Chewy & Soft Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (Better Than Tollhouse!)
These are the best vegan chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever make thanks to using dairy free yogurt as the vegan egg replacement!! Chewy edges and soft, warm molten middles studded with melty chocolate chips. Easy to make with ingredients you probably already have, absolutely no one will know these cookies are vegan, no dairy and no eggs!
Reader Review:
Why you need to try my vegan chocolate chip cookies:
These vegan chocolate chip cookies should just be labelled as the best chocolate chip cookies. Because they’re not amazing for being vegan. They’re amazing. Period. Not flat, like other vegan cookies, not too puffy, just right chewy edges with soft, warm molten centers.
It’s the top vegan cookie recipe on my blog (along with these amazing vegan double chocolate chip cookies, which made it into my first cookbook!) and is the base cookie dough I use for all of my cookies.
Every time I make these, no one believes me that these cookies are dairy free and eggless because of our secret ingredient: dairy free yogurt. The absolute best vegan egg replacement to exist for cookies. The result is identical to eggs, it’s uncanny.
I swear this is what makes them taste like Tollhouse cookies: crispy, chewy edges with a molten, SOFT center. Ugh, YUM. In fact, the dough is so good, I even used it to create my edible vegan cookie dough recipe!
And did I mention, it’s easier than traditional cookies?? 😉 Just a bowl and a whisk is needed- no fancy equipment nor methods!
My latest video:
Key ingredients I chose when making this recipe:
- Vegan butter: Some vegan cookie recipes on the internet suggest coconut oil, but I’m not a fan of this. This is because coconut oil is 100% fat, whereas traditional dairy butter is about 80-82%. That means the rest is water, which adds moisture. KEY. The more fat you have, the “shorter” the cookie (think shortbread: crumbly), but we want soft and chewy, so coconut oil just doesn’t work here. That’s why I recommend Miyoko’s. But if you’re nut free, I believe the second best option is Plant Crock.
- Dairy-free yogurt: the secret ingredient to making these vegan cookies irresistibly gooey and perfect! It might sound weird to make vegan chocolate chip cookies with yogurt, but trust me this is the key (check out my vegan egg replacements guide here for more on that).
- Vegan Chocolate chips: The chocolate you use in your CHOCOLATE chip cookie matters! My go-to combination is (because yes, I use more than one chip, that’s how you get the good flavor!!): Enjoy Life dairy free “milk” chocolate chip with Valrhona Oriado chocolate feves OR Endangered Species 70% sea salt chocolate (the sea salt is GOOD my friends). Other brands that work are Guittard, Hu Kitchen, and Pascha (though sometimes, I think some of the flavors of Pascah are a bit “earthy” tasting). Lily’s won’t really melt that well so I don’t really opt for these.
Figuring out baking time for this cookie recipe:
A trick I learned years ago is to use the baking time of cookies more as guidelines for the literal recipe you’re baking in the moment. Why? Because honestly, every oven is a bit different. In my oven, I’m baking this cookie recipe for 14 minutes. This same recipe bakes for 16 minutes in my mom’s oven because it’s 30 years old, isn’t QUITE 350F when set, and it’s just different.
I always look for the doneness in the edges of the cookie. Look for the crisp slightly golden brown edges, and allow your cookies to rest after removing them from the oven.
You are just going to LOVE these vegan chocolate chip cookies. They’re seriously just so easy to make, and an absolute crowd pleaser for both kids and adults.
Enjoy, and happy baking!
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Chewy & Soft Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (Better Than Tollhouse!)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These are the best vegan chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever make!! Chewy edges and soft, molten middles studded with melty chocolate chips. Easy to make with ingredients you probably already have, absolutely no one will know these cookies are vegan, no dairy and no eggs thanks to our secret and simple ingredient!
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour , sifted and spoon & leveled*
- 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2/3 cup (150 g) salted vegan butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (135 g) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) organic granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (85 g) dairy free yogurt or unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (170 g) vegan chocolate chips* (semi-sweet or your choice!)
Instructions
- Prep: Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and measure out all ingredients.
- Whisk: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the vegan butter, sugar, brown sugar, dairy free yogurt, and vanilla. Then add in the flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold together. Stop just before all of the flour is mixed in.
