Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies you will ever have! This perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe is allergy-free and eggless, but you would never know! Soft and chewy with that classic ooey gooey center and slightly crisp edge. Loaded with dairy-free chocolate chips and made without oil, this easy recipe is the only one you need, vegan or not!

The search for the most perfect gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe ends here. Years in the making and perfected to fit all special diets, literally the best vegan chocolate chip cookies you will ever have the pleasure of eating. No one will ever know these cookies are gluten-free or vegan. They're so chewy and soft, with just the right amount of crispiness to their edges and that melty gooey center, loaded with melty chocolate chips throughout! THIS is the only recipe you'll ever need!

The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Eggless, no dairy, no coconut oil, and no almond flour! These chocolate chip cookies don't even use a typical vegan egg replacer! They're so moist, chewy, and have the perfect texture even while being gluten-free! Move over Tollhouse, move over Chips Ahoy, forget about the bakery down the street, these cookies will even surpass your family's secret recipe (which probably came off of that Tollhouse chocolate chip package anyway!) These perfect cookies are:

• Gluten-Free
• Vegan
• Allergy-free (Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free, Peanut-Free, Wheat-Free, Sesame-Free, Corn-Free, Coconut-Free)
• Low in Sugar or Sugar-Free
• Oil-Free
• Kid-Friendly
• Quick & Easy
• Just 7 Ingredients
• Make-Ahead, Freezer-Friendly, Perfectly Giftable
• Your Dessert Of Dreams For Any Occasion (or "Just Because"!)

The Best Substitute For Eggs In Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best substitute is also the secret ingredient in this recipe! Cream cheese! For these vegan and dairy-free cookies, you'll be using dairy-free cream cheese. If you were to use a regular dairy cream cheese block, you would use 4-ounces or half the block. Each egg you're replacing required ¼ cup (2-ounces) of cream cheese. For this eggless vegan recipe, you'll need 4-ounces of cream cheese, which is about ½ cup. I recommend using Daiya brand or Miyoko's.

You do not want to use flavored cream cheese, as this will alter the flavor, nor whipped cream cheese, as it is too soft to act as an egg replacer. To keep this recipe nut-free as well, brands like Kite Hill will not work.

The dairy-free cream cheese acts as a binder in these eggless chocolate chip cookies, but also provides moisture and keeps your cookies soft and chewy! Extra moisture is essential for perfect gluten-free chocolate chip cookies too!

The Best Flour For Gluten-Free Cookies

The flour you use for these gluten-free chocolate chip cookies is important as it is the base of the entire cookie recipe. Say goodbye to gritty, crumbly, pale, and dry cookies! The best flour to use is Great Value Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour! Yes, Walmart's own brand is actually one of the best certified gluten-free flours for baking cookies. It's not heavy and doesn't contain legumes like Bob's Red Mill, nor does it contain any nuts. This flour is light and rice-based, containing brown rice flour, rice flour, sweet rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, cornstarch, potato starch, and xanthan gum.

These cookies do not contain almond flour or coconut flour. So you don't have to worry about nuts, grittiness, or any off-putting tastes. These cookies are also oat-free so you don't have to worry about finding certified gluten-free oats! This light baking flour allows your gluten-free chocolate chip cookies to remain soft and chewy, with the perfect golden brown crackled surface and slightly crispy edges.

My second recommendation would be King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Mix. This flour mix contains almost exactly the same ingredients as the Great Value blend and will provide the same perfect gluten-free cookie texture. King Arthur's blend contains baking powder, while the Great Value blend does not. The amount doesn't change the cookies much, so don't fret!

Ingredients For Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: The gluten-free flour blends I recommend are Great Value and King Arthur. You can use a different brand of gluten-free all-purpose flour, but the texture of your cookies may differ. For further explanation, see above!
• Baking Soda + Salt: Take careful note that these chocolate chip cookies only contain baking soda, NOT baking powder. The baking soda is activated by the butter as the cookies bake and then reacts to the sugars and salt to help the cookies rise and remain fluffy inside.
• Dark Brown Sugar Sweetener: If you're looking for chewy chocolate chip cookies, the amount of brown sugar you use is essential! By using dark brown sugar (or sugar-free brown sugar), you get a darker rich cookie color, softness, ultra-chewiness, and delicate caramel-like flavor.
• Granulated Sugar Sweetener: A lesser amount of granulated sugar (or sugar-free sweetener) is used to help the edges and bottoms of the cookies get just slightly crispy enough to provide the right amount of structure and bite.
• Vegan Butter: You'll need one stick of vegan butter, melted, for these cookies. You will not have to cream the butter for this recipe!
• Vegan Cream Cheese: The vegan cream cheese acts are the egg replacement for binding as well as providing extra moisture.
• Vanilla Extract: A healthy dose of pure vanilla extract is a must in classic chocolate chip cookies!
• Allergen-Free Chocolate Chips: Dark or semi-sweet, choose your favorite brand of allergen-free chocolate chips or even chocolate chunks!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Coconut Oil or Applesauce

One of the keys to this perfect recipe is using melted vegan butter. By using melted butter you do not need to cream the dairy-free butter with the two sugars. You get to simply mix the sugar into the hot melted butter, as well as the vegan cream cheese. This creates a perfectly thick liquidy mixture to mix into your gluten-free flour without needing to add any other liquid, like non-dairy milk. These cookies bake up perfect buttery, soft, and chewy, but you do need to chill the batter, or in our case, "flash freeze".

