Classic Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is easy to make with simple ingredients, using applesauce instead of eggs for a healthy swap. They have slightly crisp edges with a chewy center that will take you back to childhood. These vegan chewy cookies taste just like the ones you grew up making!

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I never realized I was so picky about chocolate chip cookies until T set out on a mission to create the best vegan chocolate chip cookies about a year ago. 

He tested many, many batches of homemade chocolate chip cookies in the past 12 months, and all of a sudden I started coming up with a lot of strong opinions about how a chocolate chip cookie should taste, like some kind of cookie connoisseur. 

Through this delicious process, I’ve eaten some of the worst cookies of my life (looking at you burnt bottoms!) and some of the best. This is why I can say with certainty the recipe we share with you today is definitely the best of the best. 

Why are these the best chewy vegan chocolate chip cookies?

These chocolate chip cookies are slightly crisp on the bottom, soft and gooey in the center with chewy outsides that love to be dunked into (dairy-free) milk. They’re perfect. So perfect I could cry…and let’s be real here, I did. 

When T finally hit the nail on the head with this recipe, it 100% brought me back to Christmas time when I was a kid. My mom used to make chocolate chip cookies with my brother and me that tasted JUST like this. 

I could actually hear the holiday music we used to play (specifically, Hanson + Alvin and the Chipmunks) while I was eating them. Those were the best times, and these vegan chocolate chip cookies really transport me back to it. Thanks, T. 🙂

But whether it’s Christmas memories you’re after or it’s the middle of July and you just want to go rogue and bake a batch of cookies to calm your nerves and soothe your soul, I highly recommend the vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe we’re sharing with you today!

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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies with 10 Simple Ingredients

You’ll find the full recipe with ingredient amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here, we’ll go through some ingredient notes with you to make sure you achieve the best results!

For the dry ingredients, you’ll need:

All-purpose flour: This is pretty much a standard ingredient in any classic cookie recipe. Make sure you’re using all-purpose flour and NOT “white whole wheat flour”. I have been fooled by this before, and it will greatly impact the texture (in a very negative way). Not that I have anything against whole wheat, but if I’m making cookies, they’re going to be COOKIES. And that means all-purpose flour. 

For our gluten-free friends: We have not tried this recipe with gluten-free all-purpose flour, but I think it could work if you’re willing to play around with the measurements a bit. Let us know if you give it a try! 

Baking soda: This is another standard cookie ingredient. Note this is baking SODA, not baking powder. Depending on how long you’ve been cooking, you may think this is an obvious one, but you would be surprised how many people think they’re interchangeable!

Salt: Another standard cookie ingredient. Just a pinch makes all the flavors pop. If you’d like, you can also add an additional sprinkle of sea salt to the top of the cookies once they’re baked to give it a bakery vibe.

Dark brown sugar: You want to be sure you’re using dark brown sugar here and not the light stuff. Unfortunately, this means subbing coconut sugar is out too.White sugar: Because really – what are cookies without sugar?

For the wet ingredients, you’ll need:

Vegan Butter: Our favorite brand of vegan butter right now (because more seem to come out all the time), is the Country Crock plant butter sticks. They are AWESOME, and we see them at pretty much every grocery store in our area. That’s what we used for this recipe, and I love that they come in sticks for easy measuring. Earth Balance also makes sticks but I don’t find them as easily in grocery stores around here. However, any vegan butter should work. 

If you don’t want to use vegan butter, refined coconut oil can be used, but it will affect the texture of your cookie quite a bit. They may also be a little flatter and spread out more. But this may not be a bad thing if it’s what you’re after. It should be noted we haven’t tried these exact cookies with the coconut oil sub, but it is a sub I’ve made in the past. If you do use coconut oil, I’d recommend using it slightly chilled rather than in its melted form.

Applesauce: We use applesauce in this recipe (instead of a flax egg) to replace the eggs, a classic egg-free baking swap! It makes these classic chocolate chip cookies so soft and fluffy, and I love it. It’s also an easy ingredient to find pretty much anywhere. I love that too.

Pure Vanilla Extract: For a spot of flavor.

