Pick the most likely scenario:
- Your kid hands you a crumpled reminder from the teacher that you signed up to bring snack tomorrow. Yes, tomorow. It’s already 9:00 at night, and you are already in your PJs, ready to hit the sack before starting everything all over again tomorrow. You slap your forehead (or knock it against the wall a few times) and stumble to the kitchen, yank open the refrigerator… and just as you suspected: no butter, no eggs. What?! How are you supposed to whip up a snack without such basic ingredients as those?!
- Your kid wants to have his best friend over for a play date, and you want to provide a special snack. Problem: kid’s best friend is deathly allergic to dairy and eggs. What to do?
- Your kid is allergic to dairy and eggs and you hate throwing money out the door for safe snacks, so you want to make them yourself. But how do you make cookies without eggs or butter?!
(Notice how they all start with “your kid”? Amazing how those little creatures shake our lives up, huh?)
No matter what the problem is, the solution is the same: these Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yes, happy. And No, I didn’t give them that name, but I like it, so I’ll keep it.
“But what do they taste like?” I hear you ask as I watch your lip curl in mild disgust? “Cardboard?”, you add with a sneer.
It may surprise you to learn that this is now by far my most favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. Yes, I said ever. In bold with italics. Because as many different chocolate chip cookie recipes as I have tried, none of them has ever come out with quite this perfection of texture, taste, shape and substance. Who needs butter and eggs? Not me.
Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
- 1 cup chocolate chips*
- 1 cup unrefined sugar (sucanat, turbinado, or coconut sugar)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil or palm shortening*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Whisk together dry ingredients; add chocolate chips and stir well.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the sugar and oil or shortening, vanilla, and water.
- Make a well in the center of dry ingredients, and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir until just mixed. If you need to add a bit more liquid, do so 1 or 2 tsp at a time.
- Use a tablespoon to form the cookies and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes. They’ll still be slightly soft on top.
- Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
*Ingredient Notes:
- I’ve used non-wheat flours with great success in this recipe. Oat and/or spelt flour is my favorite, but if you need to avoid gluten too, I suggest a blend with brown rice flour or sorghum flour as the base. Here’s a great recipe for your own gluten-free flour blend.
- For completely vegan and allergen-free cookies, use Enjoy Life chocolate chips which are free of both dairy and soy products.
- Palm shortening is my favorite oil to use in cookies, and Tropical Traditions is my favorite brand; when it goes on sale, it can be cheaper than the store-bought version and it’s very high quality. Coconut oil also works well in this recipe, but note that it creates more of a crisp cookie. I have even used extra virgin olive oil in a pinch! Canola oil works, but is not the healthiest choice of oil because of free radicals and the fact that it’s typically genetically modified.
Not the Recipe You’re Looking For?
Try one of these:
- Vegan Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies
- Whole Grain Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
deeeeelicious
Can I substitute canola oil? Sounds great.
I don’t really know; that might affect the texture too much. Butter would probably make a better substitute.
I used bran oil and they turned out great. Also, I used half wheat flour and half rice flour, and filled a little dent with plum jam (jam drops) - they ended up with a rather lush shortbread texture.
Thanks for the great receipe, my husband loves them. He is allergic to eggs!!
I’m so glad he likes them! These are seriously my favorite choc chip cookies - I just made another batch last week.
These came out great, thank you for the recipe. We are fasting for lent and I wanted to make some great cookies! I didn’t have the coconut oil or palm shortening, and I substituted with the sunflower oil i do have at home… I will see if I can find coconut oil, maybe the cookies will have a nicer taste. Also, I didn’t have chocolate chips (vegan) so I chopped up some dark chocolate (70%) and these gave the cookies great chunky flavor. I think finally, but rewind, when I added the chocolate into the dry mix, i also added oatmeal (eyed it, didn’t measure) and I realized later mixing the wet and dry ingredients, that I needed more water, so I added probably another 1/4 cup of that. The taste doesn’t compare to cookies with eggs in the batter, but the texture and taste with the chunks of chocolate was great. Also, maybe the oatmeal in the mix takes away from the flavor…Thanks for the recipe!!
Maria recently posted..Healthy 2Day Wednesday No. 42
Yes, I definitely recommend coconut oil or shortening. I may have also used olive oil once or twice with good success.
Soo Good who knew that healthy cheap cookies could taste good. helpful when having a snack attack.
