Although I admire people who can adhere to a strictly vegan lifestyle, it's not realistic to get everyone to change their eating habits overnight. I've long believed that the way to get people to follow a more plant-based diet is to make vegan food materially better than the conventional alternative. By better, I don't mean esoteric ideas like being kinder to the world around us or being healthier (even though those are valid points to eat vegan), but better in an immediately apparent way such as better taste or easier preparation.
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Why My Recipe Works
- Using almond butter as the fat in these cookies adds rich flavor and texture and boosts their nutritional value.
- Oatmeal and brown rice syrup give the cookies a satisfying chewy texture.
- By adjusting the cooking time, you can get the perfect texture for your tastes: gooey and chewy to crisp and tender, or somewhere in between.
Best Chocolate Cookies
I'll let the pictures do the talking, but these are probably the best chocolate cookies I've ever eaten, and they take about 15 minutes to make. If that's not materially better, I'm not sure what is. I've been experimenting with vegan cookies for a while now, and I've even come up with a few that were good enough to replace their conventional counterparts. For these plant-based chocolate cookies, there are two tricks I've come up with that gives them an amazing flavor and texture while making them easier to make.
The first is to replace all the butter in a conventional cookie with almond butter. The almond butter gives each bite of cookie a rich, creamy mouthfeel along with the wonderful toasty fragrance of roasted almonds. I'd be lying if I said that this makes these cookies healthy, but the almond butter loads them up with fiber, protein and minerals, making them far less bad for you than they taste.
How to Get a Chewy Texture
To get the awesome chewy texture, I use two ingredients. The first is oatmeal, which gets ground up before the almond butter goes in. If you like the rough texture of oatmeal cookies you can grind them a little less, or if you want a finer texture you can grind them into a flour. Either way, the oats lend a wonderful chew to the cookie while contributing additional fiber, proteins, and minerals.
To get them even chewier, I add brown rice syrup. This is a type of sugar consisting mainly of maltose, which has the texture of cold honey. It gives the cookies a wonderful chew and a malty flavor that's reminiscent of Ovaltine.
When mixed together, this cookie dough smells and looks like soft Tootsie Rolls, and since there are no eggs, you can eat the raw cookie dough without worrying as much about food safety issues.
Like all cookies, you can adjust the degree of chewiness versus crispness by reducing or increasing the time in the oven. At 8-9 minutes, they should turn out crisp around the edges and chewy on the inside. If you cut that time down to 7-8 minutes, they will be more chewy and tender, and if you increase it past 9 minutes, they will become crisp. Just be careful not to burn them as the cookies are dark to begin with. You'll need to watch them closely.
Make them Gluten-Free?
Because there is so little flour in these, you could probably make these gluten-free by replacing the all-purpose flour with an alternative. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't make any promises, but if you try it, leave a comment and let us know how it goes. I have a gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookie recipe that's also vegan, and you can add chocolate chips if you're looking for a chocolate fix.
📖 Recipe
Equipment
Units
Ingredients
- 50 grams rolled oats (~½ cup)
- 46 grams all-purpose flour (~⅓ cup)
- 30 grams cocoa powder (~⅓ cup)
- 50 grams coconut sugar (~⅓ cup)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup almond butter
- ½ cup brown rice syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon water
- 100 grams vegan chocolate (chopped into chunks)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Put the 50 grams rolled oats, 46 grams all-purpose flour, 30 grams cocoa powder, 50 grams coconut sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ⅛ teaspoon salt into the bowl of a food processor and process until the oats are ground into a rough flour.
- Add the 1 cup almond butter, ½ cup brown rice syrup, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and process until a crumbly dough forms.
- With the food processor running, add the 1 tablespoon water and process until the dough comes together.
- Fold in the 100 grams vegan chocolate chunks.
- Shape the dough into balls, and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Flatten with your fingertips.
- Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are crisp, but the center is still a little soft. Watch closely to avoid overcooking.
- Cool the cookies on a rack before trying to remove them from the parchment paper.
Nadia says
Hi!
This recipe looks delicious! Can you substitute creamy peanut butter for almond butter?
Marc says
Thanks Nadia! I haven't tried it but I think it should work. You'll probably want to use a natural-type PB that hasn't been homogenized.
Sunshine says
Have you tried this recipe using almond flour or another gluten free flour?
Also I would like to try real maple syrup instead of brown rice syrup … what do you think?
Thanks🎃
Sunshine from Oregon
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Sunshine, I haven't. I don' think almond flour would work great as it doesn't contain much starch, but you should be able to use a GF all-purpose flour blend. As for substituting maple syrup, I would not recommend it. Maple syrup is much more watery than brown rice syrup and I don't think you'll end up with a proper dough if you use it. For context, brown rice syrup is about the thickness of tree sap. I hope that helps!