Chewy Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
5 from 1 vote

These are the softest, thickest, and most chewy vegan double chocolate chip cookies! This recipe is designed to create a perfect texture for chewy cookie lovers (like me). These cookies are stuffed with dark chocolate, and no one will guess that they’re vegan.

A stack of thick, chewy vegan double chocolate chip cookies is resting on a white plate.

Like many people, I love cookies. But it comes with an important disclaimer: I love chewy cookies.

Yes, there are exceptions to this. When it comes to sugar cookies, a crumbly texture is best.

And crunch, crispy texture is what’s wanted for vegan biscotti, like my beloved cranberry almond biscotti.

For oatmeal raisin cookies, snickerdoodles, and more, however, I’m a stickler for chewy textures. It’s my basic cookie preference.

And I feel especially strongly about it when it comes to chocolate chip and double chocolate chip cookies.

These vegan double chocolate chip cookies are a chewy cookie lover’s dream come true.

I adapted some tips and tricks from bakers Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin to achieve thick, soft, ultra-chewy, and ultra-chocolatey cookies.

This has become one of my favorite cookie recipes, and I’m so happy to share it with you.

A vegan double chocolate chip cookie is stuffed with still melty chocolate chips. It's resting with other cookies on a wire cooling rack.

What are double chocolate chip cookies?

Double chocolate chip cookies are simply chocolate chip cookies that have been made with chocolate dough.

Chocolate dough + chocolate chips = double chocolate chip cookies.

The dough can incorporate either melted chocolate or cocoa powder. I like to use cocoa powder in my version.

How to veganize cookie recipes

There’s a world of ways to make a traditional cookie recipe vegan instead.

Replacing butter

The first task is usually to replace butter.

Fortunately, there are tons of vegan butter options on the market nowadays! I usually bake with Earth Balance Buttery Sticks or Miyoko’s Creamery unsalted butter.

I’ve also baked with butter from Fora Foods, and it produces excellent, authentic results.

If a recipe doesn’t necessitate butter, than oil—I like to use avocado oil—can be used for baking instead.

Replacing egg

There are many types of vegan egg replacer. The ones that I use most often are flax eggs (ground flax seed + warm water, mixed and allowed to thicken) and aquafaba.

Chocolate

For this recipe, of course, chocolate is a key consideration.

People ask me all the time how I live without chocolate as a vegan. My answer is always the same: I don’t! Fortunately, no vegan has to surrender the joys of chocolate.

Much dark chocolate—60% or higher—is vegan as is. In order to find out, simply scan labels for milk, milk powder, butterfat, and other non-vegan ingredients.

In the world of chocolate chips, too, there are vegan options. My favorites are chocolate chips from the Enjoy Life and Guittard brands.

A “secretly vegan” recipe

Very possibly my favorite vegan chocolate chip cookie is the one from Ovenly bakery, in New York City.

Ovenly’s “secretly vegan” chocolate chip cookie is now not secretive at all. It has become a very beloved recipe for good reason. The cookies are so tender and chewy, and they have an incredible balance of salty and sweet.

This chewy vegan double chocolate chip cookie recipe is based on Ovenly’s famous creation. In fact, I followed the recipe steps almost to a tee.

The ingredient proportions are heavily influenced by the Ovenly chocolate chip cookies as well.

The beauty of that recipe and this one is that neither requires vegan specialty ingredients. Oil is the fat, and you don’t need to replace the eggs.

So in a way, the double chocolate chip cookies are secretly vegan—as in, vegan without trying to be—too.

Tips for a chewy vegan cookie

So, how does one achieve an especially thick/fluffy and chewy cookie?

There are a few ways of making this happen. Here are the tricks that I find most effective.

Cornstarch in the dough

Adding just a small amount (2 teaspoons) of cornstarch or potato starch to the dough helps to create chewier, softer cookies.

I use this trick in many of my cookie recipes now!

Hydrate the dough (aka the fridge is your friend)

Hydrating cookie dough is similar to hydrating bread dough. Essentially, it’s a process of allowing dough to rest for a while so that moisture can “hydrate” the flour.

In cookie recipes, I find that hydration leads to better, more flavorful cookies overall. But I think it also helps with that chewy texture that I love so much.

This recipe calls for a nice, long hydration time in the fridge: 12-24 hours. I can’t encourage you enough to not skip this step! I promise that the results will be well worth the wait.