Glad you enjoyed!
Hello, I just made these for me & my family and they were great! I had to use canola oil (it was all I had) and they came out just fine. I wanted to let other people know not to shy away from the recipe if they didn’t have the right oil. Thanks for a yummy, cheap recipe!
Amazing! I stumbled upon this website after wanting to make chocolate chip cookies, but not having many of the key ingredients. I had to improvise with a few things but they turned out amazing. I just pinned this on my pinterest page. Thank you!
My substitutions:
I was out of: Whole wheat flour (I used 1 cup finely ground oatmeal instead)
I didnt have raw sugar: ( I used 2/3 cup of brown sugar and 1/3 cup powdered sugar)
I didn’t have enough coconut oil (I used mostly coconut oil but topped it off with some sunflower oil)
I froze the chocolate chips for about 20 minutes and baked for a bit longer. Yum, Yum!
***meant to say I froze the chocolate chip DOUGH for 20 minutes
Jouleigha, thank you so much for letting me know how it went. Glad you enjoyed them! I make these all the time, and each time I make them differently, lol!
hey …..just finished my batch of “no butter no egg ” cookies.even without the choco chips they were heavenly …….thanx loads for the recipe…12 of them were polished off in less than half a minute 😉
Glad you enjoyed them!
Wow, these are amazing! I didn’t even miss the butter and eggs! My vegan hubby loved them and so did my five year old
Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
The last few weeks this recipe has indulged me 3 times and the 4th today. I’m not even vegan, or allergic to eggs or dairy I just find this recipe so easy and tasty I edit it to what I have in my cupboard and being from the UK (My changes are; normal chocolate,vegetable oil, self raising,plain flour and caster sugar) and my friends, family and work colleagues keep wanting me to bake more. Finding this recipe was the best thing that had happened this month and I just want to thank you ever so much! Happy baking
I’m so glad i saw this comment. i was unsure of whether to make them because i didn’t have the same ingredients, but i had the same ingredients that you used and they’re looking good. My first batch is baking now. I’ve done half of them choc chip and the other half are plain and i’m going to dip them in melted chocolate. I can’t wait to try them they look delicious!
I made these tonight and i got a “Good Job Mom, you really did good making these!” from my non-eater. I made a few substitutions, only because i didn’t have all the ingredients. I only had all purpose flour, and i only had extra virgin olive oil. Also I used white chocolate chips. My cooking time was longer. The original ingredients will definitively make our shopping list this month. Thanks for the great recipe.
So glad you enjoyed them! This recipe is very flexible regarding ingredients.
The cookies turned out actually pretty good. My daughter made them and this was her first ever dessert and she did an excellent job
I’m proud of her and happy that she found this recipe. She substituted the coconut oil for vegetable oil and the wheat flour for unbleached flour.
Thanks
I had some old flour in a glass jar, and some old brown sugar in a jar as well. Wanted to make some cookies out of all the odds and ends sitting on the shelf. Found your recipe, and decided to try and make some cookies outta all this old stuff. Not sure what kinda flour it was but used it anyway. I used the brown sugar and extra virgin oil (another old item on the top shelf) instead of coconut oil. Didn’t have any chocolate chips so I skipped that step. I mixed all these old shelf sitters together according to your recipe, popped them in the oven and guess what. They turned out GREAT! They taste alot like danish wedding cookies! Great recipe, Thanks for sharing!!!
I LOVE these cookies!!! My family loved these more than my old egg and butter recipe. I don’t know if maybe I made my cookies larger but I had to bake them for 12 minutes. I am definitely keeping this recipe but I may next time use real butter because I just love the taste and the sweet cream smell. But, now I know I can make awesome cookies without it. Thank you so much!
Sophie, I love butter, too! The only reason I bake without it is for my food-allergic boys. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Good taste but after taste not so good I would say just a pinch of salt and one tea spoon of backing powder. uher wise great thanks G
I just made these for the first time (they’re still cooling) and had to use extra virgin olive oil. I tried one and it tastes pretty olive oily. I’m pretty new to baking, so I was wondering if you had had any experiences or other feedback like that, and any suggestions to reduce that flavour? Say, if I reduce to say a third or a quarter cup of oil and increase the water to balance moisture, do you think they’d still come out ok?
I made mine with EVOO and peanut butter and it turned out perfect. Possibly add something with intense flavor like peanut butter or just reduce the EVOO.
