These vegan chocolate chip cookies are the best healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe ever, but you’d never tell! Made without butter, without eggs and completely sugar free, these soft, chewy and bakery-style cookies are quick, easy and gluten-free!
Best Healthy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Everyone claims to have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever. It’s a bold claim, but how many can also claim to be healthy? This one can. This cookie recipe may be a little more time consuming than other cookie recipes but trust me on this- It is worth every single minute of it!
Thick, soft and chewy cookies LOADED with sugar free chocolate chips, made with no butter, no eggs, and no dairy, but perfect for even non-vegans!
Can vegans eat chocolate chip cookies?
This is easily one of my most asked questions and I feel like I need to address it, especially after sharing multiple vegan cookie recipes, like these zucchini chocolate chip cookies and fresh strawberry cookies.
If you follow a vegan diet, you most certainly can eat chocolate chip cookies. It really depends on which brand you buy (if you choose to eat a packaged one!) or which recipe you follow.
Every single cookie recipe you see on this site is 100% vegan and/or comes with a tested vegan substitute.
Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
Besides the salt, baking soda and vanilla extract, these are the key ingredients for the eggless vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe
Monk Fruit Sweetener
Monk fruit sweetener (granulated) is used to replace the white sugar in traditional cookie recipes. It’s completely natural and contains zero calories, perfect for those following a sugar free and low-calorie diet.
Monk fruit also tastes exactly like sugar, so you won’t be left with a bitter aftertaste.
Sukrin (Brown Sugar substitute)
Sukrin is a brown sugar substitute. It has the same flavor and texture of traditional brown sugar, minus the calories, carbs, and sugar. Sukrin gives these cookies the delicious classic chocolate chip cookie taste and slightly darker color.
Flour
Any standard flour of choice can be used. To keep this recipe gluten-free, I used this gluten-free blend. If you don’t follow a gluten-free diet, white flour or whole wheat (wholemeal) flour can be used.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil replaces the butter, and also helps hold the cookies together. It also aids in providing a soft and chewy texture.
Melted coconut oil needs to be used, but be sure it is NOT warm, but at room temperature. If you use warm coconut oil, it will melt the chocolate chips when mixing the batter.
You can replace the coconut oil with vegan butter.
Non-Dairy Milk
Any non-dairy milk of choice can be used. My favorite non-dairy milk options include unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened coconut milk or even unsweetened cashew milk.
If you have a nut allergy, you can use soy milk.
Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
Vegan and sugar free chocolate chips are easy to find, with multiple brands available in supermarkets.
To keep these cookies 100% dairy-free and vegan, use Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.
To keep these cookies 100% sugar free, use Lily’s stevia-sweetened chocolate chips and baking bars.
How to make vegan gluten free sugar free chocolate chip cookies
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, combine your monk fruit sweetener, sukrin (sugar free brown sugar), melted coconut oil and salt.
Step 2: Add your almond milk and vanilla extract, and whisk into the sugar mixture. Continue whisking until all the sugar has been relatively dissolved and glossy.
Step 3: Sift through your flour of choice and baking soda and mix until just combined- Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, fold in your dairy free chocolate chips.
Step 4: Cover your mixing bowl with plastic wrap or a cover of choice, and freeze the dough for 40 minutes.
Step 5: Preheat the oven to 175C/350F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Step 6: Using a cookie scoop or 1/8 cup measuring cup, scoop out 10 portions of dough and place on the lined tray. Ensure the cookies are at least 2.5 inches apart, to allow cookies to spread.
Step 7: Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until the cookies just to start to go golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow cooling on the pan for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
How to make vegan chocolate chip cookies without brown ‘sugar’
If you don’t have access to Sukrin (the sugar free brown sugar alternative), you can replace it with equal amounts of granulated monk fruit. It will be lighter in color and have a mild taste.
Can you freeze sugar free chocolate chip cookies?
While chocolate chip cookies can be stored at room temperature, they are also freezer friendly.
To freeze cookies, wrap portions in parchment paper and keep in either a sealed container or a ziplock bag.
To enjoy cookies from the freezer, allow pre-frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature or in the fridge overnight. Enjoy at room temperature, or for a gooey cookie, reheat in the microwave or oven until chocolate chips have melted.
How many calories in a sugar free chocolate chip cookie?
For a batch of 12 cookies, each cookie clocks in at under 200 calories, a mere 191 calories per cookie.
Compared to traditional chocolate chip cookies, you are saving over 150 calories per cookie!
Tips and Tricks for the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookies
Why are my chocolate chip cookies flat?
Chocolate chip cookies will become flat if you don’t freeze the cookie dough prior to baking or leave it uncovered when you do. You could refrigerate them, but you will need to do so for at least 1 hour.
Be sure to also place the cookies on parchment paper (instead of a silicone sheet or Silpat baking mat).
If your batter is too thin, add a little extra flour.
Can I freeze the cookie dough?
