Fresh baked out of the oven, these vegan chocolate chip cookies are soft, pillowy, and studded with gooey, melty chocolate chips. Add some walnuts for a touch of crunch that brings these cookies over the top!
Yesss! Vegan chocolate chip cookies. They’re here!
I’ve been making these for years and years, and they never fail to disappoint. No one can ever tell the difference between these and their non vegan counterparts. They’re super fast to throw together and don’t require any weird ingredients at all.
Once you know this recipe, you’ll never go without dessert again. It’s just too easy to make!
There’s really not much of a difference
One of the biggest questions I’m asked regarding vegan baking is always, “what do you do to sub for the eggs?”. My answer is usually pretty simple regarding most things:
Nothing!
These vegan chocolate chip cookies are a good example of this. You don’t need flax eggs, egg substitutes, apple sauce; none of that! Flour in and of itself is strong enough to hold the cookie together and give it a good rise.
Kinda a bummer when you realize just how unnecessary eggs are when it comes to making a good cookie.
Be a part of the egg-less cookie revolution! Try these cookies and share them with all of your friends. Show them the recipe. Let’s stop unnecessarily damaging our health and the health of our planet, and stop using eggs. (and milk for that matter!)
Good chocolate chips are important!
It might seem pretty self explanatory to you, but good vegan chocolate chip cookies require good vegan chocolate chips!
Fred Meyer’s organic brand chocolate chunks are mostly vegan and come at a great price! I also love these ones when the Freddie’s ones aren’t available.
Also, I’m sure some of you may be confused by the walnuts… But have you ever tried a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts in it? I literally can’t have them without now. They feel like they’re missing something to me.
The walnuts add a perfect crunch that pairs so well with the gooiness of the warm, fresh baked chocolate chips and pillowy dough. If walnuts aren’t your thing, try pecans or peanuts. Give it a try!
Almond extract?
I experimented a bit and threw in some almond extract once to a batch of chocolate chip cookies and was very pleasantly surprised. It steps the cookie up to a whole other level of fancy flavor.
Ever since showing my sister what almond extract was, she’s been completely addicted. Once I gave her some of these cookies with almond extract in them, she decided they were the best thing on earth. She still regularly puts in cookie requests with me for these guys.
“Hey, so almond chocolate chip cookies to the blog, right?”
Well Michelle, here you go. You’ve got your Pad Thai, and now you’ve got your almond chocolate chip cookies too.
I recognize that not all of you have almond extract or may not want to try some in your cookies (though you should!), so I listed it as an optional ingredient for this reason.
You can buy some here though if you wanna give it a try.
Bake them until they look JUST before done
I think the biggest mistake people make when it comes to making any kind of cookie is over baking. It’s so easy to do and is something we all have to be super aware of.
Once my cookies are 1-2 minutes away from reaching the done time, I check them constantly to make sure they don’t go over.
Who ever said to bake cookies to golden brown must like some crispy, crunchy cookies. That’s a thing, but I prefer mine to be soft on the inside, and only slightly crisp on the outside. Not golden.
To do this, I pull the cookies from the oven while they still look like they could go an extra minute or two. This almost also gives me perfect cookies!
We have to keep in mind that they continue to bake and settle even after we pull them from the oven.
Soy and Nut Allergy Notes
A lot of vegan butters out there can contain both nuts and soy. I’m sure if you’re one of the people affected by this, you know better than I do what brands are safe and what are not.
This is just a friendly reminder that not all vegan butters are allergy friendly!
Look for some that actively avoid nuts and soy. I know Earth Balance has an option that is soy free, and MELT Organic has a nut free version.
Obviously, avoid the almond extract and walnuts if you want to remain entirely nut free with these.
What are your favorite chocolate chip cookie inclusions?
M&M’s, walnuts, almond extract, cranberries, you name it!
I’d love to hear what you like to put into your chocolate chip cookies.
Let me know if you have any questions at all, and be sure to tag @alderspirit in any pics you post. Use #alderspirit so I can see your creative cookies.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
- 1/4 cup plant milk
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips (semi sweet or dark)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a medium sized bowl), add butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Mix on medium – high for about 3 minutes, or until fluffy and lighter in color.
- Add vanilla and almond (if using) and stir to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients and plant milk to the sugar mixture in batches, alternating between the two. Be sure to start and end with dry ingredients.
- Add chocolate chips and walnuts to the cookie dough, folding in to combine.
- Roll balls about the size of 1 fully rounded tablespoon. Press them onto the sheet tray and flatten them out slightly with your hands. On a full sheet tray, I fit 4 x 6. For larger cookies, double the amount per cookie and flatten with your hands. I fit 3 x 4 larger cookies per full sheet tray.
- Bake 10 – 15 minutes depending on size and oven. Remove the cookies from the oven when they look slightly under done, and before they have developed much of a color. They will continue to bake as they cool.
- Remove from the sheet tray immediately and allow to cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- Be sure to use organic cane sugar and organic brown sugar. Regular cane sugar is filtered through a bone char that is not vegan.
- almond extract is optional, but adds great flavor. If you haven’t tried this before, it’s definitely worth a shot. My sister won’t have a chocolate chip cookie any other way!
- Pastry flour is not required, but highly recommended. It results in a much softer and fluffier cookie.
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The best part of this cookie hands down is the almond extract. I never would have thought that adding almond extract to a cookie would take it from an 8/10 to a 12/10. I would even say that instead of 1/4 tsp, go ahead and add 1/2 tsp haha the flavor in these cookies really pop, they are super simple to make (and I made mine without a mixer), and the texture is the perfect spot between soft and chewy.
Thank you! Yes, the almond extract is super duper good. Add as much as you need girl, I get it!