Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
This Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe combines a favorite cookie with holiday sprinkles for the perfect holiday treat! These are chewy, tender cookies on the inside with a crispy bite. Festive sprinkles add the perfect colors of the season!
If you love holiday baking as much as I do, check out my Vegan Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies or my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. Both will have you swooning!
When I was a kid I loved Christmas. Who doesn’t love waking up to gifts by a tree! But there are times when Christmas isn’t quite as much fun as an adult. I’m not a big fan of shopping in the first place, let alone thinking about being forced to go shopping in crowded stores.
I have SHIAS — Shopping Induced Anxiety Syndrome. Baking makes SHIAS a lot better. Trust me, these chocolate holiday cookies work wonders on my spirits.
Why This Recipe is a Winner
- The addition of peanut butter, adds flavor and reduces the amount of vegan butter needed (saving money while not reducing the quality of the cookies)
- Using apple cider vinegar adds tenderness to the cookies that makes the cookies irresistible
- Colorful Holiday Sprinkles makes these cookies perfect for the holidays!
Ingredients
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe:
- Vegan butter + Peanut butter — You can use all vegan butter or a mixture of vegan butter and peanut butter
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar — Use light, dark or make brown sugar at home
- Ground flaxseed
- Cornstarch
- Almond milk
- Apple cider vinegar
- Extracts — vanilla and almond extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda + Baking powder
- Sea salt
- Chocolate Chips — I use dairy-free chocolate chips
- Christmas sprinkles.
I love that this holiday chocolate chip cookie yields tender cookies loaded with chocolate chips and sprinkles. I’m also including both vanilla and almond extract. That makes these cookies taste a vegan sugar cookie. Power to the sugar cookie!
How to Make Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s easy to make these chocolate chip Christmas cookies!
- Cream Butter and Sugar — Begin by creaming together vegan butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Use a mixer on medium speed to get it nice and fluffy.
- Add Vegan Egg Replacers and Milk — Then add the ground flaxseed, cornstarch, and unsweetened almond milk. Mix that all together. Add apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and almond extracts and mix one more time.
- Mix Flour Ingredients — Scoot the butter mixture to one side of the bowl. On the other side combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients together and then incorporate it into the peanut butter batter.
- Chocolate Chips + Sprinkles — Add chocolate chips and Christmas sprinkles and stir until combined.
- Drop + Bake — Use a cookie scooper to drop rounded spoonfuls of cookie dough about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until cookies are done, but still soft in the center.
- Cool — Remove cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for a minute or two on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Storage Tips
To store cookies, transfer them to an airtight container. They will keep at room temperature for up to 5 days. They can be refrigerated for up to 10 days. You can also freeze these cookies. They will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Christmas Cookies Dough
These Christmas chocolate chip cookies with sprinkles are great as a baked baked cookies. However, the dough is pretty tasty too.
Because there are no eggs involved, you don’t have to worry about eating uncooked eggs. That means you can roll up the cookie dough balls and serve them. It’s that easy!
I also like that when I give these Christmas Sprinkle Cookies out as a gift to a neighbor or a friend, they smile real big. I believe they call that an ear-to-ear grin…and it’s my favorite.
We bought all the ingredients for these cookies at our local grocery store – straight from the peanut butter, flax seeds, and sprinkles. How cool is that!
Finally, I love that these cookies are colorful. It’s one part about Christmas that I really do like – bright colors!
Marly’s Tips
- Add some chopped nuts, like walnuts or peanuts to the dough
- Replace the vanilla with mint extract for a mint chocolate chip favorite!
- Serve these as cookie dough balls, covering each with more sprinkles!
- Make these into bite-size cookies by reducing the size, just be sure to bake them a little bit less so they don’t burn!
More Vegan Holiday Baking Ideas
If you love these Christmas chocolate chip cookies, here are some more vegan holiday baking recipes for you:
That’s it for these Christmas Sprinkle Cookies.
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Christmas Chocolate Chip Sprinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ cup almond milk , unsweetened
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
- 1 cup Christmas sprinkles plus extra
Instructions
- Place the butter, peanut butter, and sugars in a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, mix on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about one minute.
- Push the butter mixture to the edges and in the middle combine the ground flax seeds, cornstarch, milk, vinegar, vanilla, and almond extract. Stir to combine. Now, using the mixer, slowly incorporate the flax seed mixture in with the butter mixture. Continue mixing until light and fluffy again.
- Push the butter mixture to one side and combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine. Use your mixer to combine the flour mixture with the margarine mixture. Mix to combine.
- When the dough is just right, add the chocolate chips and sprinkles and mix some more until the sprinkles are incorporated throughout the dough.
