Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Would you just look at these cookies go? They’re busy! Busy being perfect. We’re talking golden brown bottoms that are crispy and chewy, slightly soft in the middle, the right amount of sweetness, just enough chocolate and little bits of chopped pecan for added flavor and texture. The size? Fits right in your hand. Of course, a sprinkling of flaky salt on top pushes these cookies into perfection. According to who? Well, me! But if you’ve been a long time reader (and hopefully recipe maker), you know that you can trust me. I did, in fact, test this recipe 3 times to make sure it was precise, streamlined, and flawless. That’s right, I had to eat freshly baked, vegan chocolate chip cookies on three separate occasions just for you. It’s hard work but someone’s gotta do it. Especially when there are thousands of vegan chocolate chip cookies out there.

You have the super large cookies with those irresistible wrinkles. That’s great and all, but I don’t want to have a stomach ache after eating one cookie. Larger is not better in my book. And if too much of the cookie is gooey, well, I think it takes away from the experience. You also have the double chocolate chunk cookie which, in my opinion, is just too much. Can we take a chill pill with excessive chocolate use? It’s a powerful ingredient. Let’s give it the respect it deserves and be special with it. In this case, I feel as though less is more when it comes to the chocolate chips. Anywho, I could go on and on about all of the different chocolate chip cookies, but today I am going to share with you what I believe to be the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie.

Moving forward, let’s address a few special ingredients and tricks that I have found to create the most successful results. First up, and I’m being completely honest here, I don’t love bagged chocolate chips. I just find that the quality… isn’t there. Kind of like the saying goes, if using wine while cooking, use a wine you would drink. The same goes for when using chocolate for cookies, I only use what I would eat. This means I find a really high-quality chocolate bar.

There are so many great vegan options out there today, feel free to use whatever you like! For the cookies you see here, I used an organic coconut mylk chocolate bar which is sweetened with coconut nectar. So delicious! If you’re more into the robust, high percentage cocoa chocolate bars, go for it! Literally, whatever kind of chocolate bar you like to eat, is best in my opinion.

Ok next up, let’s talk butter. There are many vegan butters on the market today but my favorite to use, especially with baking, is Country Crock Plant Butter. If you’ve noticed, I mention them quite a lot on the blog and that’s because I am an ambassador for them. The reason I chose to be an ambassador is that I think their product is excellent! It comes in stick form and it remains solid if left at room temperature (which means it makes the perfect vegan frosting). More importantly, the buttery mouthfeel it provides is pretty fantastic. When I showed these cookies to a friend of mine, the first thing she said was, “This tastes like real butter!” That’s reason enough to try it out, no?

Now let’s talk flavoring. In addition to vanilla extract, I like to add just a splash of almond extract. Not so much that you know it’s in the recipe but enough to notice something is special about these cookies. I think it stems from my time at boarding school in Georgia. While watching some of my girlfriends play soccer, one of the moms brought homemade sugar cookies with frosting. I took one bite and squealed! And asked her what the secret ingredient was and she said almond extract. Ever since then, I always add just a drop to cookies that normally don’t call for it. Now, when I say a splash, I mean it. Literally 1/8th of a teaspoon. Trust me on this.

And finally, we have our sugar. You want to use organic sugar when making vegan recipes as they are not filtered with animal bone (long story-so please google it to learn more). That said, I use organic evaporated cane juice sugar and organic light brown sugar. The light brown sugar has some molasses which helps to create that chewy texture we’re looking for, so don’t think about replacing that! In regards to the evaporated cane juice sugar, I have two jars in my house. One large jar for sweet baked goods and one small jar for savory recipes.

In the larger jar for baking, I infuse the sugar with vanilla beans. My dad taught me this trick and once you try it, you’ll never go back. The flavor of the pod infuses into the sugar and when you open the jar, it’s quite intoxicating. If scraping a vanilla bean pod for the seeds, don’t you dare throw away that pod as it would be perfect to use for this. You could also throw them in whole (I replace my vanilla beans every few months for maximum flavor).

First step is to cream the butter and the sugars together until light and fluffy. You can use a stand or hand mixer for this but I hate doing more dishes than I need to, so I just use a sturdy fork and some muscle. Then you add the liquid ingredients, followed by the dry. Scoop the dough into balls and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and you are ready to bake! By keeping the dough balls in a tightly sealed tupperware container, you can bake off the cookies whenever you feel like it. I’d much rather bake off a few at a time so that they are fresh. If you have family or friends coming over, having freshly baked, vegan chocolate chip cookies waiting for them is sure to put a big smile on their faces.