- Add in the chocolate chips: Fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
- Chill: Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, but preferably 2 hours. The longer, the better, as the flavor will develop even more. When the dough is nearly done chilling, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Bake: Using a cookie scoop, and roll about 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie for regular sized cookies, or 3 tablespoons of dough for large cookies onto the sheet. Place into oven and bake for 10-12 minutes (my oven, I bake them exactly 11 minutes each time for large cookies) or until the edges are lightly golden and are “set.” The middles shouldn’t be dough-y looking, but if they’re still soft, that’s perfectly fine.
- Cool: Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. This allows the cookies to firm up to hold together.
- Enjoy: Sprinkle with extra sea salt and enjoy! Store these cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days, a week in the fridge, or a month in the freezer.
Notes
Gluten free: I really only recommend using King Arthur Measure-for-Measure Gluten Free Flour or a similar blend with xanthan gum that also weighs 125 g per cup. Please note that Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Flour will NOT work here.
Baking times: baking times will vary based on your kitchen and oven temperatures. Be sure to watch your cookies and bake according to your own oven. Read my tips in the post for how to ensure your cookies are done.
Vegan Chocolate Chips: I recommend Enjoy Life and some of the Valrhona feves are naturally dairy free and vegan (like the Oriado blend- my favorite!).
- Room temperature: Store the cookies at room temperature on a plate and wrapped in plastic wrap or in an airtight container. They’ll last for about 5 days at room temperature.
- Fridge: Store the cookies in an airtight container (this will keep them from drying out). They’ll last for about 7-8 days, depending on how cold your fridge is.
- Freezer: Store them in a plastic airtight bag or container for up to 3 months.
Finally a chocolate chip cookie recipe that my non vegan family love as much or MORE than the ATK recipe I made for years! I made this as written and they were perfect.
Omgsh I’m so so happy. This is so wonderful!! Enjoy and thank you for the review!
I’m super disappointed my cookies came out sooo cakey and I followed the recipe to a T, I dont know what i did wrong! I want to try again but I’m worried I’ll get the same result. I used the king Arthur flour you recommended. can you help me please! I want these cookies so badly!
Hi Tiffany! I’m so sorry this happened to you- it sounds like you might have not weighed the ingredients? Cakey cookies often come from too much flour, which usually happens if you use US measurements and don’t measure properly there!
I wish the instructions included a temperature for the oven. 10 minutes at 450? 300? some of us don’t know what we are doing 🙂
Hi There! So sorry for the confusion! It’s actually in step 5 where you’ll preheat the oven to 350. Hope this helps! 🙂
ok can you tell me the exact metic measurements?? because I noticed the measurements on here, are different from the YouTube video. I tried both a d got the same result. 😔
Hi Tiffany! An updated recipe video is coming shortly, I’m so sorry for the confusion! The written measurements will always be the most up to date over a video. So sorry for the confusion!
it’s ok! I actually figured out the problem! since I was using coconut sugar for both sugars they were not spreading out and were turning cakey! these are the best cookies hands down! I made some regular cookies and my husband likes these better!
Omgsh I’m so happy to hear you both loved them!! Thank you so much for the review and giving them another go 🙂 Enjoy!!
These are the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookies! To the point where I have non vegan family members addicted to them!
Eeeep this makes my heart sing!! Thanks so much for the stellar review 🙂
Hi Britt! Having read the comments, I’m a little confused about the amount of flour in the recipe – 280g it is? Why is this quantity of flour better than using less (which I have seen in other recipes that use similar amounts of sugar) ?
One more question: Could I reduce the amount of sugar and yield similar results or isn’t this possible?
So excited to try these cookies! ^^
Hi Julia! Oh absolutely! So this is because we’re using a bit more vegan butter than other recipes. It will help us get cookies that don’t just bake into pools without an egg, but spread beautifully! I wouldn’t reduce the sugar by much- I haven’t personally tested this, but usually you can remove about 1/4 cup of sugar from a recipe without too much impact. I can’t attest to the results however!
Hi Britt! Thank you for sharing your creations. These cookies were a hit (with non-vegans too) and I can’t wait to try your other recipes. I’ll have to remember to take a picture next time I make your recipes as these cookies did not last long in this house. I did manage to freeze some scooped dough and found they baked perfectly.