Water: You’ll add a little to the dough to achieve that perfect consistency.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips: We like the Enjoy Life vegan chocolate chips but also notice a lot of grocery stores are coming out with store brand chocolate chips with no dairy in them. Shoprite’s Bowl & Basket brand is one of our go-tos. Even big brands like Nestle seem to be coming out with some kind of “natural” version of their product that doesn’t have dairy in it. So, you can go with the fancy organic stuff or just check the ingredients on the bags of chocolate chips at your local grocery store. You may be surprised at the number of vegan-friendly products you find!

How to Make the BEST Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe is easy to make and awesome for families, partners, or friends who want to cook together!

Step 1: Prep

The first step is to preheat your oven to 300F while you gather your ingredients. 

Step 2: Make the flour mixture.

Grab a small mixing bowl and start to add the dry ingredients: the flour, salt, and baking soda. Whisk that until it’s combined and put it aside. You’ll add this to the mixer last.

Step 3: Mix the sugars.

Then, grab a large bowl and add your sugars. Use an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer, either will do!) to combine the dark brown and white sugar. 

Make sure you’re using a lower setting here, as you don’t want the sugar to go flying around the kitchen. (Yep, that happened.)

Step 4: Mix in the wet ingredients.

Then, you’ll add the vegan butter and continue mixing, stopping to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula as needed. 

Follow this with the applesauce, vanilla, and a few Tbsp of water. Mix it all on medium speed until the dough is light and somewhat airy.

Step 5: Bring it all together.

Next, to finish the cookie dough, you’ll slowly add in the flour mixture until everything is nice and combined. Then, stop your mixer and fold in your chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or spoon. 

Now, you have your cookie dough. Yay!

Step 6: How to bake these delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, you’ll use spoons or a cookie scoop drop your cookies on an ungreased (non-stick) cookie sheet. We actually have a large baking sheet dedicated JUST for cookies now, and that’s a practice I highly recommend. 

This recipe should make about 2 dozen cookies if you’re using just a little more than  ½ Tbsp of cookie dough per cookie. 

Also, make sure you’re leaving about 1-2 inches between each cookie on the baking sheet. (Unless you just want one giant cookie…which is a valid desire in my opinion.)

Step 7: Let the cookies cool.

In 17 – 19 minutes, your cookies will be ready to…cool. I know, I KNOW it’s going to be difficult, but you have to let them cool on a wire rack for at least a couple minutes, so they don’t burn your mouth. 

We totally understand how difficult this can be. I also understand how much it sucks when you make a big batch of awesome cookies and burn your mouth on the first one. You are welcome.

How to Serve Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

This vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe is best served straight out of the oven (but after the aforementioned cooling time). Although honestly, they still taste amazing even a week after we make them.

You can go the traditional route and serve them with a tall glass of non-dairy milk. 

Our favorite is Silk’s original soy milk – SO creamy and delicious and old-school vegan (love that). We also love the oat milk from Planet Oat or the unsweetened almond milk from Elmhurst!

How to Store Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

You can store these vegan chocolate chip cookies in an air-tight container in your pantry or the fridge if you like cold cookies (sometimes I’m into that!). 

Stored this way, they should be good for about 2 weeks.

How to Freeze Baked Cookies

You can also FREEZE these vegan cookies, which is awesome because the recipe makes about 2 dozen which can be a lot when there’s only two of you. 

That is, unless you want to find yourself face down in a pile of cookies which…I mean, I’m not going to say I haven’t been there.

To freeze these chocolate chip cookies, just place them in an air-tight container and in the freezer. They should be good for at least 2 months stored like this. 

When you’re ready to eat them, leave the container on the counter to defrost for a few hours and dig in!

As for freezing the cookie dough balls before baking it: We haven’t tried it yet, but I think it would work nicely. Let us know if you do!

More Vegan Cookie Recipes

If you dig these vegan cookies, you’ll also love:

• Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
• Easy Vegan Spritz Cookies

When you make these chewy chocolate chip cookies, let us know how it goes! We love seeing how you’re using our recipes to kick ass in your own kitchen!

You can rate the recipe and leave a comment below or tag us in your delicious cookies photos on Instagram. If you’re not already following along, we’re @theplantpowerocuple with the “the”. 

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We’ll end this post by raising a glass of red in one hand and a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie in the other. To you and your future baking endeavors, my friend. Cheers!

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