• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Norecipes - Elevating Everyday Meals

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Cuisine
  • Ingredient
  • Type
  • Start Here
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Cuisine
    • Ingredient
    • Type
    • Start Here
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » American

    Updated: Apr 23, 2023 by Marc · 2 Comments

    Vegan Chocolate Cookies

    Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, no one will ever guess these decadent chocolate cookies are plant-based. With loads of chocolate chunks and almond butter, these vegan cookies are rich, decadent and hard to resist. I'd even go so far as to say these are simply the best chocolate cookies regardless of your dietary preferences.
    Recipe Pin

    No one will ever guess these decadent chewy chocolate chunk cookies are plant-based. Best of all, this vegan chocolate cookie recipe comes together in minutes.

    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, but better in an immediately apparent way such as better taste or easier preparation.

    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.

    Crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on these inside, these vegan chocolate cookies are irresistably good.

    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 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.

    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

    Noone will ever guess these decadent chewy chocolate chunk cookies are plant-based. Best of all, this vegan chocolate cookie recipe comes together in minutes.

    Chewy Chocolate Cookies

    4.67 from 9 votes
    Print Pin Discuss
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    Cook Time 8 minutes mins
    Total Time 13 minutes mins
    Yield 16 cookies

    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 rolled oats, flour, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a food processor and process until the oats are ground into a rough flour.
    • Add the almond butter, rice syrup, and vanilla and process until a crumbly dough forms.
      Food processor with dough for vegan chocolate cookies in it.
    • With the food processor running, add the water and process until the dough comes together.
    • Fold in the chocolate chunks.
      Glass bowl with vegan chocolate cookie dough with big chunks of chocolate.
    • Shape the dough into balls, and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Flatten with your fingertips.
      Vegan chocolate cookie dough on parchment paper ready to bake.
    • For 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are crisp, but the center is still a little soft.
      Vegan chocolate cookies straight out of the oven with melted chocolate oozing out.
    • Cool the cookies on a rack before trying to remove them from the parchment paper.
    Recipes in your inboxDon't miss out SIGN UP!

    Nutrition

    Calories 192kcalCarbohydrates 22gProtein 5gFat 11gSaturated Fat 2gSodium 102mgPotassium 159mgFiber 3gSugar 12gCalcium 73mgIron 1.5mg

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      Recipe Rating




    1. Sunshine says

      October 22, 2021 at 8:56 am

      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

      Reply
      • Marc Matsumoto says

        October 24, 2021 at 3:46 pm

        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!

        Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Marc Matsumoto, a retired chef living in Tokyo, and I founded No Recipes to empower home cooks of all levels by sharing essential techniques and my kitchen secrets.

    Start Here →

    Trending Recipes

    • This easy homemade poke bowl is topped with Shoyu Poke and various colorful vegetables and comes together in about 10 minutes.
      Poke Bowl
    • Edamame
    • Experience the irresistible allure of my butter chicken recipe, showcasing tender chicken pieces swimming in a luxuriously smooth and flavorsome sauce.
      Butter Chicken
    • A glossy mirrorlike shine is the hallmark of any great Japanese chicken teriyaki, and this one comes together from just 4 simple ingredients.
      Authentic Chicken Teriyaki
    • A staple of Chinese-American take-out joints, this Chicken Chow Mein recipe is an easy and delicious one-pan meal.
      Chicken Chow Mein
    • Kung Pao Chicken

    Trending Categories

    • Japanese (Modern)
    • Japanese (Traditional)
    • Japanese (Chinese)
    • Stir Fry
    • Easy Weeknight
    • Rice

    Hi, I'm Marc Matsumoto, a retired chef living in Tokyo, and I founded No Recipes to empower home cooks of all levels by sharing essential techniques and my kitchen secrets.

    Start Here →

    Trending Recipes

    • This easy homemade poke bowl is topped with Shoyu Poke and various colorful vegetables and comes together in about 10 minutes.
      Poke Bowl
    • Edamame
    • Experience the irresistible allure of my butter chicken recipe, showcasing tender chicken pieces swimming in a luxuriously smooth and flavorsome sauce.
      Butter Chicken
    • A glossy mirrorlike shine is the hallmark of any great Japanese chicken teriyaki, and this one comes together from just 4 simple ingredients.
      Authentic Chicken Teriyaki
    • A staple of Chinese-American take-out joints, this Chicken Chow Mein recipe is an easy and delicious one-pan meal.
      Chicken Chow Mein
    • Kung Pao Chicken

    Trending Categories

    • Japanese (Modern)
    • Japanese (Traditional)
    • Japanese (Chinese)
    • Stir Fry
    • Easy Weeknight
    • Rice

    Footer

    About

    • About
    • Help Me
    • Hire Me
    • Photography
    • FAQs

    Connect

    • Email Updates
    • Contact

    Legal

    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy

    Copyright © 2023 Marc Matsumoto. All rights reserved