Another trick I learned from being a food blogger on Instagram is the pan banging technique. Basically, once you take cookies, you gently bang the pan on the stovetop. This collapses the cookie and encourages wrinkles. To get the best results, it’s better to make a much larger cookie but I still like doing it for the handheld size. As you can see we have some wrinkle action and it’s also fun to do. One other tip to making a perfect looking cookie is to invest in a large cookie cutter that you can circle around the freshly baked cookies which makes them into a clean circle.

Right after they are baked, I like to sprinkle on some Maldon salt evenly over the surface. The reason for this is because when you sprinkle salt onto dough balls before baking, the salt really only sticks to the center. By letting them flatten out a bit before adding the salt allows for better coverage. This is what perfection looks like, people!

The last and very important step is using a very thin spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. This allows them to completely set and become crispy. After 10 minutes of cooling, you are finally allowed to enjoy the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. I hope that you love this recipe as much as I do! If you make them, please leave a review below and tag me on Instagram. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see my recipes come to life in your very own kitchens. And if you like these cookies, here’s another one to try, my Vegan Lace Cookies. Happy baking!

Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

mississippivegan Would you just look at these cookies go? They’re busy! Busy being perfect. We’re talking golden brown bottoms that are crispy and chewy, slightly soft in the middle, the right… Recipes Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies European Print This

Serves: about 18 cookies

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

¾ cup organic cane sugar (vanilla bean infused preferably!)
¾ cup organic light brown sugar, packed 
1 ½ sticks Country Crock Plant Butter
1 ½  teaspoons vanilla extract 
⅛ teaspoon almond extract 
3 tablespoons oat milk 
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda 
½ cup chopped pecans, toasted and cooled
1 vegan chocolate bar (around 2.5 ounces), roughly chopped 
Maldon salt, to sprinkle

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, light brown sugar, and butter. Using a fork and some muscle, squoosh everything together and start mixing aggressively until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. 

2. Add the vanilla and almond extract and oat milk. Mix thoroughly. 

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix well. Add the pecans and chocolate. Mix well. Add half of the dry mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and stir until combined. Then add the remaining half. Mix until the flour is absorbed and you can roll a ball of dough together with your hands. 

4. Scoop out 2 heaping tablespoons of the dough into your hands and roll into a ball. Place in a tupperware container and repeat. You should be left with 18-19 balls. Seal the lid and place in the fridge for 30 minutes and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

5. After 30 minutes, add 6 balls of dough to the pan with a few inches between each cookie, as they need space. To help encourage an even shape, gently press the dough ball down with 2 fingers to flatten the top. Just a little bit! 

6. Bake for 14 minutes. Remove the pan and gently drop it on the stovetop (only 2 inches high- don't go crazy or the cookie edges will flip). Sprinkle the top evenly with a pinch or two of Maldon salt. If desired, use a large cookie cutter to circle around the freshly baked cookies to make them a perfect circle. (Note: every oven is different. Try your first batch at 14 minutes and see how you like them. You might want to pull back a few minutes or add some more time, depending on what kind of cookie you are looking for!)

7. Using a very thin spatula, immediately transfer the cookies to a wire wrack and wait at least 10 minutes for the cookies to set. Enjoy!

notes

Fluff the flour with a spoon or fork before scooping to make sure its the same amount that I used.

By placing the scoops in a tupperware, you can store them in the fridge for up to a week and bake some cookies off whenever you’d like! You can also freeze the dough and move it to the fridge the day you are ready to bake. I'm sure you could bake them straight from the freezer but you might have to adjust the cooking time. I just haven't tested that yet.

If you don’t refrigerate the dough, the cookies will expand too much and become flat. You may actually like this texture so if you’d like to try it out, feel free, although don’t blame me if all of your cookies merge together into one!

Feel free to experiment with cooking times. You can do this by only baking off 1 or 2 the first time. See if 14 minutes works for you. You might want to pull back a minute or add one or two. Every oven is different!

These are best eaten the day of baking. They are fine the next day, but they lose that glorious crisp. I just tried one so I know.

I have tested these with gluten-free flour and they came out just fine. Not as good as with regular flour but you get it.

This post is sponsored by Country Crock® Plant Butter. All opinions and recipes are my own.