I don’t claim that many things on this site will “blow ya mind” (except, hello, this Blow Ya Mind Cheddar Broccoli Chicken Pot Pie) but trust me when I say these cookies will do just that.
If you’ve made any of my cookie recipes you know that I take them very seriously. My famous brown butter chocolate chip cookies are still one of the most popular recipes on AK, so a couple of years back I set out to make the best vegan chocolate chip cookies that just so happens to be gluten-free, too!
These babies are perfectly sweet with golden exteriors and those chewy middles you crave. Bake a batch, share them with vegan & non-vegan friends, and get ready to blow their minds, too.
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Everything you’ll need to make the best vegan chocolate chip cookies
This healthy vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe doesn’t use strange ingredients or add-ins — just a handful of pantry staples you likely have in your cupboards! Here’s what you need to make them:
- Brown sugar: I like to sweeten these cookies with brown sugar for that delicious, rich molasses flavor. You can actually make your own using this tutorial!
- Coconut oil: you’ll need some coconut oil to give the cookies the perfect amount of moisture.
- Flaxseed meal: we’re replacing the egg in this vegan cookie recipe by using flaxseed meal and a little bit of dairy free milk!
- Flours: we’re using a mix of almond flour and oat flour to keep these cookies gluten-free with the best texture.
- Baking staples: you’ll also need vanilla extract (learn how to make your own here!) baking soda & salt.
- Chocolate chips: puddles of melted chocolate in every bite? Yes, please. Use vegan chocolate chips or chocolate chunks (we love the brand, Enjoy Life) to keep these cookies vegan.
What keeps these cookies vegan?
These chocolate chip cookies are made vegan thanks to flaxseed meal! In the wet ingredients, you’ll add flaxseed meal and a little almond milk to essentially create a vegan flax egg right in the batter. Learn more about how to make a flax egg here.
Reminder: be sure to use dairy free chocolate chips as well to keep the cookies fully vegan.
Questions on substitutions
As always, I recommend following this gluten free and vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe exactly to ensure that you get the perfect taste and texture every time. If you’re out of a few ingredients, here’s what I do and do not recommend:
- Can I use a different flour? Unfortunately, no, I cannot recommend a sub for the almond flour and oat flour in this recipe. Check out my vegan and gluten free oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a gluten free, nut free alternative.
- Can I replace the coconut oil? Yes! Feel free to use melted vegan butter in place of the coconut oil.
- What about a natural sweetener? You can also use coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar to naturally sweeten these cookies.
Make your own oat flour right at home
Did you know you can make your own oat flour to use in this recipe? Yes! You’ll just need one ingredient and a couple of minutes. Check out my full tutorial on how to make your own oat flour and get baking.
Magical vegan chocolate chip cookies (in one bowl!)
That’s right, this one bowl vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe couldn’t be easier to make and takes just under 30 minutes:
- Prep your pan. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper so that the cookies don’t stick.
- Mix the wet. Whisk together the brown sugar, vanilla, flaxseed meal and almond milk until smooth. Then whisk in the melted and cooled coconut oil.
- Add the dry. Stir in the almond & oat flour, baking soda and salt until well combined. Then fold in your chocolate chips.
- Scoop & bake. Use a medium cookie scoop or your hands to form cookies with about 2 tablespoons of dough. Place them on your baking tray and bake!
- Cool & enjoy. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes so that they don’t break apart. I like to sprinkle on a little flaky sea salt and then devour!
Can you eat the dough?
Because this vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe doesn’t have any raw eggs or raw, all purpose flour, you can actually eat the dough! Almond flour, oat flour and flaxseed meal are all safe to eat raw, unlike regular, all purpose flour (which can have bacteria).
Want even thicker cookies?
If you love thick cookies, simply refrigerate the cookie dough for about 10 minutes before baking them.
How to freeze vegan chocolate chip cookies
You can freeze both the cookie dough and the cookies themselves for months! It’s the perfect way to double batches and save some for later. Get my full tutorial on how to freeze cookies two different ways here.
Our fav cookie tools
Check out all of our fav kitchen essentials here.
More vegan desserts you’ll love
- Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan & gluten free!)
- Healthy 4 Ingredient Reese’s Eggs
- Vegan Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
- Healthy Peanut Butter Twix Bars (vegan & gluten free)
- 5-Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Get all of our amazing vegan dessert recipes here!
Good Mood Food Episode 7
I hope you love these gluten free & vegan chocolate chip cookies! If you make them be sure to leave a comment and a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten free, too!)
Ingredients
- Wet ingredients:
- ¾ cup (160g) packed brown sugar (or sub coconut sugar)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
- 3 tablespoons almond milk (or dairy free milk of choice)
- ⅓ cup (75g) melted and cooled coconut oil
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup (112g) packed fine blanched almond flour
- 1 cup (92g) gluten free oat flour*
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (90g) chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, vanilla, flaxseed meal and almond milk until well combined and wet. Next, whisk in the melted and cooled coconut oil until completely smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl: almond flour, oat flour, baking soda and salt. Mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Use a medium cookie dough scoop to grab cookie dough, or use your hands to grab about 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place cookie dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet to prevent cookies from baking into each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to sit on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before removing them from the pan. You should get approximately 15 cookies.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on April 16th, 2021, republished on January 3rd, 2022, republished on January 25th, 2024, and republished on May 25th, 2024.
