Chocolate chip cookies can be perfect even without eggs and butter! But how is that possible? These vegan olive oil cookies with coconut sugar are the perfect plant based dessert or snack! They are made with mostly healthy ingredients and even more importantly, they are very delicious!
What is special about this recipe
These cookies are simply brilliant! A classic chocolate chip cookie made with olive oil and coconut sugar instead of the regular butter and refined or brown sugar. It was a simple experiment of mine, which however turned out really tasty. These cookies are as easy as any classic similar recipe and the preparation method is more or less the same. But they are vegan, healthy and I would even say they are some of the tastiest cookies I have ever tried!
What ingredients you need
The three main ingredients that make these cookies different from the regular chocolate chip cookies recipes are: extra virgin olive oil, coconut sugar and flax seed meal soaked in water. All these ingredients apart from vegan and unrefined are also full of healthy nutrients. Soaking flax seed meal in water makes the so called "flax eggs": a perfect substitute of the regular eggs in baked goods.
Other ingredients for this recipe are: all-purpose flour (which can be substituted by spelt flour to make a completely unrefined dessert), baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract and vegan chocolate chips.
Find all ingredients and the detailed instructions below the post, in the recipe card.
Recipe tips
- These cookies are as easy as any other regular cookie recipe. However the olive oil reacts a bit differently in the dough than the butter: the dough would become more slippery and the chocolate chips would separate easily from it. This shouldn't be a problem but you might need to press the chocolate chips inside the dough when arranging the cookies on the baking sheet.
- The coconut sugar gives a slight caramel taste to the cookies which is very pleasant. That's why I don't recommend you to substitute it with other sweeteners such as brown or caster sugar.
- Same applies to the olive oil: it is nutritious and it also creates a very nice taste. And while the recipe would work with other oils like canola or sunflower, I don't recommend you to use them as they are not very rich in nutrients, especially when used in baked goods.
I really hope you would like this recipe. My whole family became crazy about these cookies and in fact nobody guessed that they were vegan! So these cookies are our new favourite recipe at home: I hope they would become your favourites too!
You might also like the following cookie recipes:
Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Soft Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cookies
📝 Recipe
Vegan Olive Oil Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup / 130 g coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup/ 80 ml cup olive oil, extra virgin
- 2 tablespoon flax seed meal
- 9 tablespoon water
- 1 ½ cup/ 180 g all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅓ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup / 100 g vegan chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate
Instructions
- Combine flax seed meal and water in a cup. Whisk and set aside for 5 minutes. These will be the vegan eggs.
- In a medium bowl combine all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Mix to blend.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together coconut sugar and olive oil until smooth. Add vanilla extract and the flax seed eggs and whisk for 10-15 seconds.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing gently with a wooden spoon.
- At the end fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Mix carefully to distribute them evenly. The dough will be thick so you can help yourself with a hand.
- Optionally refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. You can skip this step if you prefer your cookies to spread more. By refrigerating them, they will spread less during baking.
- Preheat oven to 350º F/ 180º C. Line two baking tins with sheets of parchment paper.
- Use an ice cream scoop to make balls and arrange them on top of the prepared tins. Keep at least 2 inches of distance between the cookies (especially if the dough has not been refrigerated).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms start becoming just a bit darker then the rest of the cookies. Beware that the coconut sugar burns easier than the cane sugar.
- Let the cookies cool on a wire rack or on top of the baking tin.
Notes
- For even healthier cookies substitute the all-purpose flour by whole grain spelt flour.
- I don't recommend substituting the coconut sugar, since the taste of the cookies would change. However the recipe would work also with the same quantity of brown sugar or a mix of brown sugar + granulated sugar.
- Bear in mind that the olive oil makes the dough less sticky so the chocolate will tend to separate from the dough: this is ok.
- Store the cookies in airtight container for up to 5 days.
Nikki says
Thank you for posting this! I quartered the recipe, as I usually do with most new recipes I’m trying. They don’t have as much of a crinkle as yours do, and they turned out fully cooked but more like a muffin or cake texture. Is the texture of your cookies like that or more crumbly like a traditional cookie? There’s no picture with them broken in half so I can’t tell.
Daniela Lambova says
Hi Nikki, They are like normal cookies, a bit softer than the usual chocolate chip cookie but not as soft as muffins.
Andrea says
Loved these cookies! Made them with whole-grain spelt flour and date sugar! The only thing was that mine didn't spread at all for some reason, but I was OK with that 🙂 Just flattened them by hand
Daniela says
Hi Andrea! I am so glad you liked them! Most probably the reason they didn't spread was because the whole grain flour absorbs more liquid. So next time you may want to try with additional 1 or 2 tbsp water. I hope that helps!