Milk & Cookies. It’s like they have to have the ampersand to connect them, writing out a-n-d would just ruin everything.
I don’t know that there is a more comforting snack. Not like best friend died, global warming, McCain is president comfort; but just like early evening, fluffy slippers, had sort of a non-descript day, gonna watch dvds kind of comfort. But I feel like an idiot even talking about chocolate chip cookies, it’s not like they’re a hard sell.
Despite evidence to the contrary, I don’t love to use Earth Balance when I bake. I’ve been working on my Earth Balance-free dream chocolate chip cookie recipe for longer than I want to admit. They’re crinkly on the top, a little crispy on the bottom and soft in the center. And for milk make mine almond, unsweetened, thanks. As an added bonus, you just need one bowl for mixing. Great for those of you in the no dishwasher set.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes two dozen two inch cookies or about 16 three inch cookies
1/2 brown sugar
1/4 white sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.
Mix together sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl. Use a strong fork and mix really well, for about 2 minutes, until it resembles smooth caramel. There is a chemical reaction when sugar and oil collide, so it’s important that you don’t get lazy about that step. Mix in the vanilla.
Add 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be a little stuff so use your hands to really work them in.
For 3 inch cookies, roll the dough into about ping pong ball size balls. Flatten them out in your hands to about 2 1/2 inches. They will spread just a bit. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 – until they are just a little browned around the edges. I usually get 16 out of these so I do two rounds of eight cookies. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
For 2 dozen two inch cookies roll dough into walnut sized balls and flatten to about 1 1/2 inches and bake for only six minutes.
Completely freaked when my dough didn’t turn out to be very thick, but after rubbing my hands in flour I rolled that sticky mess and it turned out…. perfect!
The best way I can think to describe these is that they’re like Subway-style vegan cookies! Absolutely delicious, just like all your recipes, Isa! 🙂 I know I don’t lie when I say that I wouldn’t have enjoyed the past two years since turning vegan if it weren’t for your recipes and guidance. THANK YOU
Now on to the next scrumptious baking adventure….
I also had really wet dough, but I just went for it and they were perfect. Thanks!
Oh my … I got this recipe out of the Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar book. I’m not an idiot but for some reason they turned out terrible. I didn’t sub anything but since my dough wasn’t even remotely stiff after following the directions I added 1/2 to 3/4 cup extra flour. I measured precisely (other than that extra flour…I was getting desperate). The cookies after 9 minutes were oily and cakey and I was a sad little baker. There was literally no crispness to them at all. I was totally bummed because the snickerdoodles I made a week earlier were the most perfect cookies I have ever made in my entire life (from VCTOYCJ as well). So, I’m thinking it was one of two things. 1. I didn’t do the sugar/oil mixing thing right and the caramel I was seening wasn’t the right caramel. 2. I should try different flour (I used unbleached white flour) like pastery flour or something. Help me Isa!!!
ACK! I meant Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (VCIYCJ). 🙂 Sorry about that.
Just tried this recipe and very disappointed. I have an oily mess. I followed the recipe so carefully, too. My first vegan cookie experience, so I’m bummed. My speciality has always been chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and cakes, so switching to vegan baked goods is challenging. I hope I don’t have an issue with the other recipes in this book, they all look so good. Does the humidity level affect the caramelization process? Our humidity is over 90% today and I know it affects other areas of baking and candy making, maybe I can blame my oily blob cookies on the weather!! 🙂
Deb! I had the same problem. I was totally vexed so I went at it again the next day. I used 1/3 c oil and whole wheat pastry flour. I made larger cookies (golf-ball sizedish) and let them cook for 10 minutes (watching like a hawk). They were much much better and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Also, give the snickerdoodles in the book a try. They’re awesome. 🙂
Just made these, with several minor variations – I used partly whole wheat flour, all brown sugar instead of a mix of white and brown (because I was out of white), soymilk instead of almond milk, arrowroot instead of tapioca, and reduce the oil slightly (because 2/3 cup seemed like an awful lot!). Oh, and added some chopped walnuts at the last minute, on whim.
