These are the best ever coconut oil chocolate chip cookies – they're made without butter, wheat flour, and no refined sugar!
Crispy, chewy AND dark chocolate chips?
That, my friends, describes my perfect chocolate chip cookie. It has brown crispy edges, a soft chewy center, is thin but still a little dense, and is studded with dark chocolate chips throughout.
Oh and I must be able to dunk them in a big glass of almond milk. Yes, that’s a must.
But what I’ve come to realize, after baking hundreds of batches of cookies in my 26 years of life, getting it just right is easier said than done.
5 years ago, before I was gluten-free, I had my go-to recipe. I knew exactly how to make it, knew all the proportions and it turned out perfectly every time.
So much for that! Everything I knew was thrown out the window when I could no longer use flour, butter or refined sugar.
Uhm…is the cookie that I've loved for my whole life even possible anymore?
Well, I’ll tell you, honestly I’ve been on the hunt for that perfect cookie recipe ever since.
After much testing, and just as much tasting, I narrowed it down to my essentials: quinoa flour, coconut sugar, coconut oil and flax. And I can now happily say that if you think cookies need to be made with butter, flour, sugar and eggs, think again.
It is totally possible and these are proof. These are the best ever coconut oil chocolate chip cookies right here.
They're everything that I love in a cookie. They've got the crispy outer edges, the chewy centers, the melty chocolate chips. They're heavenly. And they're gluten-free and vegan.
In fact, if Matt's opinion is proof, he's sitting on the couch behind me right now eating one from our fourth batch and just said, “I think these are the best cookies I've ever had”. I kid you not. Word for word.
To me? That feels like a small victory in and of itself.
Oh and did I mention that they're gluten-free and vegan? There's that too.
Now a few tips for the glorious cookies:
CHILL IT babayy! Chilling the dough is a must – it helps the cookies stay ultra chewy. But since the coconut oil becomes hard in the fridge, you'll want to let the dough rest for a few minutes before you scoop them onto the baking sheet.
Softened coconut oil is your friend. You'll cream it with the sugar like you do butter and it helps give the cookies just a little bit more lightness.
Shape to your liking. For puffier cookies, leave the balls of cookie dough in tact on the baking sheet. For thinner cookies, flatten them slightly between your palms.
Embrace the coconut. You might be wondering if these cookies have an overpowering coconut taste, but I can assure you, it's very subtle. In fact, I'd argue that the coconut oil enhances the flavors of the other ingredients – the dark caramel of the coconut sugar, the nuttiness from the quinoa flour and even the sweetness from the chocolate chips.
And after all, it really is all about the coconut oil with thees cookies.
It makes them so crazy good that I think you should probably go make a batch right now and then we can be coconut oil cookie monsters together…forever and ever.
Vegan Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup quinoa flour
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch I haven't tried these with tapioca or potato
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil softened
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 flax egg 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips I like Enjoy Life
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients and set aside.
- Beat together softened coconut oil and coconut sugar until creamy. Add flax egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add flour mixture into wet ingredients in three additions, mixing fully between each. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Cover bowl and chill dough for 1 - 2 hours.
- With 30 minutes left in the chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Remove dough from fridge and let sit for 5 minutes. Scoop 2 tablespoons of dough and shape into balls. Place on parchment and repeat until no dough remains. For a thicker cookie, leave balls as is, but for a thinner cookie, gently flatten them between your palms.
- Bake cookies for 9 - 11 minutes until edges are brown and crispy.
- Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Video
Nutrition
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Making these this week! My husband needs a treat like this! I’ll let you know if I trial them with any of the flours/starches. Don’t think I have quinoa flour on hand, but do have millet flour.
yay! I hope you love them as much as we do 🙂 My boyfriend Matt is obsessed. As soon as we run out he wants me to make more. In five years that’s the first time that has ever happened! Definitely a good sign.
I’ve also tried numerous times to make a GF good slightly chewy one that doesn’t crumble and fall apart cookie. I’ve just about given up! I’m allergic to rice! 🙁 What’s a possible good sub?
Hi Rae! You’re going to LOVE these! I really think you could substitute pretty much any GF flour for the rice. What about millet? Or sorghum? Even additional quinoa flour would probably work (they might be a teeny bit more dense). Raw buckwheat flour would also be great! Let me know what you end up trying 🙂
I think I’ll try subbing with millet. I usually have pretty good luck with it in my bread machine with bread making. I have just started using teff flour in my bread recipes and really like it so far. Have you tried teff before?