The small batch version of these cookies were on the sweet side for my taste, but these were wonderful even despite the debacle of being short ~25 g of sugar, they still turned out chewy, gooey, and crisp on the edges. Thanks again and take care! <3
Hi Britt. Can you please clarify the butter amount? the recipe calls for 2/3 cup but in the video you say 1/2 a cup. I tried following the recipe and I think the cooky dough was too buttery.
Oh I’m so sorry for the confusion!! The video is a bit outdated to the written recipe (a new video is coming), but the written recipe is the one that is most accurate. So the 2/3 cup is correct! As long as you used the proper amount of flour, it should absolutely work!
Any idea why my cookies are flakey/dry/puffy? The chocolate chunks recommended didn’t melt either which I thought was odd. I used bobs 1:1 flour and used cup measurements as recommended. Thank you!
Hi there! I actually STOPPED recommending bob’s and made an explicit note in my note’s section- they changed their formula a few years back, and it no longer works 1:1 with this recipe. Additionally, using cup measurements is also the issue- it looks like there’s way too much flour there, which often happens with cup measurements. I’m so sorry this happened! Using a kitchen scale and a gf flour like King Arthur’s works wonderfully here. I make my neighbor these cookies gluten free with KA about once a month, and they’re so good!
Thank you for the reply I’ll be sure to use King Arthur next time, at least the cookie dough is fabulous!
Oh absolutely!! I’m so happy to hear that the cookie dough was at least good! So sorry again about the Bob’s :/ it’s frustrating because it used to really be 1:1, but I haven’t been using it since about 2022!
Hello – Would this dough be ok if I make it 2 days ahead of time, roll into balls and refrigerate, so that I can bake fresh the day I need them? I’m going to be pretty busy that day and I’d like to be able to just pull them out and bake day of the event. I do this with regular choc chip cookies (not gf / vegan) but I know GF flour can behave a little different so checking if you think the dough would be ok sitting in the fridge for up to 48 hrs.
Absolutely!! I do this quite often (usually have a batch stored in the freezer pre-scooped so we can bake whenever we want them haha!)! Enjoy!!
I wanted to let you know that the updated recipe creates very cakey cookies, not the chewy cookies like the old recipe makes. There is too much flour and not enough butter. Please reinstate the archived recipe as it yielded chewy cookies as the recipe was intended. The old recipe is a family favorite so thank you for creating it!! 🩷
This dough is amazing. I need to monkey with the cook time, but this will be my new go to cookie dough. I didn’t have vegan yogurt and my applesauce had gone bad, so I used vegan sour cream and it turned out delicious.
Hi! Have you tried with coconut oil instead of butter? If yes what would be the ratio?
Hi Daniela! Absolutely! So you will have a bit more of a coconut flavor, but if that doesn’t bother you, then totally use it 🙂 Same amount will work, they just won’t spread AS much, but they’ll still be delicious!
Ok so let me just start off by saying I’m not vegan. I have a friend who’s recently become vegan and I made these for her. I was so impressed by how magnificent these were I HAD to leave a comment. Bravo girl these are a 10/10 RECOMMEND. Followed the recipe by measuring did the applesauce because I didn’t have vegan yogurt. Absolutely delicious.
I just made these cookies. They didn’t spread nor did they darken like the photos (they look very pale) and I left them in for 15min. I cut the recipe in half because I’m only making these cookies to satisfy a late-night hankering. I read through some of the comments left by other people and the responses you gave. I think they didn’t spread due to the flour (I scooped it ahaha), or maybe I portioned them out too largely, or my oven temperature is lower than normal, or maybe it’s simply due to be doing only half of the recipe. Despite those things, the cookies taste so good. They are the best vegan cookies I have ever had! I’m gonna try making it again for a better outcome!
Aw I’m so glad the taste is still there!! But would love to help you figure out what went wrong! It sounds like there might have been too much flour potentially if you scooped it, which would make them not spread (and potentially not darken too!). Try spooning and leveling the flour next time, that will help a ton!!
Hi there!
Was wondering how long you think I should bake an 8 x 8 cookie cake instead of cookies ?
TIA!
Oh you can totally do that! I recommend about 23-26 minutes, I’ve done it before at 350F!
