Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
This coconut chocolate chip cookies recipe delivers freshly-baked cookies with warm, melted chocolate chips, and tender, buttery cookies with a crispy crust. It’s the best cookie ever!
If you love coconut and chocolate together, be sure to try these tasty Almond Joy Bites or these Chocolate Coconut Macaroons.
Chocolate chip cookies must be the best treat on earth and this recipe is a perfect example.
Homemade cookies are so special, especially when they’re vegan. The aromas that make their way through your kitchen will be reward enough, let alone getting to eat them.
Why This Recipe is a Winner
- Brown sugar adds flavor and moisture, keeping these cookies soft and chewy in every bite
- Coconut oil is the star ingredient and adds amazing richness, texture, and even flavor (if you don’t use refined coconut oil)
- Make coffee-shop quality cookies by placing chocolate chips on top of the unbaked cookies
What You Need
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:
- Coconut oil — Use refined coconut oil for a more neutral flavor, but virgin coconut oil adds delicious coconut flavor to these cookies.
- Brown sugar — Use light, dark, or homemade brown sugar.
- Granulated sugar
- Flax egg — You can substitute a chia egg.
- Applesauce
- Vanilla
- Flour — Use all-purpose flour or substitute whole wheat pastry flour (different than whole wheat flour) or a high-quality gluten-free flour.
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda + Baking powder
- Salt
- Plant-based milk — I prefer to use soy milk in my vegan baking, but you can also use almond milk.
- Chocolate Chips — There are so many dairy-free chocolate chips to choose from!
How to Make Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cream together the coconut oil and sugars with a stand mixer or hand-held mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the flax egg, applesauce, and vanilla.
- Stir together the dry ingredients.
- Stir together the flour mixture with the wet ingredients. Add the plant-based milk, one tablespoon at a time, and stir until you have a nice cookie dough consistency.
- Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Place rounded tablespoons of dough on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are nice and gold around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and wait for a minute before placing on a wire rack to cool.
Here are more detailed steps:
Step One: Cream the Sugar and Fat
Use a mixer on medium speed to cream together the coconut oil and sugars. Beat for up to 3 minutes, to get a light and fluffy texture.
Add flax egg, cornstarch, water, applesauce, and vanilla and beat again until fluffy.
Step Two: Stir the Dry Ingredients
In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Step Three: Make the Batter
Pour the flour into the bowl with the creamed butter mixture. Stir to combine. Add chocolate chips and stir some more.
Step Three: Drop and Bake
Use a cookie scoop to drop rounded spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. If you prefer chewy cookies, 8 minutes is a good target. If you prefer crispy cookies, bake them a little longer.
When they’re done, remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to sit on the pan for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Storage Tips
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for up to a week. They can be frozen for up to 2 months.
New to Vegan Baking?
The idea of making cookies, cakes, or muffins without eggs or dairy can seem like a hill too tall to climb. But with the simple tips in my Guide to Vegan Baking, you’ll be baking like a vegan pro in no time!
Freezing Cookies
I love freezing these chewy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies and then reheating them right before serving so people can enjoy that “fresh-from-the-oven” feeling. Also, freezing the cookie dough balls is a great idea, too. Then you can bake-and-serve just about any time you want.
These coconut and chocolate chip cookies are made with coconut oil rather than vegan butter or peanut butter. I was worried that the cookies would have a strong coconut flavor from the oil. The good news? They don’t.
What is Coconut Oil?
We get coconut oil from pressing the white part from the inside of a coconut, otherwise referred to as the meat. You might recognize it most as coconut flakes because that’s how we most commonly see it. Coconut meat has a high-fat ratio, over 80%. That’s a lot, which is why coconut oil is one of the few plant-based sources of saturated fat.
Marly’s Tips
- Be sure to soften the coconut oil slightly
- I like to reserve some of the chocolate chips to press onto the tops of the choc coconut cookies with chocolate chips so each one is topped with lots of chocolate!
- You could add some chopped almonds to the dough for added texture
- Why not include some actual coconut flakes in the dough as well?
- Make these double chocolate by adding cocoa powder to the cookie dough batter
- I love mini cookies, so you could make these smaller, just be sure to reduce the baking time
- Sprinkle some coconut extract into the batter for extra coconut chocolate cookies
Now, you know what goes well with a cookie? How about some Vegan Skinny Hot Chocolate? I know. It’s perfect!
More Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you’re into super-power, flavorful chocolate chip cookies, check these out:
These vegan coconut chocolate chip cookies are one of our favorites. We hope they will be for you, too!
Vegan Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut oil room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 flax egg
- ½ cup applesauce , unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2½ cups flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 – 2 tablespoons plant-based milk*
- 12 oz bag dairy-free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream together the coconut oil and sugars with a stand mixer or hand-held mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the flax egg, applesauce, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until well combined. Add the plant-based milk, one tablespoon at a time, mixing until you have a nice cookie dough consistency.
- Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Place rounded tablespoons of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are nice and gold around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and wait for a minute before placing on a wire rack to cool.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the fridge for up to a week. They can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Recommended Equipment
(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)
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.