Freezing before baking

Rolling the cookie dough into plump, round balls and then freezing those balls before baking will help to ensure both thick, fluffy cookies and also a chewy texture.

I know that this is yet another step in an already-lengthy cookie-making process. But it does make a huge difference.

I’m not a fan of a flat cookie, and I’ve had so many experiences of homemade cookies that turned into thin pancakes.

Not these double chocolate chip cookies! They have a round, thick texture, and the freezing step is part of why.

If you don’t have space in your freezer, an hour in the fridge will also help.

Vegan double chocolate chip cookie ingredients

Again, one of the lovely things about this recipe is the simplicity of its ingredients. Here are the main things that you’ll need.

Flour

I use unbleached, all-purpose flour (King Arthur’s is my go-to) for this recipe and most of my baking recipes.

I don’t recommend using a whole grain flour here, and I don’t recommend a grain-free flour.

If you have celiac disease, then you can use a gluten-free, all-purpose flour blend. King Arthur’s Measure for Measure is my favorite.

Baking powder and soda

This recipe calls for both baking powder and soda.

Many cookie recipes call for baking soda only; here, I think that the baking powder also helps to create some thickness and height.

Cocoa powder

I recommend a Dutch process cocoa powder for the recipe.

Guittard’s cocoa rouge is my absolute favorite, both here and in other baking recipes with chocolate. But you can certainly use a favorite brand of your own, too.

Sugars

The vegan double chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for both cane and brown sugar.

The brown sugar can be light or dark. If you like, you can substitute it with coconut sugar, but I don’t recommend substituting all of the sugar in the recipe with coconut sugar.

Cane sugar helps to create some of the refined texture here, so it’s an important part of making the cookies work!

In addition, while the amount of sugar can be decreased in some of my baking recipes, cookies tend to be delicate.

Sugar adds not only sweetness, but moisture to baking. Therefore, lessening the amount can result in changes of texture.

I don’t recommend cutting the sugar for this recipe, then. If you do change it, just know that the texture may be altered.

Oil

Refined avocado oil is my top choice for all high-temperature cooking, for recipes where a neutral flavor is needed, and for baking.

However, you can substitute the oil in this recipe with another vegetable oil, such as safflower, canola, or grapeseed.

Chocolate

Any vegan chocolate chip will work in the recipe!

And if you don’t have a bag of chocolate chips at home, but you do have a chocolate stash, you can also use chunks of your favorite, chopped up vegan dark chocolate.

You’ll need about 300g, total (1 1/4 cups).

How to make vegan double chocolate chip cookies

This cookie recipe takes some time, but none of the individual steps are very hard.

A white mixing bowl has been filled with flour and sifted cocoa powder.

Step 1: mix your dry ingredients

Dry ingredients for this recipe are flour, cornstarch, baking powder and soda, salt, and sifted cocoa powder.

Step 2: mix your wet ingredients

Separately, you’ll mix two sugars (brown and cane), oil, and water.

Yes, water! That’s something that was in the original Ovenly recipe, and for whatever reason, the oil + water combo works.

I suspect that this recipe doesn’t require vegan butter because butter has fat + water, and this oil/water combo is approximating it.

The measurements here are weird: a half cup + 1 tablespoon oil, and a quarter cup + 1 tablespoon water. Just go with it! It works.

When you whisk the wet ingredients together, you’ll want to whisk them well. Give it a full 1-2 minutes of stirring.

A white, round mixing bowl is filled with cookie dough batter.

Step 3: add wet to dry

This step is fairly self-explanatory: add wet ingredients to dry, then mix.

However, don’t over-mix! You want all of the dough to be evenly combined, but you don’t need to keep mixing beyond that.

Once that’s done, you’ll fold in your chocolate chips.

A round, white mixing bowl is filled with the dough for a batch of double chocolate chip cookies.

Step 4: Chill

This is the oh-so-important dough hydration step. You’ll cover your bowl of dough tightly with saran wrap or a bowl cover and transfer it to the fridge.

Leave it there overnight, for a full 12 hours and up to 24.

Step 5: Roll

Now, you’ll roll the dough into cookie balls. The balls of dough should be 1 1/2-1 3/4 inches (4-4 1/2cm) in diameter.

When I prepare them, it’s about 35g of dough per ball.

Place the rolled dough balls on 2 parchment or silpat-lined baking sheets, with at least two inches of space between them.

