Way back in 2006, Imperfect Mommy shared this wonderful recipe for “Toll house style” vegan chocolate chip cookies with us. According to her, they’re “the best dairy-, egg-, and nut-free chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever taste!” This recipe has since been reprinted on numerous vegan blogs and sites without credits, but it was the Imperfect Mommy who whipped it up first!
In the very first versions of this vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe, raisins or chopped Scharffen Berger baking bars were used for the add-ins. Back then, dairy-free chocolate chips were scarce. I’ve updated her recipes since you can find a few good vegan brands these days. But I recommend Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips or Chunks for nut-safe, allergy-friendly needs, too.
Special Diet Notes: The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, optionally soy-free, vegan, and vegetarian.
- 1 cup dairy-free buttery sticks (she uses Earth Balance) or shortening
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup plain dairy-free rice, soy or flax milk beverage
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 10-ounce bag dairy-free chocolate chips or chunks
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the buttery sticks and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the milk beverage, and cream well, then blend in the vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to your mixing bowl and stir to combine.
- Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Drop the dough by the tablespoon onto your prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake for about 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before removing the cookies to cooling racks.
More Nut-Free Vegan Cookies
Iced Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies (vegan, gluten-free & allergy-friendly)
Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (vegan, gluten-free & allergy-friendly)
Holiday Sandwich Cookies in 4 Varieties (vegan, gluten-free & allergy-friendly)
32 Comments
My seven years old dairy/egg allergic daughter love them, we use almond milk and the dough was smooth and manageable. Even not allergic friends love them. Thank you for the recipe. We can now bake Christmas cookies 🍪
That’s great. I’m so happy that all of you are enjoying the cookies and thank you for your feedback Daniela.
Excellent!!! These are the closest thing to my old standard egg/butter containing chocolate chip cookies that I’ve tried. I only wish I’d found this recipe sooner. Thank you!
Fabulous! Thank you for leaving feedback Erin.
Could I make this as one big cookie? Like a cookie cake?
I would say yes, but without testing it, I can’t say if it would set up well all the way through. I would lean on the side that it will work, but don’t want to make promises here 🙂
I’ve made these twice already and they are just amazing! My husband cannot tolerate dairy so I am always looking for sweet recipes because that’s his weakness! My kids also enjoyed them. Can’t even tell the difference between these and ones with full dairy! Delicious!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing your feedback on this recipe Danielle!
Do you think we could substitute all purpose gluten free flour?
I haven’t tested this particular recipe gluten-free, so I don’t want to make guarantees, but it could work well!
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Can I not use milk for this recipe? Could I use water instead?
You can use any milk beverage – she was just keeping them nut-free. Water should also work in a pinch, but I would add it slowly – you might need less.
Are these cookies suppose to flatten out and look like the ones in the picture? Mine didn’t do that.
Hi Kristen, yes, they typically do. But there can be other factors at play – altitude, dryness, etc – that may make the cookies puffier. You can flatten them ahead of time or splash in just a touch more milk beverage for a softer dough.
I have always been a very good baker, but now I am learning how to vegan bake. In this recipe, what replaces the “egg” in a normal cookie recipe?
Hi Ali, sometimes recipes are made vegan, but don’t really have a “replacer”. In this case, milk beverage is the liquid in place of the egg, as additional binding isn’t needed. But just milk beverage won’t usually work as a straight egg replacer.
Yum yum yum! Just made these using almond milk as the liquid. Even my non-veg husband likes them! I halved the recipe, used a small cookie scoop, and baked them for 7 minutes. Made 32 cookies for me.
That’s awesome! Thanks for your feedback and notes Ali!
Could we use almond milk for these?
Yes, if you don’t need nut-free, you can definitely use almond milk!
Now I want chocolate chip cookies and milk! (dairy free of course!) those look so good!
Chocolate chip cookies are such a staple recipe, and these looks delicious!
These look so gooey and soft! We are so lucky to have safe chocolate chips now and oh the possibilities.
Oh wish I had some fresh warm chocolate chip cookies right now, these look so good! Chocolate chip cookies are always in style and you always need a few good recipes in case you need to tweak.
Those cookies look picture perfect, I can’t believe they’re vegan! Wow!
Is there anything better than a homemade chocolate chip cookies? A vegan one. Love it Alisa!
Haha, so true Kelly!
I’ve had these completely flop! I’ve only successfully made them into bars. I would have never thought to add milk (usually my dough is already too wet). Going to have to try this–these look perfect!
These use less sugar, which helps, and using the sticks or shortening (rather than buttery spread) really helps! My version is actually quite a bit different from this if you want to try them – they are loved by all – vegan or not!
Chocolate chip is my favorite! It’s amazing how many ways we can reinvent them! These look fantastic!
Delicious! We all need a great stand-by classic chocolate chip cookie recipe!