They came out absolutely wonderful – cooked in exactly the time state in the recipe, and delicious! The only problem I encountered was that the dough seemed to be a bit softer and sticker than the directions sound like it should be. Rolling it into balls was a bit tricky because it kept sticking to my hands. That seems weird, because you would think with less oil it would have been thicker? Also, I agree with those who’ve said that 3/4 cup of chocolate chips is a lot – at times they were literally falling out of the dough as I tried to roll it because there were so many (though that may be partly because I also added nuts). 1/2 cup probably would have been enough…
Oh well. Neither of those are at all major problems in any case, and I’ll definitely make these again!
Love your web-site, recipes and Cookie book. I hope you will reconsider your use of canola oil. To my understanding all canola (rapeseed) oil is GMO. Suggest alternatives such as walnut, organic sunflower, grapessed, etc. Just a thought. Thank you for sharing your delicious recipes that are created without harm.
Peace
Well, I botched this one 🙁 The first time I made them, I forgot to add the almond milk at the caramelizing step, so i added it at the end. I ended up with really oily batter but the cookies actually turned out great.
This time, I wanted to reduce the oil. I was making a double-batch so I used 1 cup canola oil, 1/3 cup apple sauce. By the end, my batter was waaaay too wet and runny so I added flour until it kind of resembled dough that could be molded into cookies. I must have added an extra cup of flour… which proved to be a colossal mistake because I ended up with cookie-shaped cakes instead 🙁 So my suggestion is if you want to reduce the oil, just reduce the oil; don’t add anything else in its place. That being said, there is a reason why Isa writes cookbooks and I do not.
made these exactly as the recipe says except for using cornstarch, mmm mmm goood! Yes, the dough was somewhat “oily” a bit of a challenge to “roll” into a ball but did not change the YUMMM factor. Chewy, gooey goodness.
even my non-vegan family loved them. Great recipe!!!!
http://www.clutterpros.net
OMG I ran out of wheat FLOUR.
I made them with barley flour and the fussy family didn’t notice a thing. They loved these — again!
I have never had the “oily” problem of other bakers; I use my handheld electric mixer and carmelize the sugar/oil really well. I wonder if that is the problem others describe. Using a fork would be too much work!
These were a super yummy treat. I used my tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop batter onto the sheet–no mess, no rolling, slid right out. Next time I will try generous teaspoon scoops–I got a little overzealous with the second sheet and ended up with a cancer cookie–lots of interconnected cookies as a result of being dropped to close to their neighbors.
Delicious recipe! I used them to make ice cream sandwiches – http://crawford.cc/wordpress/2011/12/vegan-ice-cream-sandwiches/
These are amazing! You would never know they were vegan! For those asking about the tapico flour, I used cornstarch and they are perfect! This makes recipe #2 from your site that came out amazing! Snobby Joe’s are the new favorite in my kitchen!
Argh! Just made these tonight, and I’m glad this wasn’t the first recipe I tried from the book. I made the Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles twice last week—amazing! So I had high hopes for this recipe. Like several others, I followed the recipe to a T and ended up with dough that could in no way be described “stiff.” In fact, you could probably have poured it out. I should have baked a test cookie just to see what would happen, but instead I kept adding flour until it resembled something I could shape. I added a total of an extra cup of flour. I really hate chocolate chip cookies that run and are flat, so I guess I went way overboard in the other direction. And of course, I did all this before checking the comments. If these have the potential to be half as good as the Snickerdoodles, I need to give them another try. I’d love to see a video for this recipe to put an end to the consistency mystery. When I measured the brown sugar, I packed it down like I do with other recipes. Could that be a problem?
Do you have any tips for making these sugar free. I want to bake cookies for my mom. It’s hard to find sugar-free vegan recipes.
these came out perfect ! my kids said they are the best choc chip cookies evah! I chilled the dough in the fridge for 10 min so it wouldnt be “sticky”.hopefully they last for my youngest to leave some for santa!
Hi Isa,
Okay. So I have made these cookies a million times and love them so when a friend asked for a good chocolate chip recipe on FB, I immediately pointed her towards this one. Somewhere in the conversation, one of our other pals threw out a snarky comment that if they were vegan “something was wrong with the recipe”. I know that half the reason he said that was to annoy me in that infuriating older brother way, so I want to send his partner a dozen cookies with instructions that my friend can’t have any until he grovels and admits he was wrong. 🙂 I know you’ve mentioned that you send baked goods to your friends, so I’m wondering if you have any packaging and shipping tips about how to get a dozen chocolate chip cookies from California to North Carolina in as temptingly fresh a condition as possible. As always, THANK YOU.
