Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the BEST EVER soft, chewy and crinkly vegan and gluten free chocolate chip cookies. They're loaded with two kinds of chocolate and chilled before baking for the under-baked, delicious cookie perfection.

We've been working to nail down the PERFECT vegan and gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe for ages. These cookies are insanely good.

For the longest time, we've been using softened vegan butter in our cookie recipes, just like the classic regular cookie recipe we all memorized growing up.

But as we did a bit of cookie science research, we realized that the key to a super soft, gooey cookie is plenty of moisture. And without egg, that's extra hard to achieve.

The key ingredient? Melted vegan butter. I don't know why it took us so long to figure it out, but it truly makes for the BEST vegan cookies. We also use flax "eggs" as a binder, but it's really the melted butter that makes these so delicious.

You truly won't believe they're gluten free and vegan. (The rest of our family couldn't believe it!) We've also included an adaptation for regular all purpose gluten flour if you're not gluten free!

If you prefer a thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie, this recipe is not for you. But if you love a chewy, soft, slightly under-baked and super chocolatey cookie, this is DEFINITELY for you.

This is 100% my kind of cookie. I can't wait for you to try it!

Ingredients

• Melted vegan butter: our two favorite easy-to-find brands are Earth Balance (the soy free variety) and Country Crock (we typically use the avocado or olive oil variety).
• Brown sugar: light or dark brown sugar both work.
• Cane sugar: we love using this organic cane sugar, which has a larger grain and gives these cookies a delicious, slightly crunchy crust!
• Flax "eggs": ground flax meal + water create a gelatinous substance that functions as a binder to replace regular eggs. Read more here.
• Gluten free all purpose flour: we use this blend from Bob's Red Mill!
• Oat flour
• Salt: we use fine kosher salt in all of our recipes unless otherwise noted.
• Baking soda:
• Chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks: we use equal amounts of each for a variety of texture and extra chocolatey cookies. You can use just one or the other if preferred.

Instructions

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Make the flax "egg": Stir together flax meal and water and let sit to thicken for 15 minutes. 

Cream butter and sugars: Melt the vegan butter. To prevent a mess in the microwave, we suggest doing so in a small saucepan over low heat on the stove. Once melted, add to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add both types of sugar and beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, until it forms a thick paste. 

Mix dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, whisk together gluten free flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt. 

Add flax "egg" and vanilla to butter mixture and mix until combined. 

Incorporate dry ingredients: Add dry mixture to wet ingredients in a few batches until fully incorporated. Fold in both types of chocolate. 

Portion and freeze dough: Using a large cookie dough scoop (2-3tbsp), scoop out dough and arrange on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Freeze for 30 minutes. 

Bake: Bake 5-6 cookies at a time (they spread quite a bit) for 12 minutes. (If baking smaller cookies, bake for 9-10 minutes). Let cool for 10 minutes before enjoying!

Recipe tips

• Not gluten free? No problem! Substitute the gluten free all purpose flour and the oat flour with 1 ½ cups regular all purpose flour.
• Don't skip the chilling. If you do, these cookies will spread a TON and they will be super thin.
• The dough is going to be softer and more runny than you're probably used to. Don't panic! It should look like this (see photos above).
• For a less doughy, slightly drier cookie, add an extra 2 tbsp of gluten free flour to the recipe.
• Pro tip: want those beautiful crinkly edges? Right after you take the cookies out of the oven, use the inside rounded part of a fork to push in the edges of the cookie. Since the cookie spreads a bit in the oven, this helps form those crinkly, delicious edges. Make sure to do it right after they come out of the oven as they set quickly.
  • You can also use a large circle cookie cutter to do this. Right after the cookies come out of the oven, place the cookie cutter around the cookie and swirl it in a circular motion. This creates perfect crinkly edges (and makes the cookie into a perfect circle! I use this trick for photography).

Storage

Store leftover cookies in a sealed container at room temperature for up to a week (although you'll probably eat them all before then!).

You can also store these cookies in the freezer for up to 6 months. They honestly taste amazing straight from the freezer (kind of like cookie dough!) or you can reheat each cookie for about 30 seconds in the microwave.

You can also freeze the cookie dough and bake at a later date. Freeze the dough into pre-portioned balls on a sheet pan. Once frozen, transfer to a container or bag and freeze for up to 6 months.

You can bake the frozen dough straight from the freezer – they may just need an extra minute or two in the oven.

More vegan and gluten free cookie recipes:

• Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
• Carrot Cake Cookies
• Vegan Linzer Cookies
• Best Vegan Sugar Cookies
• Edible Cookie Dough Bites (Vegan)

If you make these vegan and gluten free chocolate chip cookies, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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