Get ready to fall in love with these vegan chocolate chip cookies! They have soft, chewy middles, crispy edges, and gooey chocolate in every bite.
These vegan chocolate chip cookies could give any cookies made with butter or eggs a run for their money. They’re lightly crisp on the outside and soft and chewy in the middle. Gooey, melty chocolate chips fill every bite, but even without them, these cookies would be delicious. The dough has a rich, warm flavor that’s perfectly accented by a pinch of salt.
These vegan chocolate chip cookies have become the first thing we make anytime we’re craving a sweet treat, and I’m SO excited that I’m finally sharing this recipe with all of you! Jack and I have had it on repeat for the last few months, and I think you’re going to love it. It calls for basic ingredients and takes under 30 minutes to make, but it yields really exceptional cookies. Even if you’re not vegan, you’re going to want to add it to your regular rotation.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ingredients
These vegan chocolate chip cookies start as you might expect, with flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then, these key ingredients make them chewy, rich, and flavorful:
- Brown sugar – Light or dark brown sugar will work here, but dark brown sugar adds a little something special. The cookies come out with a gorgeous golden brown color and a complex sweet flavor.
- Coconut oil – My go-to substitute for butter in dairy-free cookie recipes, it makes these cookies moist and rich.
- Vanilla extract – The chocolate chips may be the star of the show here, but we still want the dough to taste great! Vanilla extract gives it a warm depth of flavor.
- Chocolate chips – As with homemade brownies, homemade chocolate chip cookies will only be as good as the chocolate in them. Look for good-quality dark chocolate chips for this recipe, such as Enjoy Life’s Dark Chocolate Morsels.
- And last but not least…tahini! It’s the secret ingredient that gives these cookies their irresistible crisp/chewy texture. I’ve made vegan chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter and almond butter in the past, and while the results have been delicious (see page 241 of Love and Lemons Every Day!), those recipes put the nut butter front and center. By contrast, the tahini totally blends in here. You won’t be able to taste it, but it’s what makes these cookies so darn good!
See the full recipe at the bottom of this post!
How to Make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Making this recipe is easy! Here’s what you need to do:
First, whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, and use a rubber spatula to mix until they’re just combined.
Then, fold in the chocolate chips!
Use a two-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop dough balls onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, at 350 for 12-14 minutes, or until they’re lightly brown around the edges.
Finally, remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Tips
- Smooth/Runny tahini is key. This recipe works best with runny tahini that will easily mix with the other ingredients. Tahini brands vary widely in consistency, so look for one with a smooth, pourable texture. (I like Cedar’s, Trader Joe’s, and Seed+Mill.) If your tahini is too thick, add 2 to 3 additional tablespoons of water to get the dough to come together.
- Don’t be afraid to chill the dough. By contrast, if your dough is too thin to scoop into balls, stick it in the fridge! Various factors can affect the dough’s consistency (the thickness of your tahini, the temperature of your kitchen, etc.), so don’t worry if the dough is too soft. Whenever this has happened to me, I’ve chilled the dough for just 20 minutes, and the cookies have turned out perfect every time.
- Let them cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Like in many vegan cookie recipes, these vegan chocolate chip cookies will be very delicate when you take them out of the oven. It’s tempting to reach for one right away, but if you let them rest for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, their texture will be better and their flavor will be richer. After 10 minutes, try one (or two), and transfer the rest to a wire rack to cool completely.
More Favorite Vegan Treats
If you love these vegan chocolate chip cookies, try one of these yummy vegan treats next:
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- No-Bake Cookies
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Easy Peach Cobbler
- Healthy Banana Bread
Or check out this post for 30+ of our favorite vegan desserts!
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup melted coconut oil
- ⅓ cup tahini* (see note)
- 6 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, coconut oil, tahini, water, and vanilla until smooth.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and use a spatula to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheets. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes.
Notes
Adapted from Weeknight Baking, by Michelle Lopez
These look amazing! Any thoughts on subbing the coconut oil? We do use coconut oil, but due to the high saturated fat, we try not to use a ton of it (due to high cholesterol for someone in my family). Thanks!
I did half coconut and half olive oil and these. are. phenomenal. Hands down the best vegan cookie recipe I have found to date. Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved them!!
Hi Maggie, I’ve made these with olive oil – hope that helps!