Best. Cookies. Ever!! The dough wasnt oily at all as some peeps had encountered-it was just perfect- like all of you’re recipes Ive tried. I used the cornfour/ soymilk option. Yuuuuuuuuummmmooo!!! Thanks heaps for sharing-Imy three lil kids practically inhaled them…and so did I! 😀
Came out perfect! I subbed cornstarch for tapioca flour (1/2 T) and used sesame oil. Cut out about 2 T of the oil and the consistency was good. Yummy in my yummy!
These are by far the best cookies I have ever made. You are a goddess. <3
I had the same problem some mentioned with the dough being moist (NOT stiff at all) and spreading during cooking, and while they weren’t greasy, I thought I could taste the oil. I also added probably around three extra tablespoons flour. I never measure “mix-ins” and used chopped chocolate (it was on hand) so I just stuffed the dough full (yum). I also didn’t have brown sugar so i used 3/4 C white with a tablespoon molasses, plus a teaspoon or so of cinnamon and sprinkle of ginger. once the cookies cooled, I found them very chewy and delicious despite being flat (due to the oil, molasses, and probably large amount of chocolate that had melted into the cookies! haha).
Next time I will spend even longer mixing the wet ingredients, and use an electric beater instead of a whisk. It looked caramelly to me, but perhaps it wasn’t stiff enough. I’ll also try and use brown sugar, and this time I’ll let my instinct guide me and add more flour if it’s too wet. I’d also try slowly incorporating all the dry ingredients (sifted together beforehand) while running a beater on low. THESE ARE DELICIOUS THOUGH. I just would like to try again and post those results. 🙂
Also forgot to mention- I used a 1:1 sub cornstarch for tapioca, but one commenter only used a 1/2 T- don’t know how much that would affect it? I would think it wouldn’t make a huge difference.
Ya know, a lot of people have told me this and so I tried it with just 1/2 cup oil and that works well. I would just do that next time!
I followed the directions, using corn starch instead, and the cookies came out delicious.
I just tried these cookies, and they didn’t come out well for me; I thought they were oily and sunken. I thought I followed the recipe exactly. Can you tell me what I might have done wrong?
Sick cookies! I subbed coconut oil for canola, 1 tbsp ener-g for tapioca flour and added maybe a half cup more flour… The cookies were grwat, but the cookie dough was awesome…..i liked it raw!
hi Isa,
these cooking are great! crispy outside and chewy inside *yummy*
I just subbed the tapioca 1:1 for carob flour (was on hand) and only took 1/2 cup of canola.
Many greetings from Germany,
Rina
oO I meant cookies…
I made Post Punk Kitchen vegan cholate chip cookies. Check out my review of the recipe. A quick and dirty post from Amethyst Jean http://amethystjean.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/vegan-chocolate-chip-cookies/
I just wanted to thank you for this recipe. I make it by heart now for every omnivore function i attend–people are shocked to find they are vegan–WOW! Thanks so much for empowering us vegans to inspire others.
Although, I should add that i only use a scant 1/2 cup oil (somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cup) instead of the 2/3 cup. They always turn out perfect!! 🙂 Brit
holy cow. thank you.
wow- thanks so much. So hard to find no earth balance recipes. I used fresh orange juice and zest instead of the almond milk and wow. Day 2 (if they last that long) is incredible. My husband thinks they were too orange but what does he know:) I did make some batches with just the zest and its just a hint here and there- totally yummy.
These turned out great. I did up the baking soda to 1 tsp and my dough was pretty liquidy so I used about 2 cups flour total. I also made GIANT cookies. So I had to bake them for around 12-15 minutes. So delicious!
This is a great recipe, but the given amount of flour is too little and results in overly oily and soft cookies, I find that adding 1/2 – 3/4 cup of flour to the original recipe balances out the excess oil and makes a more crispy cookie with a chewy center.