Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
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These Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies are every bit as decadent and rich as any non-vegan cookie I’ve ever had! In fact they put Mrs. Fields to shame!
I don’t have a ton of sweet treats on this site but after making these ridiculously delicious vegan cookies I think that will change! These were the BEST Cookies I’ve made, and probably eaten that I can remember. Okay maybe not as good as Maya’s Cookies in San Diego, but close! I actually took some inspiration from them and made an “Everything Cookie” like the one they make. But more on that in a bit.
This base of this recipe is a vegan adaptation of Joy Food Sunshine Recipe. It’s a fairly straightforward recipe and I’m happy to report that making a few swaps seems to result in some amazingly easy and delicious cookies!
Why you’ll love vegan chocolate chunk cookies
For one, they are just as delicious if not more so, than just about any cookie I’ve ever had! They are super easy to make, and they are highly customizable.
You can honestly mix in whatever you like into the base dough. Or if you don’t feel like making all of them at once you can store the dough in the fridge and just make a few whenever you feel like it. Or freeze the dough if you wanna keep it around longer.
ingredients for vegan chocolate chunk cookies
These cookies use very typical ingredients such as flour, sugar, baking soda and powder and salt. The only thing we need to swap out is the eggs and butter, so let’s go over that!
VEgan eggs & butter
For the egg, I used a trusty flax egg, which is just ground flax and water. This is the best option in my experience for baking, but there are a lot of Vegan Egg Substitutes!
For the butter, I used some unsalted Earth Balance vegan butter. Salted butter will work too, just adjust your salt levels as you see fit. Make sure the butter is softened. This is key to creaming it with the sugar. You can either leave the butter out for a couple hours before you use it, or microwave for 15 – 20 seconds (microwaves vary of course!)
chocolate chunks vs. chips
As Benjamin the Baker has pointed out, chocolate chunks will melt and spread throughout the cookie. This results in some ooey gooey pockets of chocolate.
Whereas chips will hold their shape. I personally prefer the chunks over the chips, but you should use what you like!
If making chunks, just roughly chop up a vegan chocolate bar. Oh, and yeah, make sure you get vegan chocolate!
Mix-ins
I had some fun with different toppings and mix-ins. Like I said I made an “Everything Cookie” with some vegan marshmallows and pretzels like Maya’s Cookies. I like the Dandies or Trader Joe’s vegan marshmallows the best.
You can also use some vegan M&Ms by Unreal. Or add some nuts, sprinkles, really whatever you want should work!
Or recreate the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from Subway! I used the White Chocolate Chips by King David.
how to make vegan chocolate chunk cookies
Putting the cookie dough together is relatively easy! First make the flax egg by combining 2 Tbsp of ground flax with 2 – 5 Tbsp of water.
The amount of water will depend on the brand of ground flax in my experience. You just want it to be thick, but it should also easily slide out of a small bowl into the mixing bowl. Let it sit and thicken while we put the rest of the ingredients together.
Chop up your chocolate bar into chunks, make them as big or as small as you like!
Then, mix the flour, baking soda and powder and salt.
Get a stand mixer, and add in the vegan butter and sugar, and then cream them together.
Next is the vanilla and flax egg, and then the dry ingredients. Make sure you don’t over mix the flour or the cookies will get tough! Then gently fold in the chocolate chunks or chips.
After that I suggest scooping out about 50 grams (3 heaping Tbsp) worth of the dough.
Roll it into a ball and then place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly smoosh it down with your fingers to create a thick hockey puck shape.
baking the cookies
Baking time will greatly affect the texture of your cookies. 8 minutes will give you a thicker and softer cookie. 10 minutes will cause it to spread a bit more, and 12 will get you some crackled edges that are slightly crispy, with a chewy center. I personally prefer the 10 – 12 minute time frame.
I recommend doing a test batch of 2 – 3 cookies so you can see how long you’ll want to cook the rest.
When you do decide to bake a bunch, make sure you give them enough room to spread. Otherwise you may end up with one giant cookie!
You can also make them a bit more uniform and round by gently spinning them around with a cookie cutter, but that’s optional.
Either way you’ll want to let them cool for 1 – 2 minutes, then scoop them up with a spatula and let them rest on a wire rack.
gochujang caramel cookies
I saw THIS RECIPE by Eric Kim at the New York Times over this last holiday season and really wanted to try these out. I’m happy to report that they are also easy to veganize and also a total flavor bomb! If you are unsure about this, I promise you that if you like sweet and spicy you will love these!
To make them simply use the base cookie dough recipe. You can exclude the chocolate chunks if you wish. Then for the Gochujang Caramel mixture, combine 1 Tbsp each of softened vegan butter, brown sugar and gochujang. Eric swirls this mixture into the dough, but I had a hard time with that. So if I were to make these again, I would simply add a little dollop on top of each cookie after forming.
After that it’s basically the same as the cookie recipe below!
Storage / reheating
Store in tupperware for 2-3 days. I believe you can freeze the dough as well, more info on the ORIGINAL BLOG POST HERE!
Other sweet treats!
handy dandy video here!
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Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened vegan butter (salted or unsalted)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp ground flax
- 2 Tbsp water (more as needed)
- All Purpose Flour (3 cups, 360g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
- 2 cups chocolate chunks or chips (or equivalent if mixing in something else)
Instructions
- Mix the ground flax and the 2 Tbsp of water to create some vegan eggs. It should thicken after 5 minutes or so. If it's too thick add a little more water. Different ground flax will thicken differently, there should also be instructions on the back, however when I followed those I found the flax to be too runny. Adjust liquid as needed! It should be thick but easily slide out of a small bowl.
- To a large bowl, add the flour, baking soda and baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine. I recommend weighing the flour to 360 grams. Use more if needed.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened vegan butter and white and brown sugar. Use the paddle attachment and cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for about 3-4 minutes, or until slightly fluffy. Scrape down the sides as need be.
- Mix on medium and then add in the flax egg and vanilla extract. The mixture should get lighter and even fluffier. Mix for 1 - 2 minutes.
- Stop the mixer, and add in the dry ingredients. Mix on the lowest setting so you don't spray flour everywhere. Only mix until you see no more dry flour, careful not to overmix.
- Stop the mixer and add in the chocolate chunks or chips, then mix on low until the chunks / chips are well combined into the dough.
- Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C. LIne a baking sheet with parchment paper. Do not use cooking spray or oil.
- Scoop out about 3 heaping Tbsp or 50 grams worth of the dough. Roll it into ball and place on the parchment lined baking sheet. Smoosh it down a bit with your hand to form a disk. I recommend baking 2-3 cookies as a test run to figure out how long you want to bake them. I would go for anywhere between 8 - 12 minutes. The longer you go, the more the cookies will spread and get crispy.
- Once you have figured out how long to bake them, go ahead and do the rest, you may need to bake in batches.
- After they are baked, remove from the oven and let them cool for 2 minutes. Then gently scoop them up with a spatula and let them rest on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and enjoy!
Notes
Feel free to mix in whatever else you like! I've made these with vegan marshmallows and pretzels, vegan M&Ms, and a gochujang caramel, all worked out very well!
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I made these they were so good straight out of the oven but once cooled down they were rock hard 😪. Only baked for 8 minutes not sure where I went wrong