The Best Vegan Chocolate Chips For Cookies

You're free to use dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, or chocolate chunks! You can do half chocolate chips and half chocolate chunks or chopped chocolate bar. I like the uniformity of using chips, but chopped chocolate will give your cookies a more rustic, imperfect look. Either way is delicious! My favorite brand of allergen-free chocolate chips to use is Nestle's Simply Delicious Allergen-Free Chips, either dark or semi-sweet (which is what I used!).

How To Make Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. First, you'll prep your wet ingredients by melting your vegan butter and adding in the sugars, vanilla, and salt.
2. Mix until everything is melted together.
3. Then add the vegan cream cheese to the hot mixture. (Tip: if the cream cheese is still too cold, microwave the entire mixture for 30 seconds!)
4. Mix until you have a thick wet batter with no lumps.

1. Pour your wet mixture into a large bowl with your flour and baking soda.
2. Gently mix until smooth.
3. Add your choice of chocolate chips and fold them into the cookie batter.
4. Freeze the cookie batter for 15-20 minutes while you preheat the oven.

1. Make 2 tablespoon-sized cookie dough mounds with the frozen dough.
2. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 14 minutes. Take them out of the oven and add a few more chips to the hot cookies as they cool.

Pro Baking Tips And Secrets For Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Freezing the dough not only speeds up the chilling process but makes it even easier to scoop. Just 15-20 minutes in the freezer and your dough will be easy and ready to scoop.
• This recipe makes 12, two tablespoon-sized large cookies. You can make smaller one tablespoon-sized cookies which will yield 24 cookies if you'd prefer. Reduce the baking time by 2-3 minutes for smaller cookies.
• To make perfectly rustic crinkly cookies, you want to smash together the two tablespoon scoops of cookie dough. You can also take the amount of dough, rip it in half and smash the smooth side together as demonstrated here.
• Make your cookies look bakery-style and Instagram-worthy by adding extra chocolate chips to the just-baked cookies! Right after you remove the cookies from the oven, leave them on the baking sheet and place a few extra chocolate chips into the still warm tops. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack.
• Freezing the cookie dough is key. If you do not freeze the dough, the cookies will spread too much since this recipe uses melted vegan butter. If the cookie dough is too hard to scoop after you take it out of the freezer, let it sit for a minute or two at room temperature.
• Your cookies will spread out, so make sure you have ample room on your baking sheet. I made two separate batches of 6 cookies.
• Do not reuse your baking sheet for both batches, unless it has cooled to room temperature. Putting a new batch of unbaked dough on the hot baking sheet is a no-no and will result in too much spreading. Leave the other half of the cookie batter in the freezer until you are ready to scoop.
• Make sure you use a silicone baking mat or quality parchment paper when baking your chocolate chip cookies.
• Do not over-bake your cookies. You want the edges to just begin to brown and the tops to look golden. When you take the cookies out of the oven, they'll look slightly under-baked in the center and that's what you want! They finish baking on the hot baking sheet and while cooling on the wire rack at room temperature.

Why Are My Vegan Cookies Flat?

If your cookies ended up spreading too much, it probably means you didn't freeze the batter. Because we are using hot melted vegan butter and cream cheese in this eggless batter, you must chill the dough so it is almost frozen solid before baking (15-20 minutes in the freezer is key!)

Want Thicker Cookies?

If you want a less classic-looking chocolate chip cookie, you can add 3 extra tablespoons of gluten-free flour to your dough and swap the baking soda with baking powder. When you bake the cookies your cookie dough mounds will stay elevated due to the slightly drier dough. For true thickness, try these chewy chocolate chip cookie bars!

How To Make Perfectly Portioned Cookies

Whether you want perfectly measured cookies or you don't want to get batter on your hands, using an actual cookie scoop is a game-changer! This is my favorite cookie scoop, and while I was a skeptic on the need for one for the longest time...once you go cookie scoop, you never go back!

How To Store Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

After you've allowed the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack, you can store the cookies in an airtight container for 4-5 days at room temperature. You can store them for up to a week in the fridge. If you want the cookie to feel warm and the chocolate to be melty from the oven again, give the cookies a quick warm in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.

Freezer Instructions

Once your chocolate chip cookies have cooled completely, wrap each cookie tightly in wax paper and then stack flat in a ziplock bag with the air squeezed out to freeze. Alternatively, you can freeze the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Then transfer the frozen sold cookies into a large Ziplock bag. Wrapping the cookies individually is a better option for retaining the original texture and quality of the cookies once reheated.

You can thaw the cookies in the fridge or at room temperature, then warm in the microwave or the oven if you're warming multiple cookies at a time.

Freezing Unbaked Cookie Dough

Luckily, this recipe already uses frozen dough from the start! All you have to do is mix up your dough, freeze the dough, make your 1 to 2 tablespoon-sized cookie scoops on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze the unbaked mounds on the baking sheet until hard again, before transferring them to a Ziplock bag with the air squeezed out. When ready to bake, simply follow the normal baking instructions, give or take a minute or two of baking time.

Frozen cookies and frozen chocolate chip cookie dough are best used within 3-4 months.

More Delicious Vegan Cookies:

• Vegan White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
• Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Loaded Vegan White Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
• Classic Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
• Double Chocolate Chunk Brownie Cookies

 

Print

There is nothing cozier than fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven! Warm, melty, soft, and chewy...those memories of baking classic cookies in the kitchen with your family...priceless! Now you and your celiac, vegan, food allergy family can enjoy the classic American tradition right at home too!

So tell me:

+ What do you think is the best type of cookie of all time?

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