforapples.blogspot.com/2013/02/feb-choc-chip-cookie-veg-oil-version.html. I prefer butter based cookies, but am on a mission to test out various chocolate chip recipes. (You know, for scientific purposes.) Considering I"m butter biased, I thought they were pretty darn good, and so did my family and husband's co-workers.

I did have a problem with them not spreading out as well, as one commenter did. I had to flatten them out by hand before baking to help them along.

Thanks for sharing the recipe!

[Laura Louise]

Thank you for this recipe! I've tried many vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes, and this one is most definitely the best.

[Jessica]

Hello! I just made these cookies and wanted to say THEY ARE DELICIOUS! I am vegan and sometimes it is hard to find good recipes. I will definitely be making these again. Thanks!

[Jill D.]

Tastes delicious! I love that they are so simple to throw together and I don't have to make so many cookies. Did you try using a little apple sauce instead of so much oil, just curious I was thinking about substituting a little applesauce the next time I make these... Which will be soon!