These vegan chocolate chip cookies are sweet and fluffy, perfect for satisfying your cookie cravings.
My sweet tooth is insatiable. I find myself craving sugar so much that I feel like I have to actively go against it. But I do indulge every once in a while. For this indulgence, I decided to make vegan chocolate chip cookies. The peanut butter vegan cookies have peanut butter for a binder, so I wanted to try a more standard recipe without one.
And oh boy, were they good! I will admit that they came out a little paler than I am used to, but that didn’t stop them from tasting delicious. But what really surprised me is that I didn’t even need a substitute binder ingredient. I added milk to give more moisture, but the ingredients managed to bind themselves together with just milk and vegetable oil.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.
Ingredients
The ingredients for these vegan chocolate chip cookies are similar to normal chocolate chip cookies with the highlighted (or special) ingredients being brown sugar and chocolate chips. The vegan version also requires almond milk (or any milk of your choice) and vegetable oil.
Process
Making the Dough
The first step for making vegan chocolate chip cookies is making the dough. I feel like this is the first step for most cookies, but there have always been some exceptions, so I feel the need to say it. Anyway, vegan cookie dough is a different process than others. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar together, I just put all the dry ingredients into a bowl. There is no butter here, so there is no need to cream it.
With the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugars) in the bowl and whisked together then I can add the wet ingredients. This is the almond milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. This is where I am convinced that baking is magic.
The ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients is leaning heavily in the dry direction in my mind. But as I mixed the liquid into the powders, the liquids basically “won”. The dough became a cohesive mass. I thought I would have to add more almond milk to balance out the mixture, but no. Just the action of mixing. True magic.
Chilling and Baking
The next step of the process is chilling the dough. This adds an extra layer of binding to the cookies, which keeps them together but also in a more cohesive shape. I like chilling the dough for at least 2 hours, but I have chilled it overnight before as well, and that’s worked out for me.
Preheating the oven before pulling the cookie dough out of the fridge is very highly recommended. The amount of time reduced between coming out of the fridge and into the oven just results in better cookies. But let’s be honest, is there really such a thing as a bad cookie?
Anyway, I used a cookie scoop to make several dough balls of the vegan chocolate chip cookies. I placed them about 1 ½ to 2 inches apart on a lined baking sheet. I like using silicone liners because I find they release better and they’re reusable. The cookies need to have some space to grow unless you’re going for that edge against edge vibe.
I baked the cookies for about ten to twelve minutes before taking them out. The baking of the vegan chocolate chip cookies does go against a lot of my cookie instincts. Normally, I would like to keep the cookies in the oven until they are just beginning to brown. These cookies came out looking a little anemic.
The residual heat from the baking tray and from natural cooling is what really brings a finish to the cookies. Since the process includes the residual heat (I have no idea how to get a cookie from oven to room temperature in a matter of seconds), that means shooting for a certain stage of baking while in the oven. If they come out perfectly, there is a chance of getting overcooked after the residual heat is done.
Reflections
Yum! These vegan chocolate chip cookies were delicious and the perfect treat. While I could tell the difference between these and standard chocolate chip cookies, that wasn’t really a negative. This was its own chocolate chip cookie, and I would be happy to have one. Or two. Or ten
Lessons
Why Chill Cookie Dough?
There are many benefits to chilling cookie dough before baking. It helps develop flavor by letting the flour fully hydrate and the sugars break down. This just gives a richer taste. Chilling also controls the spread, by which I mean it discourages it. Typically, less spread means the cookies end up being chewier and taller. This also results in a texture change as the gluten can develop more.
recipe
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Cup White Sugar
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
- ½ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
- 2 Tablespoon Almond Milk
- 2 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- ¼ Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, white sugar, and brown sugar.
- Add almond milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. The cookie dough will be quite dry at first, keep mixing until the proper texture is achieved. If needed, add an additional teaspoon of milk.
- Form into one big ball and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit.
- Make small dough balls from the large ball. Place on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.
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