You know, there’s no end to the chocolatey goodness offered up in the form of a simple cookie. Whatever cooking you’re treating yourself to, enjoy!
Love this post! I love the little story that you crafted from the pictures 🙂 Coconut oil is wonderful, we use it most of the time any more. I’ll definitely have to try some of those chocolate chunks, they sound wonderful!
I love presents!!! Hope you’re sending me a little box of these in the mail – yummy! What a coincidence I just bought a jar of coconut oil before leaving for the conference. I’ve never used it before, in fact Liana thought I was nuts for buying it because I am allergic to coconut but I thought it would be nice to bake with it, something different and as long as I don’t eat it and use gloves I should be okay.
By the way have I told you how excited I was to finally have met face to face, we make great traveling companions. Can’t wait for next time.
I think I may have to try baking with coconut oil–and I’m not even vegan! But I may be hosting one in a few weeks….
This is the best kind of present! I have never baked with coconut oil, but it sounds like it’s time that I give it a shot.
Any ideas about high altitude adjustments? I’d love to try these, but must confess I’m more of a cook than a baker!
Yummy! If these are as good as your old recipe, I want some! Sounds good!
Mmm, like a Mounds Bar in cookie form
It would seem like that would be the case, but believe it or not, the coconut flavor is very subtle. My husband didn’t even realize I used coconut oil instead of margarine!
I am a cookie fanatic and I can’t wait to try these!
I promise, they are well worth the effort!
I want a stack of cookies – specifically those cookies!!
I couldn’t agree with you more – we’re all out and now I’m wishing we had some more. I may just have to make that happen…soon!
Vegan or not, these cookies look awesome Marly! You know my chocolate all melted and became a big mess on the way back home 🙁 I am still keeping it though, might have to break pieces and use it that way!
I never bake with margarine–only coconut oil! I love it (and of course the bonus is that it’s good for you). 🙂 Your cookies look phenomenal–just the right balance of crisp and chewy. Now you’ll have to start using coconut oil to saute, in other baking, on your muffins. . . ! 😉
Excellent photo progression…suspenseful and dramatic. And it made me hungry!
Jason
OMG those cookies look divine!!! I’m so going to buy the Scharffen Berger next time I’m at the store (my favorite chocolate) and make this recipe!! They look so yummy..thanks for taking the time to figure out the adjustments to work with coconut oil. YUM!!
These cookies look delicious! I just started to bake and cook with coconut oil and I’ve loved it! I can’t wait to try these amazing cookies! There is nothing like a chocolate chip cookie in my opinion!
These look perrrfect. I love thin, chewy CC cookies.
these are wonderful!! they taste like traditional cookies, but much lighter! I used white chocolate chips and 1 cup of ground oatmeal in place of 1 cup flour (only b/c I was short)… and they’re delicious! My 2 year old vegan loves them!
I’m so glad you liked them!
I submitted this recipe to foodgawker.com using the link to this page so you get credit of course. Hope that’s ok. The world NEEDS to have this recipe! It was so yummy raw too. I added a little unsweetened flaked coconut too.
I had to leave them in the oven longer than the recipe says because they came out raw and falling apart at first.
I even froze these and took them out of the freezer for an hour or so, popped them into the microwave for like 15 seconds and it was like fresh baked again. Thank you!
PS This is by no means a lot fat recipe because it’s “vegan.” There is a lot of coconut oil in this recipe but it makes these taste decadent and non-vegan. Yum.
I thought you should know that I’ve made this recipe at least 2 dozen times! It’s my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and I’m not even vegan! AND I did have to drop dairy due to a breastfeeding issue, so this recipe was there to get me through it! So thank you!
Lacey – you just made my day! I’m so glad you love this recipe because I do too! That makes us like Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie Buds!
Did you use refined or unrefined coconut oil? Since you said they don’t taste coconutty, I figure it’s refined but wanted to check. The photos look awesome! Thanks
Hi Shannon, I use Better Body Coconut Oils which comes in refined and virgin, etc. I love that I can find Better Body Foods at places like Walmart which helps make vegan, healthy living so much more affordable and accessible! You’re right though, using a refined coconut oil does help reduce the coconut taste in the finished product.
So easy and so delicious!!
This is the second recipe I’ve tried from your website.. I’ll be definitely coming back for more and more recipes <3
Love these! Wish I had one now
Hi Marley! I commented above about 4 years ago. Your recipe is still our favorite but I miss your old recipe! I think the only difference was the applesauce? Did the milk change? Would you be willing to share it? Thanks again!
Hi Lacey! Thanks for your comment! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed these cookies over the years. I took a look at the old version of this post and sure enough you are correct! The original recipe had a 1/2 cup of applesauce. Most everything else is the same (except I was more definitive with the flour measurement too). I’m not exactly certain why the applesauce was removed. We recently overhauled our recipe plugin and I’m wondering if that might be part of the issue. I’m going to add a note to the recipe. Thanks!
Thanks Marly! Did the old recipe have a flax egg too? I appreciate you responding so quickly!
i want to make sthese but dont have applesauce is there anything i can sub this outi for?