Avoid freezing the cookie dough to bake later, as the dough contains no eggs. I tried it myself and found once I thawed the dough, it became too crumbly and wouldn’t bake well at all. The coconut oil firms up too, which distributes it poorly throughout.
Can I use coconut flour or a grain free alternative?
Do not switch out the flour for coconut flour, almond flour or any other grain-free blend. The other ingredients aren’t the correct proportions to produce the same texture and flavor.
Instead, you can make these coconut flour chocolate chip cookies.
How to make these cookies keto and paleo friendly
While these cookies are sugar free, vegan, gluten-free and lower in carbs than traditional chocolate chip cookies, they aren’t paleo or keto.
These chocolate chip cookies or these sugar free cookies are both keto/paleo approved.
Vegan Sugar Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups flour sifted
- 1/2 cup granulated sweetener of choice
- 3/4 cup sugar free brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 7 tablespoon coconut oil melted and cooled
- 4 tablespoon milk of choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips of choice I used a mix of chocolate chips and chunks
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add your monk fruit sweetener, sukrin and salt and mix well. Add your milk, coconut oil, and vanilla extract, and whisk well, until combined.
- Add your sifted flour and baking soda, and mix until just combined. Fold in your chocolate chips using a rubber spatula.
- Cover the bowl and place the cookie dough in the freezer for 40 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper.
- Remove the cookie dough and using a cookie scoop (or ice cream scoop/1/8 cup), form 12 small balls of cookie dough on the lined sheet/tray. Ensure cookies are around 2-inches apart, as they spread.
- Bake the cookies for 11-14 minutes, or until just golden brown. Do not overbake, as they firm up once cooling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
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This will sell well in INDIA any given day. I’ll make these and let you know how they turned out to be. The recipe, however, seems very promising.
Hi, Armin. Your blog says not to freeze the dough because it gets crumbly and doesn’t bake well but your recipe says, “be sure to freeze the dough” before baking and “freeze extra dough for up to 6 months”. Which is it?
MacKey, with all due respect it doesn’t ever say freeze extra dough for up to 6 months. It says freeze extra cookies for up to 6 months.
You’re right! I did must-read that bit. It also says:
“Be sure to freeze the dough prior to baking, or to refrigerate for several hours. This will ensure the cookies do not spread too much.”
And:
“Avoid freezing the cookie dough to bake later, as the dough contains no eggs. I tried it myself and found once I thawed the dough, it became too crumbly and wouldn’t bake well at all. The coconut oil firms up too, which distributes it poorly throughout.”
So, how long can it be frozen exactly?
We want to make it and don’t like to waste $$ or ingredients. Thanks!
McKay, you need to freeze it for 40 minutes during the baking process. The ‘no freezing dough’ refers to freezing it to bake say 2-3 days later etc- Traditional cookies you can usually do that for up to a few weeks.
Mis-read. Looks like we misspelled one another’s names, too. My bad, Arman. Autocorrect is killing me today.
Good morning. I asked this on the recent brownie post, but what is the texture of the monkfruit in the raw sweetener like that you linked to in that post? I have a bag of stevia in the raw that substitutes cup-for-cup with sugar, and it’s powdered sugar texture. Is that what the one you linked to in the brownie post is like? (yes, I know it’s not the same as the ones in this cookie post but maybe you didn’t see the question on the brownie one)
Hello! I was wondering if I could swap the brown sugar for honey?
Hi there!I haven’t tried that, but feel free to experiment and see 🙂
These are the best sugar-free vegan chocolate chips cookies my family and I have had so far! Thank you for this amazing recipe! For the flour I used 1:1 einkorn flour. For all of the sweetener I used a heaping 1/3 cup of a homemade version of GentleSweet. I used water instead of milk. And I used vegan butter instead of coconut oil. I used a cookie scoop that measures 1.5 tablespoons so I ended up with 18 cookies. I put them in the freezer for 45-50 minutes. I baked them for 14 minutes and let them cool for 10-20 minutes before I tried one. They were pretty doughy, which I understand happens when cookies are cooling. However, I decided to put the cookies back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes. My family and I loved them!
P.S. I live at a 1,000 ft. which may have affected the bake time.
OMG these cookies are the bomb. I made a batch and I could not stop at one. I will defiantly be making these again. I did freeze the dough as per the recipe BUT the dough was as hard as a rock.. so the next time I make these will pre-roll the cookie dough, then bake them as I had to wait for the dough to soften before baking..and made two trays of 9 per tray.. so addictive.
Don’t use coconut flour unless you useless other flour…I need to try this without using 1/4 cup coconut flour and the rest other gluten free flour…I had to add liquid and oil to be able to combine…I also decided to add 1 T flaxseed meal with 3 T water to help bind the mixture. I also added pecans.
The result was not very good…so mealy tasting texture. It is worth trying again as directed without my additions. I liked the Lily’s no sugar dark chocolate chips at least.