Hi Monique,
Loved the recipe! The cookies come out with crispy edges, but after a few hours (Stored in airtight container), both the edges and center become soft and they break very easily as they are fragile.
The change I made was using coconut sugar and regular dairy butter, I also tried with olive oil
Any tips on keeping the edges crispy while maintaining a soft center?
So glad you enjoyed! Gluten-free cookies won’t tend to stay crispy as they cool (especially in an airtight container) because the flours hold more moisture. You could try storing them with a slice of bread to help bring out the moisture!
Hi,
Can I use same Qty of regular butter instead of coconut oil? I’m not vegan
Yes, I’ve seen other readers do so with success!
Hi Monique!
I’m low on almond flour and not on a gluten free diet, could I sub in regular so flour?
Thanks!
Hi! Unfortunately, I can’t recommend another flour in here as the texture will likely change. Sorry!
These really are the best vegan gf cookies. I make them all the time. I like to bake them longer so they get crispy. Great recipe with minimal ingredients and fairly quick to make. I always add walnut pieces and mini choc chips. Thank you for a great recipe!
So happy to hear that!
The best cookies ever! Sooo easy to make and my whole family loves them!
So happy to hear that!
I used this recipe to make sourdough discard cookies. Removed the baking soda and added 1/2 cup of starter discard. Absolutely delicious.
Amazing! I’m glad that worked out well!
Fantastic recipe! My husband is not gluten free or vegan but says this is one of his favorite cookies!
Love that!
Thank you for this delicious recipe! We just learned that my husband needs to cut gluten and dairy from his diet (a big adjustment for him) and your cookies hit the mark; he loves them.
I’m so glad you’re finding great recipes here! This is one of my favs 🙂
Ohhh! I want to make a pistachio rapsberry cookie, can I sub almond flour with pistachio flour and swirl in raspberry preserve, white choco chips in each cookie?
Should I sub entire almond flour or a portion? what quantity would work?
I haven’t tested it, so I’m not sure how the four swap will behave! Let me know if you try it!
I don’t usually have flaxseed meal around (I buy a flax/hemp/chia mix). That said, can I sub the flax egg for a regular egg? If so, should I still include the 3 tbs of almond milk? I’m assuming that is to create the flax egg, since 1 tbs flax + 3 tbs water/liquid = 1 egg. Thank you!!
No need to add the almond milk if you want to use an egg 🙂
should it be baking powder instead of soda? There’s no acid activating the soda?
It’s correct as written with the baking soda!
Hi,
How can I make cocoa flavored cookie dough? Should I replace abit of oat/almond flour with cococa powder?
Please help me on how to make a cocoa flavored cookie dough by adding cocoa powder?
Hi! Try this recipe but swap the egg for a flax egg and mix in some chocolate chips 🙂
Hi,
How to make a double chocolate cookie dough with this recipe? I tried this and it was soooo good,
How much cocoa powder should be added to dough and how much flour to be removed?
Hi
I tried it out with coconut oil and It turned out delicious, Can I try using olive oil for a healthier version? how would the texture and taste be?
So happy to hear that! I haven’t tested it with olive oil, but I don’t think these will have the same flavor as they do with the coconut oil.
Hi,
Flavor wise I,ll try to use a light olive oil, but texture wise what would be the changes?
Hi! The texture should stay the same – let me know how they turn out!
Hi,
I tried with olive oil, tasted really good, I used 160g coconut sugar, which was very sweet for me, can I reduce the sugar by 10-15g? Would it affect the texture of cookies?
Hi! I think you can get away with reducing the sugar a bit. Let me know how it goes!
GIRL! These are SO GOOD. I’m a little surprised..I developed an intolerance to eggs so although I’m not vegan, I appreciate this recipe so much! Currently enjoying them with some tea on a rainy night and I’m in heaven!
I’m so glad you found these! Perfect egg-free dessert 🙂
These cookies were sensational. I can’t believe they are vegan, they are so delicious. I also appreciate that they are gluten free too. I used oat milk instead of almond milk because that’s what I had.
Right?! Such a great treat!
Can you substitute Oats for oat flour?
The texture will change, so feel free to blend the oats into oat flour for this recipe!
Amazing!!!!
This recipe is fantastic! I’ve made these cookies following the recipe and they come out perfect every time. I have also had success making these with butter (instead of coconut oil) and regular flour (instead of oat flour). This is one of our favorite cookie recipes- my son has an egg allergy and it’s so fun having a good cookie recipe he can enjoy making and eating with us.
Amazing! So glad you love these!