- When you’re ready to bake the cookies, turn your to 350F.
- Use a cookie dough dispenser to drop cookie dough roughly 1½ inches apart on your cookie sheet. Pour some additional sprinkles on a plate and grabbing one ball of cookie dough at a time, dab the top of the cookie dough ball into the plate of sprinkles to give the top a nice coating of sprinkles. Place it back on the cookie pan and gently smash the top of the cookie to ensure that the new sprinkles are embedded in the cookie dough ball. Repeat with each cookie.
- Place the prepared pan of cookie dough balls in the oven and bake for 8-9 minutes. These cookies are best when they’re slightly undercooked so be careful not to over bake. You’ll be rewarded with a dense, rich, moist cookie!
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to cool slightly before placing on a wire rack to cool completely. Of course you might want to have one (or two) while they’re still slightly warm. You’ll love them!
- Repeat until all the cookies are done. Store in an airtight container.
Recommended Equipment
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Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This post was originally published in 2014 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2020.
Ah those look so cute! Love the colorful sprinkles, I imagine they would be perfect for a holiday party 🙂
I’ve never thought to put the sprinkles right in the dough? Awesome!
I am beyond impressed that you had the discipline to BAKE some of these cookies. I would have eaten all the dough balls!! And, you are right…cookies are the answer to everything!
So much better than fruit cake! Love the sprinkles!
Making these right now…can’t wait to taste the end result! When do you add the peanut butter?
Hi Lindsey!! I hope you like these cookies! I made them for our Thanksgiving dessert table and they were gobbled up right away. 😉 Thanks for you note – I adapted the recipe to include the peanut butter in the first step. Let me know how it worked for you!
BEST IDEA EVER: after you make the cookie dough balls, stick’em in a plastic bag and throw em in the freezer. AMAZING <3
If I need to substitute out the peanut butter due to my little ones allergies what would you use to replace it? Also I was thinking just add more vanilla extract if I can’t use the almond extract? I would appreciate any advice!
– Momma of a little one with A LOT of allergies 🙂
Hi Tabatha! Thanks for your note. I would probably just use a whole cup of Earth Balance (instead of a half of a cup) and leave the peanut butter out. You can also substitute the vanilla for the almond extract. Or, if you want to try something different (and if you don’t have allergies to this), you could sub some raspberry flavoring for the almond extract. I find adding raspberry extract to a cookie, especially one with sprinkles, gives it a little extra splash of flavor! Happy Holidays!
These cookies are great! Everyone loves this recipe.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! Those cookies are delicious! Very soft and tasty.
Hi Lucie, thanks for your note. So glad you liked these cookies!
These look so fun! Do you think replacing coconut oil for the margarine would work? Thanks!
Hi Sarah. Thanks! I wouldn’t hesitate to use coconut oil in this recipe. It might change the texture slightly, but it should result in a very tasty cookie!
Made these today. My family can’t stop eating them! I was hesitant because we are not fans of peanut butter cookies. But these cookies are DELICIOUS!
I’m so glad you liked them Bonnie! I think it’s the almond extract that hides the flavor of the peanut butter a little. I’m going to make another batch and have them for our Christmas dessert tray next week!
Most commercial chocolate chips are not vegan. I don’t understand why they are included.
Hi there Thea. Actually, there are several store-bought chocolate chips that are also dairy-free. Check out my dairy-free chocolate chip guide. Happy cookie eating!
Dumb question.. What is earth balance?.. Cant do peanut butter either..
Hi Jamie! It’s not a dumb question. Earth Balance is a vegan butter spread. I can find it at Target, Walmart, health food stores and even my local grocery store. You can use it in place of butter. Also, for this recipe just use all vegan butter in place of the peanut butter. Hope you love these sprinkle cookies!
Hi… how big should the cookie dough balls be? A tablespoon, two tablespoons? Please clarify.. thank you!
Hi Kristina. I used a cookie dough scoop and those are typically a heaping tablespoon. Hope that’s helpful!
These are absolutely some of the best cookies that I have ever eaten. I substituted Almond Butter for Peanut Butter because my stomach can’t tolerate Peanut Butter. These will be cookies that I make the whole year through.
Hi Tracy! I’m so glad you liked these cookies! I love your idea for swapping the almond butter. I will add that as a note in the recipe! ❤️
Thanks Marly. I can honestly say these are probably the best cookies I have ever eaten. I saw one of the earlier post where you said you can swap my favorite Earth Balance Buttery Spread for the nut butters and I am going to try that too. Nut butters just don’t agree with my stomach, but I can tolerate a small amount of Almond Butter to a point. Love these cookies. What a great idea to put the sprinkles in the cookies. Less mess and you can taste the sprinkles better.