Thanks for the great recipe. My family loved them. We also made several times your no-knead bread which turned out perfect.
I’m so glad you loved the cookies and the bread! Thanks for coming back to let me know 🙂
These cookies are amazing!! My favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made 😋
Hi Amanda, I’m so glad you loved them!
Love these! They go quick – great to bring for beach trips and picnics- but wondering if I can make a huge batch and freeze?
I like freezing the baked goods and just defrosting the individual portions. Helps cut down on extra snacking. Can these be frozen ?
Hi Jane, I’m so glad you loved them… yep, they freeze really well!
Super and beautiful
My son is allergic to sesame. Any sub for the tahini?
You could use almond butter – just make sure it’s pretty smooth.
Can I use coconut sugar for the brown sugar?
I did and they came out great!
These cookies are DELICIOUS and CHEWY!
I’ve never made cookies using tahini but I’m glad I did 🙂
I followed the recipe to a T except for 1 cheat — I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips
I would recommend this recipe to anyone, vegan or otherwise!
My husband just ate a half dozen as soon as they passed 10 minutes cooling lol so I think it’s safe to say these were a HIT!
Hi! these cookies look amazing! do you have any recommendations for a replacement for chocolate chips? Thanks!
If you’re trying to avoid chocolate, any type of dried fruit would be delicious. If you just don’t have chocolate chips, you could chop up a dark chocolate bar. Hope that helps!
Thank you I am going to try it with a seed mix.
These are delicious and we will most definitely be making them again! Learn from my mistake – I left my first baking sheet in the oven longer than the recommended 12-14 minutes expecting them to brown a bit more which left them somewhat dry. I followed the time directions for my second batch and they were perfection! First batch was still good, just not as good the second. Thanks for the delicious recipe!!
WOW! The best vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I have had! Even the dough is tasty! Thank you!
This recipe is fantastic! We’ve made them twice in the last two days. We used olive oil for the first batch and a plant based butter stick for the second and both times they were excellent. We like them on the softer side, so I only cooked them for 10 minutes, but they held their shape perfectly after the 10 minutes of cooling. As far as we’re concerned, they’re a perfect substitute for the Tollhouse recipe (our usual favorite). The uncooked batter is not the same, but once it’s cooked, it really is as good as or better. Thank you for sharing this recipe !! 🙂
Hi Jennifer, I’m so glad you’ve loved the cookies!
So good! I subbed vegan butter for the coconut oil and it was delicious!
Hi Renee, I’m so glad you loved them!
These are fantastic! Thank you very much for this wonderful, easy and vegan recipe! Made these and shared with multiple friends and will share this link with other friends!!
These cookies are AMAZING! Seriously I can’t believe how tasty they are!
I used peanut butter instead of tahini and rapeseed oil instead of coconut oil and it worked so well. Thank you very much for this recipe, this will be my to go from now on.
Hi Klara, I’m so glad you loved them!
What is we don’t have tahini?
You can use natural almond butter (or cashew or peanut butter), just make sure it’s well-stirred and smooth.
The look fabulous! Do you think I could add in some shredded coconut? Or would that mess with the texture and make them too dry?
I think it would taste good, but it might make these more crumbly. Let me know if you give it a go!
I tried it with the coconut and they were spectacular! I can’t comment on a change in texture since I hadn’t made them before, but I don’t think it affected it.
Excellent recipe, chewy and delicious, thank you!
Possible to sub coconut sugar for the brown sugar? If so, what’s your thoughts on the taste? Will the coconut flavor be really enhanced?
Hi AJ, I’m so glad you loved them. I think you could swap in coconut sugar. I don’t think it’ll taste very coconut-ty, the flavor should be similar.
I looove these cookies! I’ve made them so many times and they are a big crowd pleaser! Is it possible to substitute the all purpose flour with almond flour for my gluten-free friends? and if so, do you know what the ratio would be?
I think it would be safe to use the same amount of almond flour, but you might need to add a binding agent. I would add more coconut oil if I were you. I hope this helps!
Hi Kesha, I’d choose a GF baking blend (like Bob’s or Pamela’s) over almond flour for this recipe. Regular flour and almond flour are so different that they’re rarely a 1:1 swap. If you have Love & Lemons Every Day there’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses 100% almond flour and it’s delish. Hope that helps!