I tried this recipe using coconut sugar instead of brown sugar, and they turned out amazing! Freshly baked and warm, they are absolutely delicious 🙂
Perfect! So happy to hear that 🙂
This is my favorite cookie recipe ever and my husband who eats “regular” food loves them, too! I use coconut sugar and add chopped walnuts—Wow! Thank you soo much!
Didn’t mean to be anonymous on that last review. Mr. Hubs and I love these cookies.
So happy to hear that!
Made these with my grandson. He loved them and I loved them. Very yummy and soft. Thank y you!!
So happy to hear that!
I made these into bar cookies (baked 20 min. In 13×9 pan and cut into 24). They are the most amazing cookies I have ever had. Soooooo good!
YUM that sounds amazing!
Wow! These cookies are a hit! My kids and hubby loves it! Thank you for this recipe!
Aw I’m so glad!!
I’m recently gluten free and have been searching for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe-this is it! Made them exactly as the recipe was written – so delicious. Chewy and gooey and full of chocolate! Highly recommend this recipe!
Amazing! Glad you enjoyed!
Love this recipe! I doubled the recipe and followed to a T; I used a mix of coconut sugar and brown sugar. Perfect texture and flavour.
Amazing! Such a great treat 🙂
Can you made this cookies into a bars?
Hmm I haven’t tried it so I’m not 100% sure how the texture will turn out. Let me know if you experiment!
This recipe calls for almond milk, but doesn’t specify if it should be sweetened or unsweetened. Can you please advise which one we need to use? Can’t wait to make these cookies!
I typically use unsweetened almond milk 🙂
These cookies are SO GOOD!!! I am so very impressed with how well they stay together, which is so often a problem with gluten free baking. The texture is great, just a little crispy and chewy and the flavor is fantastic. A bonus is that because the dough is egg-free, you can safely try a bit before you bake (and it’s delicious!) 🙂
So glad you loved them! They’re one of my fav cookies (vegan and non-vegan!)
Is the nutritional value right for sugar in one cookie? It says 14.7g of sugar and Carbs 27.1 in one cookie? Is that correct?
This is correct!
These are truly amazing. If you don’t do any grains – I substituted the oat flour with tiger nuts flour and it turned out perfect.
I’m glad that swap works out well! Such a great treat 🙂
WOW! I was skeptical at first with the consistency of the dough but once these came out of the oven – JUST WOW! sooooo good!!!!!
One of my favs!! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
These are my staple cookie recipe. I even double it and bake it in a 9×13 pan for birthdays and they’re ALWAYS a hit.
Love that idea!!
Truly… blew my mind. These were the easiest, most epic chocolate chip cookies. 10/10.
So happy to hear that!
I had to do gluten-free/dairy-free for a couple of years and was devastated knowing I couldn’t make my favorite brown butter chocolate chip cookies from AK. Then, I discovered this chocolate chip cookie recipe and realized there was a god. These cookies are phenomenal, and you would NEVER guess that they’re GF and vegan! Even though I can have gluten and dairy again, I still make them. I will give these to folks, and after they try them, tell them they are GF/vegan, and they’re so surprised because you would never be able to tell. This is my second favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and is only beat out by AK’s brown butter chocolate chip recipe.
I’ve tried exclusively brown sugar and coconut sugar and a mixture, and definitely prefer at least some brown sugar. I think exclusively coconut sugar is a little too much coconut for me, but they’ve turned out no matter which sugar option I choose!
Amazing! So glad you found the perfect alternative 🙂 these are one of my fav recipes, too!
I’m not vegan or gluten free but this is my go to chocolate chip cookie. They are chewy and packed with chocolate chips and every time I make them for a party people rave about them and they are usually gone by the end of the night.
Amazing! So glad everyone loves them 🙂
Following the recipe (and I triple checked to see if I missed anything), the consistency did not develop as needed for cookies. It was too dry – a course meal like texture/consistency. I added an egg and that helped. They baked flat BUT I live at 6,000 ft elevation and likely I needed to adjust ingredients to accommodate for this. The taste was delicious though so I will keep trying to recipe to see if I can figure it out!
Hmmm at elevation you might need a bit more liquid! Did they bake up like the photos? They’re not super puffy but should have a nice chew to them!
I have no idea what I did wrong. The cookies never “flattened” nor spread. They didn’t turn the slightest bit brown after 12 min so I kept them in the oven (turned off) in hopes they would brown. I took them out and “pressed down” on them and am waiting for them to cool. Followed the directions to a “T”! Making them for my sister in law so will see what the verdict is. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!
So strange! Was your coconut oil completed cooled? And did you pack your almond flour? It sounds like there may not have been enough liquid or too much flour preventing the cookies from baking properly!
I made these before, but today I subbed in vegan butter and added sprinkles and gf Oreos, too! I put them in the fridge for a few hours before baking and WOW! They’re delicious!
Amazing! The Oreos sound delicious!
These are the best gluten free cookies I’ve ever made, possible that I’ve ever tasted, in my life! Gluten bothers me sometimes because of some gut health issues so I’m so happy to find this recipe. It’s life changing. I’m truly obsessed.
Amazing! I’m so glad you found these!