Vegan Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
This vegan 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 rewarding enough, let alone getting to eat them.
What Makes This Recipe Shine?
- 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
Key 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, including substitution ideas:
- 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.
Coconut oil is made from the meat of a coconut. It is saturated fat, meaning that it is solid at room temperature. Virgin coconut oil (also referred to as unprocessed) is made from fresh coconut meat and as a result has a stronger coconut flavor. Refined coconut oil comes from filtered and dried coconut meat, resulting in a more neutral flavor. Either refined or unrefined coconut oil are great for making cookies. Avoid coconut oil that is in liquid form at room temperature.
Here’s the step-by-step at a glance:
- Cream together the coconut oil and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the flax egg, applesauce, and vanilla.
- Stir together the dry ingredients.
- Make the cookie dough by beating the flour mixture with the wet ingredients. Add the plant-based milk to achieve the right consistency.
- Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Place rounded tablespoons of dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are done.
- Remove from the oven and wait for a minute before placing on a wire rack to cool.
Here are more detailed steps-by-step instructions:
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!
I love freezing these chewy coconut oil 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.
- Reserve some of the chocolate chips to press into the cookie dough balls before baking, so each one is topped with lots of chocolate.
- Add some chopped almonds to the dough for added texture.
- You could add coconut flakes to the dough.
- Make these double chocolate by adding approximately 1/4 cup cocoa powder to the cookie dough batter.
- I love mini cookies, so you could make these smaller, but 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!
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!
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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
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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 2019 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2021.
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 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!
I am a cookie fanatic and I can’t wait to try these!
I promise, they are well worth the effort!
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!
Yummy! If these are as good as your old recipe, I want some! Sounds good!
Any ideas about high altitude adjustments? I’d love to try these, but must confess I’m more of a cook than a baker!
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.
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….
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.
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!