Step 6: Freeze

Now’s that pesky, yet worthwhile, freezing step.

You can also turn this into a make-ahead step. If you’d like to make the dough well in advance of baking the cookies, then you can cover dough balls in saran wrap and freeze them for up to several weeks.

Transfer them straight to a hot oven when you’re ready to bake (and eat).

Step 7: Bake

Dough balls should go straight from your freezer to the oven. They’ll need about 11-13 minutes at 350F to be done.

I have a history of being overly aggressive with my cookie baking. To my naked eye, cookies always looked underbaked at the moment when I was supposed to pull them from the oven.

As a result, I’d always leave them in a few minutes longer, then end up with cookies that were burnt or overly crisp. This was a problem especially because I love that chewy texture.

So, I can’t encourage you enough to remove the cookies from the oven when they’ve had about 12 minutes. They may look very soft, and they’ll be soft!

But remember that the cookies will continue to cook a little after you remove them from heat. And by the time they cool completely, they’ll be perfectly tender and chewy.

Freshly baked cookies are cooling on a wire cooling rack, which is placed over a white surface.

Step 8: Cool

I give the cookies 5 minutes on the baking sheet before very gently transferring them to a cooling rack. At that point, they can continue to cool entirely.

Cookie storage

I recommend freezing any cookies that you don’t plan to eat within 3 days immediately. These cookies will keep best in a frozen state.

You can freeze them in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks.

Any cookies that you’d like to eat within 3 days—a very understandable desire, given how chocolatey and irresistable they are—should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

The Vegan Week

Embrace the joy of eating homemade food every day with the hearty and wholesome recipes in The Vegan Week.

Whether you have three, two, or even just one hour of time to spare, The Vegan Week will show you how to batch cook varied, colorful, and comforting dishes over the weekend.

Make ahead options

Want to incorporate this recipe into your vegan meal prep routine?

Dough balls, once prepared, can be frozen for up to 8 weeks before baking.

You can also freeze the whole batch of dough (right after it spends 12-24 hours in the fridge) for up to 4 weeks. Defrost it overnight in the fridge, then shape into balls and proceed.

More of my favorite vegan cookie recipes

If you love the vegan double chocolate chip cookies and want to try a few more plant-based cookie classics, these are my favorites:

And, without further ado, the most chocolatey, chewy cookies I’ve ever made.

Three round, chewy double chocolate chip cookies are resting on a white ceramic plate. The plate is placed on a white surface.
A stack of thick, chewy vegan double chocolate chip cookies is resting on a white plate.
5 from 1 vote

Chewy Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Author – Gena Hamshaw
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Resting time 12 hours
Yields: 30 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (185g)
  • 2 teaspoons corn starch or potato starch
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder (50g)
  • 1/2 cup cane sugar (100g)
  • 1/2 cup packed, light or dark brown sugar (110g)
  • 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon avocado oil
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 1/4 cups vegan chocolate chips (300g; substitute chunks of chopped vegan dark chocolate)

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift the cocoa powder into the bowl and stir the dry ingredients together. 
  • In a separate mixing bowl, vigorously whisk together the sugars, oil, and water for one full minute. 
  • Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula until no streaks of flour are visible. Then, fold in the chocolate chips. Continue mixing until the chips have been evenly distributed into the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for 12-24 hours. 
  • Roll the dough into balls that are about 1 1/2-1 3/4 inches (4-4 1/2cm) in diameter (about 35g of dough per ball). Place the dough balls on 2 parchment or silpat-lined baking sheets. Freeze them for at least 10 minutes and up to several hours. 
  • While the rolled cookie dough is in the freezer, preheat your oven to 350F. 
  • Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until they're just firm at the edges. The cookies should be quite puffy and soft. They'll continue baking after you remove them from the oven, so resist the urge to leave them in there for more than 13 minutes, even if they don't appear set!
  • Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to gently transfer them to a cooling rack. Cool the cookies for at least another 15 minutes before enjoying.

Notes

This recipe is adapted from Ovenly’s famous, secretly vegan, salted chocolate chip cookies.

I hope that these sweet bites of goodness will give you some of the same joy and pleasure that they’ve given me!

xo

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Categories: Recipes, Desserts, Cookies
Dietary Preferences: Tree Nut Free, Vegan

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    47 Comments
  1. I love raw desserts. They all seem so tasty but so complicated to make :(. I have only tried chocolate pudding so far but hope to improve :).