I was definitely in a pinch, so I used olive oil. Great cookie consistency: moist and fluffy. But we nicknamed them ‘the olive cookies’… not the worst taste but I will definitely wait next time until I have another oil.
Just made these cookies didnt think i would like wrong i have always have had cookies with butter and eggs with food cost wanted to cut my cost 2 thumbs up
My 12 year old daughter made these and they were delicious…. which shows how easy it is!!
Delicious: replaced sugar with maple syrup and used sunflower oïl. Kids loved it!
I love the idea of maple syrup!
Hiya,
This was a great jumping off point for me. I used a 1/4 cup white bread flour, a dusting of rice flour, a package of instant pizza dough (about 1 3/4 cups). 1/6 of a lb of butter, 1/2 bag of choc. chips 1/2 bag of walnut pieces; 1/4 cup water mixed with 1/4 cup of honey. No shortening, no eggs, no baking powder. We took them fishing early one morning.
I have been on the lookout for a friend for recipes that meet the allergy restrictions of his daughter. She is not able to have dairy, eggs or corn. (to include but not limited to corn starch, corn syrup, and baking powder) This recipe is great! Do you have any more or know of other sites that can help in finding advice and additional food options.
Thankfully, there are lots of blogs out there these days with great allergen-friendly recipes. One of my favorites is Tessa the Domestic Diva: http://www.tessadomesticdiva.com/ Real Food Allergy Free is another: http://www.realfoodallergyfree.com/
Hello!how many cookies do you get with this recipe?
Just tried this recipe tonight and it turned out pretty good! Made a few changes using what I had in the cupboard. Used all-purpose flour, canola oil and some nutella and then made a simple icing and iced the cookies after I took them out of the oven. Turned out great! Will definitely be using this recipe again and trying new things with it. Thanks for sharing it!
Also I used brown sugar and white sugar.
Glad it worked for you. It’s a very sturdy recipe
Tried it and they are good. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks!
These came out nicely. I just used “regular stuff”: all purpose flour, corn oil, and brown sugar (put in loosely, not packed). Instead of chocolate chips, I put in a cup of rolled oats. Not quick oats, not instant oats. I’m sure that instant or quick oats would absorb the liquids too quickly. And added some more spices. This became a very tasty oatmeal cookie. I feel it could actually have held twice as many oats, but test that at your own risk! I may add a tablespoon of molasses to this for a richer flavor.
I’ve always been wary of vegan treats, even though i’m vegetarian and really fond of healthy food, pastries without butter sounded to me like pastries without soul. Well, not any more! These are aboslutely delicious!
I used self raising flour, half the baking powder, added some oats and used olive oil. The taste is NOT olive-oily AT ALL.
Wow! It has been a true revelation. And your intro is super funny. Loved the whole thing. Thanks!!
I tried making these cookies and used milk instead of water when the dough was dry and also added M&M’s MINIS(which was left over from brownie mix) on top before placing it for baking and it turned out too good
Brilliant recipe! worked perfectly. I used olive oil instead of the coconut thingy. also used a mix of white and brown sugar. perfect recipe when you’re a student and can’t afford butter or eggs! make do with what’s in the cupboard! (I also added reese’s cups…)
Great idea, however, shortening is made from hydrogenated fats (think transfatty acids) and palm oil is already high in saturated fats. Palm shortening sounds seriously unhealthy.
Saturated fats are not the enemy of heart disease that many people think they are. Look up recent research on the matter, and/or read one of several books I’ve recommended on the subject. Eat Fat, Lose Fat is written by Sally Fallon, a pioneer in the return to traditional nutrition. Additionally, palm shortening is NOT hydrogenated, which is why I use it instead of vegetable shortening, which is indeed hydrogenated.
Hi,
I am a pure vegetarian , thanks for the interesting recipe for people like me.
I am fairly new to baking , can you give exact measurements for me in gms/ml ? I am not sure how much does a cup refer here ?
I made these with AP flour, a combination of melted butter, shortening and coconut oil, crushed cashews, white chocolate chips and caramel chips. Because my chips were light, I added unsweetened cocoa powder to make the cookies chocolate (double chocolate!). I got about 24 cookies and took them to an event. Everyone squealed with delight and exclaimed about how good they were. One woman ate three so some people had to go halves
Thank you.
Brilliant stuff and very yumm yumm cookies.