Millet sounds great! And yes, I love teff flour. I don’t use it nearly enough, but I have some in my cabinet right now. Somehow my mind jumps to Orange Teff Waffles…no idea why! Let me know how the cookies turn out 🙂
Oh I love cookies, these look great.
Thanks Candi! xo
Great post. I will for sure try these. Question, I have some quinoa flakes, do you think I could put them in my Blendtec and make flour? I’ve never tried quinoa flakes or flour before yet and just recently got some flakes so I and want to, soon, now, okay, tomorrow since it’s 10:15 p.m. make these cookies!
These sound delish, Alyssa!
Vegan cookie perfect! Beautiful!
These look great! I’ve been trying to use more coconut oil and start dabbling with coconut suger 🙂
Gosh, those look marvelous, Alyssa! Absolutely terrific. Needing one of them right now!
If I don’t need the cookie to be vegan, could I use 1 real egg in place of the flax egg?
I am sure you could! The flax egg works as an exact replacement as a normal egg.. so I would assume that it would work the other way around!
Again, simply gorgeous!!!! I really want to try these.
I don’t know where you live but I discovered that the store brand semi-sweet chocolate chips near my house are vegan. Much cheaper than Enjoy Life and they taste delicious!
I tried making these last night and they came out of the oven as total pancakes! Now, I did swap out almond flour for the quinoa (quinoa tastes bitter to me after it sits and I wanted to be able to enjoy these cookies for a while), but that has never caused me problems before. I also used an egg rather than the flax egg – this also has never caused me issues in a recipe. Finally, I did use silpats for the baking, rather than baking parchment. Do you think that could have cause them to slip and slide out wide rather than stay a cookie shape? On the positive, after they had cooled and I had attempted to mash them back into a ball (thank you, chocolate chips for acting like glue), they taste absolutely DIVINE! The coconut oil is gooey and buttery in the best of ways.
Alyssa,
I tried these cookies tonight and unfortunately the recipe flopped. However, I did have two; stevia vs. coconut sugar and egg vs. flax egg. The cookies came out crumbly with a weird pseudo sugar flavor ( hence the stevia ). I’m bummed! Any advice on how I can get them to come out properly while still using egg? Perhaps I should follow your recipe strictly…
I followed the recipe strictly except for the coconut sugar. I used raw organic honey instead. In my opinion, the flax egg contributes to its awesome texture and flavor. Stevia can’t do anything for this type of flavor! I imagine it being less rich and blah using stevia… perhaps using the egg too.
it has been a while since I have had a chocolate chip cookie – they aren’t usually my first choice, and when I make them I make a few with NO chips, just plain cookie – these are on my short list to make when I am wanting cookies!
Alyssa, these look divine! Seriously,your photos make me want to eat my screen!
Does the Flax Egg also contain an actual egg?
Its an egg replacer acting as a binder to mimic an egg in baking.
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They are yummy! Used quinoa and teff flour with potato starch!
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This looks delicious! I can’t wait to make them!!
xx
Courtney
www.thedaringdarling.com
Hope you love them!
I totally just made these and replaced the coconut sugar with raw organic honey. I already had two bags of coconut sugar but I did not want to use any sugar at all. The honey did not mix right away. In fact, it did not completley mix with the oil until I added the flax egg. Note, I let the honey sit in the oil a while occasionally swirling it to help loosen it up. OMMMMGGGGGG. Amazing, and for all of you trying to swap out the flax seed for the egg, don’t do it! I can’t imagine this recipe being any other way than the way it is, it is like someone else said, DIVINE.
OMG I am in LOVE with that! I’m definitely going to try that next time I make these. YUM! xo
Help! What did I do wrong! I made no substitutions and my cookies all melted into one big sheet cookie and not in a good way 🙁 They honestly look like melted batter right now.
Did you chill the dough??
Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it! I did, but a quick chill in the freezer, Do you think that was the issue? I ended up using the main recipe as a base and tried another option with soaked quinoa and oat flour in place of the quinoa/rice flour (half cup soaked quinoa to about 3/4 cup oat flour), half the oil and a quarter of the sugar and they came out really good 🙂
I would love to make
Hi Alyssa, I was looking at your other recipe with only using quinoa flour – Soft & Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. What is the differences? Will baking only with the quinoa flour have more distinctive quinoa flavor, while this one bit neutralizes the taste?
Hi Lisa! I would recommend the Soft & Chewy Cookies 🙂 It is a newer recipe and I absolutely love the flavor of those ones!