  2. I want to start off by saying that I feel like I’ve only ever left critical comments of recipes on your blog, but it’s not a reflection of how I feel about the blog, because I love it and have definitely had more hits than misses with your recipes! Not to mention all the neat foods you’ve inspired me to try and love (like nut pates and nori rolls, to name a few).
    With that said, while these cookies are lovely, I had to add about 1/4 cup of almond milk to get the right cookie batter texture. The original recipe gave me a very crumbly batter, which yielded a very sandy cookie from the first half of the batch. Adding the almond milk gave a more typical cookie batter and markedly better texture for the second half. I’m sure it’s related to brand differences or elevation or whatever other mystical forces determine the outcome of my baking, but I thought I’d put it out there for others! 🙂

      • Hi…I had the same problem. Used Earth Balance and EnerG and 3/4C sugar but my batter was very crumbly. Added a bit of liquid but the cookies are still a bit dry. I am going to try the coconut oil next time. The flavor is wonderful though; I hope the coconut oil will help next time!

  3. These cookies have the B.E.S.T. taste!!! And, I’m not getting paid to say that. Give them a try. Your family is sure to love them. My Thanksgiving crew does! 🙂

  4. Delicious! I did use a GF flour blend and they were a little crumbly, but a little extra EarthBalance fixed that.

  5. mmm these look so good! i have used cacao powder in baking and find it’s a different taste level too.

    Thank you for not just saying, yes, use any gluten-free flour because that just won’t work. People who are experts in GF vegan baking (like manifestvegan and spabettie) have worked long and hard to make sure the recipe works out. You can just assume one thing will work out. I had 2 cookie recipes fail on me in one day. I have to say all the cookies in Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar have worked with GF flour mix for me.

  6. I’m with you completely on the loving chocolate more than sugar. These are such a gorgeous dark chocolate color. Can’t wait to try them!

  7. To make things gluten-free, I find that a ratio of half superfine brown rice flour and half almond meal replaces flour pretty well in cookie recipes. I’ll have to try it on this recipe soon!

  8. Holy smokes, these look incredible! I made your banana-oat-chia muffins today with great success- these are next on the list! Woohoo! Love your simple, wholesome, ultra tasty recipes, Gena. 🙂

  9. I just made these and they taste super delicious! I had not eaten chocolate in a long time, and this recipe was easy to make. Thank you, Gena!

  10. I can’t wait to try these! I personally don’t like Earth Balance in cookies and coconut oil sounds delicious. I should sub it for EB in other cookie recipes… don’t know why I hadn’t thought of that! Thanks, Gena! 🙂

  11. I’m a sucker for chocolate cookies. These look wonderful. I’ve started baking for my roller derby team. It’s been a great way to try new recipes without having a big batch of baking left for me to eat myself. They’re going to love these!

  12. Agreed on Friday blogging breaks, I like to take them to decompress from the week and spend time with hubby. This cookie recipe looks fabulous! While I’m not a huge baker, think I’ll try these for hubby. 🙂 Thanks.

  13. These cookies saved my weekend. the last week has been hectic after losing my passport being stuck in kuala lumpur and not knowing where to go and what to do. A piece of chocolate makes my day. Thank u, Gina!

  14. these look amazing. bookmarked for a day when i require double chocolate cookies … happens a lot around here, haha 🙂

  15. these look awesome. i’m always looking for a good vegan cookie recipe and mine usually tend to come out muffin texture, so far i’ve found 1 recipe that doesn’t do that. these look like a 2nd! can’t wait to try them 🙂

  16. Very delicious 🙂 made these with a little molasses added and then 3/4 cup ww pastry flour and 1/2 cup almond flour for a more intense buttery taste.

  17. These look so delicious Gena! Even after eating healthy/vegan/high raw for a few years I still have a binge problem with baked goods. I wish I was at a point in my eating where I could actually make cookies and not eat the whole batch. I’d have one and feel good but then I keep going back for more until they’re gone…and that’s if they even make it to the oven! One day, I hope! xoxo

  18. They are seriously mouthwatering. I am ALL about chocolate therapy!
    Don’t need Blue Cross to approve that one and I think it probably works just as well as any other therapy!

  19. SOrry to hear you had a long week, but glad to know I’m not the only one. These are definitely on my weekend to-do list, this girl needs chocolate! I love your photos, the cookies look so decadent and rewarding.