Hi, I have a question:
The written recipe says you only use baking soda, but in the video you said you mix the flour with baking soda and baking powder.
What is the correct recipe? And if you also use baking powder, what is the measurement?
thanks britt!
Hi Paloma! The recipe has been further adjusted, so it’s just actually baking soda now, no baking powder! An updated video is coming soon 🙂 Stay tuned!!
I don’t see milk or baking powder in the recipe list. Can you confirm please?
Hi Ashely! The recipe has been further adjusted so sorry for the confusion! Just baking soda now 🙂
I have made a batch of these cookies on 3 separate occasions and they never spread 🙁
Don’t get me wrong, the cookies taste great! On my third try, I used only 2 cups of flour to see if that would change things. I also didn’t refrigerate it on the 3rd try because in the blog portion it said it was optional. I’m sad because I really like the cookies, I just want them to be thin and chewy with crisp edges!
I really followed the recipe exactly because I wanted them to turn out perfectly. I’m wondering if it’s the addition of the cornstarch? I tried using a light pan, dark pan, and no pan (just parchment) both lined with parchment, and I always have the same result. At least they taste good lol!
Oh no!! Okay let’s see what went wrong here! You’re adding the baking soda, correct? What type of flour are you using? And are you measuring with cups or a scale?
Hii same issue ! I’m doing scale, cup4cup and King Arthur on seperate occasions and used baking soda amount
Hmm and you’re not switching anything else? Like not substituting coconut oil for the vegan butter, etc?
ohh you are so right i did swap coconut oil for vegan butter and i use coconut yogurt as the egg replacement
I have nut and seed oil sensitivities so most vegan butters are a no go for me
Oh that probably did it, especially with the coconut yogurt! I totally understand that- it might help to use a bit less flour to help them spread (or swapping applesauce for the dairy free yogurt- has a bit more moisture that will help counteract the shortness of the coconut oil, as coconut oil is 100% fat and now moisture). I hope that helps!
Hi Britt, I can’t wait to try this recipe for my daughter! I had a couple of questions. If I’m using only chocolate chips (not a bar), how many ounces of chocolate chips should I use? Also, do you have a link to the large cookie cutter you used in the video to round out the baked cookies? If not, what’s the diameter of the cookie cutter? Thanks! Elizabeth B.
Aw that’s wonderful!! Okay so if you’re only using chocolate chips you can use ~7 ounces chocolate chips- but you can use less if you’d like, it depends on how many chips you prefer in your cookies! For the cookie cutter, it’s a pretty old one from the video, but the size is about 4″. You can also use the back of a spoon though and that works too! Can’t wait to hear how they turn out for you all!
Thank you!
My cookies didn’t spread but I did reduce the sugar by 25% like you said
Hi Maria! Oh no- did you happen to use a kitchen scale? If you used cups, there’s a chance you used too much flour!
This is my go to cookie recipe. Probably a long shot but do you know how you could convert this recipe using sourdough discard? Thanks much!
Oh I’m so so happy to hear it! So I’ve never worked with sourdough discard in cookie or cake recipes so I’m not the best person to ask for this! I’ve been experimenting with my own sourdough lately and will report back if I try anything here 🙂
Hi! Love your recipes… wondering what flour you recommend to use if GF? And what are the ratios?
Hi Edera!
Absolutely! I recommend King Arthur measure for measure- and it will be the same ratios as the regular all purpose flour. I recommend using a scale if available, it will yield the best results!
How many grams of chocolate bar do you add? Is that in addition to the chips?
Thank you!
I usually add 80-120 g! Depending on the bar or if I’m using Valrhona feves!
These are good, however, they did not spread out and flatten like I am use to cookies doing. I used a cookie scoop and then pressed down a bit so it looked more like a puck than a mound. They cooked up and were delicious but they were delicious little pucks. 🙂 The batter was quite stiff and easy to work with – as in I feel like I could have made them any shape I wanted. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi there! I’m wondering if you maybe used a bit too much flour? That can cause the cookies to not spread! Make sure you’re spooning and leveling the flour- not scooping! But the best method is to use the metric scale which I provide the measurements for!
I do not have a scale, but I will try a little less flour next time. Thanks for the response.
Absolutely! Let me know how that goes!