Simple Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever made with simple ingredients for the gooiest cookie! You won’t be able to tell these are vegan nor healthy!

Think that chocolate chip cookies can’t be made vegan and healthy, and still taste like the real deal?

Well, you must not know that I’m magic, my friend 😉

Haha just kidding, I wish, but these vegan chewy chocolate chip cookies come pretty darn close to being magic! Seriously, I was stunned at how simple and easy this recipe is, as well as how good these cookies came out to be.

I’m talking gooey. Chocolatey. Melt in your mouth. Sweet. And downright addictive chocolate chip cookies that just so happen to be undetectably healthy and vegan! And can be made gluten free?

Shut the front door.

The best part? You can eat this vegan chewy chocolate chip cookie dough raw! Pretty awesome right? Let’s get into what goes into these bad boys, and then I’ll teach you how to make them!

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Ingredients for Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Organic flour: now for these cookies, I recommend using a high quality organic flour, but you can also easily make these cookies gluten free by swapping in your favorite 1-to-1 gluten free flour. I cannot vouch for anything other than a 1-to-1 swap, such as almond flour or 1-to-1 gluten free mix that you would purchase in stores. I wanted to keep these healthy vegan chocolate chip cookies gum and additive free. Plus, I personally am not gluten free, so I thought it best to show this recipe using a standard flour that is high quality and organic.

Coconut Oil: you can absolutely swap in vegan butter here, but I do recommend sticking with coconut if you can, as I feel like it makes the cookies a really similar consistency to their more traditional counterparts! Don’t worry, if you by extra virgin coconut oil, you won’t taste coconut!

Applesauce: this is the secret ingredient! I used unsweetened applesauce for these cookies- aka just a bunch of cooked and mashed apples – and it was absolutely perfect! The apple sauce helps to add a little moisture back to these vegan chocolate chip cookies after the coconut oil absorb a lot!

Coconut Sugar: my trick for keeping these cookies refined sugar free, and also lower in sugar! Because we’re using the applesauce, we don’t need as much added sugar in these cookies! The coconut sugar is good here because it acts like brown sugar, which you’d normally find in more traditional cookies!

Chocolate Chips: well you can’t have vegan chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips! There are many vegan brands of chocolate chips out there, so we’ll go over that after we go over how to make these cookies!

Almond/Coconut Milk: a little dairy free milk here to help get the dough moving! I added the minimum amount of milk you’ll need for this recipe, up to the maximum, because it depends on how much you need to get the dough moving. You can make these cookies completely nut free by using coconut milk or your favorite dairy free milk here!

Sea Salt: just a little sprinkle on top elevates these gooey chocolate chip cookies to the next level!

How to make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, making vegan chocolate chip cookies is not far from making regular chocolate chip cookies!

First, you’ll start by whisking together the main dry ingredients in a large bowl, aside from the sugar. Set it aside and then we’ll get to beating together the wet ingredients.

In a medium bowl, add in the applesauce, softened coconut oil (not melted coconut oil!), and coconut sugar! Using a hand mixer, beat on low until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved in the coconut oil and applesauce.

Then we pour the wet ingredients into the dry and using a spoon, mix together until it becomes a sticky dough! This is also where we add the almond or coconut milk. Start with 3 tablespoons, and use as much as you need to get the dough moving, adding by tablespoon.

Fold in chocolate chips and then use a cookie scoop to scoop about a tablespoon and a half of dough onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 375F for 9-10 minutes, just until gooey and cooked, and then let cool before devouring! 😉

Why Coconut Oil?

Glad you asked! I actually love how coconut oil works in this recipe. I think it helps to make these healthy vegan chocolate chip cookies also nut free because many vegan butters that are on the minimum ingredient range use nuts.

I like to keep many of my recipes nut free, as people with nut allergies tend to not be able to enjoy the standard vegan and/or Paleo recipe.

Coconut oil works wonderfully in this recipe because it is known to absorb quite a bit of moisture. Because vegan chocolate chip cookies are gooey by nature, this helps to give them some structure!

Are chocolate chips vegan?

Well sure they are, if you use the right ones! A common misconception is that chocolate is not vegan, when in reality, there are many chocolate brands out there that are vegan!

You can go the 100% route, which I personally love because I just love the flavor and strength of 100% cacao, so try out Pascha Chocolate Chips if you’d like! They’re made with only cacao butter and cacao powder, making them vegan chocolate chips!

You can also use one of my favorite brands, Lily’s Sweets! They’re sweetened with stevia and also vegan, making them the perfect addition to these cookies 🙂 However, you don’t even detect the stevia, which I know is a flavor that turns most people off!

Or if you aren’t completely vegan, just use whichever brand you love the most! You can even make your own vegan chocolate by melting cacao butter together with cacao powder then freezing it 🙂 I did that a few times to make both dark chocolate and white chocolate that was vegan! It turned out really well! Add in a little coconut sugar or maple syrup if you’d like, and you’re set! I use these molds when making my own chocolate chips (because how cool is it that you can make your own chocolate chips at home?!).

And there you have it, folks! A delicious and vegan chocolate chip cookie that’s gooey, sweet, and undetectably healthy!

These cookies are just perfect when paired with a cold glass of almond milk or mixed into some nice cream! You could even make a half-baked creation like Ben & Jerry’s, and combine these cookies with my Paleo vegan Nutella brownies!

Or if cookies are your vibe, try out these Paleo vegan Oreo’s to go alongside these chocolate chip cookies 🙂

I hope you love these cookies as much as I do! Enjoy, and happy baking!

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