  20. Wow–I’m proud of you for indulging in this kind of food and words after a draining week. What is it about this week? It’s been _crazy_!

    For a gf version of the cookies (loved your talk about creaming coconut oil, btw–right on), I would suggest using the Energ-G egg replacer rather than a flax egg, and using maybe 3/4 cup denser flours (sorghum, rice) and 1/2 cup starches (tapioca, potato).

    We’re about to be house-sitting, which means access to a proper oven–cookies are the hardest thing to do when you only have a toaster oven–which makes me tempted to try these. I really am not doing ok with chocolate, though 🙁 –enjoying it vicariously through your words and pics.

  21. Words, food and chocolate are absolutely my go-to elements of life that never fail to make me feel better. And laughter. These look amazing! Great to hear that coconut oil can be creamed; I just used my coconut oil for the first time in baking with a granola, and holy moly! The crispityness! It’s amazing 🙂

  22. Gena these look amazing! I love it when you bake. I told you that a couple comments ago when you baked muffins.

    As for the Navitas…I have only ever used it in smoothie recipes or in tinier batch type things like a half dozen raw balls. Never in bulk b/c like you, I hate to “waste” the good stuff if I have a recipe flop. Sounds like it really made all the difference though.

    As for the coconut oil…ok so you start with cold coconut oil (solid) and beat it into a warm liquid? Just checking because I’ve found in baking, that whether you start with a solid, i.e. cold butter or purposely liquify/melt butter…and then cream in sugars, it can have a vastly different effect on final product.

    Whether we’re talking butter, Earth Balance, or coconut oil, just checking to see if you thought that it mattered. From reading your description, doesn’t sound like it but I hesitate to use liquid coconut oil starting off b/c I always worry that it will make everything soupy.

    GF adaptation for me in these would be half almond flour + half GF flour, i.e. Bob’s blends to replace the WW flour. I don’t like using all “GF flour” b/c it tastes gritty to me usually.

    Ok long comment. Have a great weekend.

    These look…awesome!!

    • A,

      I think it worked here because, as you can see, it’s actually not a huge amount of fat for a pretty big batch (so it probably has some soupy effect, but that’s compensated for by the generous flour:oil ratio). It starts as coconut oil the way it is when it’s totally cool and solid, and it beats up nicely, except you can tell as you go that it’s warming up and getting oilier. Does that make sense?

      Thanks for the compliment–from you, the baking whiz, that is something!

      xo

      • Totally makes sense. That’s what I assumed you did in terms of beating it from a solid into a liquid. I think most times that gives better results than just staring off with a totally melted liquid (which results in the soupy effect for me usually) but b/c there is no other real fat source or egg, these could stand up to any liquidy/soupy effect b/c they actually need it.

        Sorry to geek out on food science; I have spent way too much time in the kitchen this week whipping, creaming, and melting fat sources while testing cookie recipes 🙂

  23. Stop creating such delicious recipes– your pancakes, muffins, and so on…..
    These look terrific, G, and can’t wait to whip them up for my next celebratory event 🙂 I bet a touch of dried cherries or coconut wouldn’t be such a bad addition, either…

  24. Oh boy, these look delicious. I even happen to have some coconut oil and chocolate powder in my dorm room, so these could definitely happen!

    Happy Halloween!!!

  25. Oh, these look so yummy! I made your banana muffins for my kids and they loved them!! I’m curious about how you’re finding o-chem to be vs. inorganic chem? Take care!

  26. I bow my hat to you. I have no energy Friday nights for cooking, let alone typical college stuff. I’m barely keeping my eyes open right now and still waiting to leave the house. I think I need some cookies to wake me up.

  27. Oh god, these are my all-time favorite kind of cookies. I’ve been looking for a good recipe for them–can’t wait to try this one. I’ve made Isa Chandra Moskowitz/ Terry Romero’s chocolate crinkle cookie which is awesome, but I’m delighted to try these! Thank you and happy Friday night!

  28. These look amazing! I’m assuming you meant 1/2 cup solid coconut oil (or Earth Balance)?

    • Mmm, even if this week hadn’t been excessively long, these would still look amazing! And I completely agree with Victoria about coconut oil in baked goods, but I was thinking more along the lines of some raw whipped cream… Also, for either of you (since I assume Victoria knows her cocoa…), is there another cocoa you would recommend for perhaps a little more economy, but still good quality?