Chocolate Chip Cookies are truly the most quintessential satisfying cookie that just saying the name makes you smile, and these perfectly soft, ultra-thick, amazingly delicious Healthy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies are all that and more! Warm gooey melty chocolate chips are nestled inside a soft, chewy cookie that is sure to knock your socks off. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Hi! Robin here!
If there is one thing I am known for, it’s cookies! I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing! LOL I totally know how to make amazingly delicious chocolate chip cookies! I’ve been baking and selling cookies for more than 35 years!
I stopped baking and selling non-WFPB cookies when I went Whole Food Plant Based. That was when I saw the “light” or rather, I walked into the light of healthy eating and away from all that unhealthy cookie baking.
However, let me just say the art of cookie baking has not left me, it just morphed into creating Whole Food Plant Based cookies. I have tons of Whole Food Plant Based cookie recipes all lined up to go out over the 16 months. I am trying to space them out as we all know that cookies are considered a “sometimes” treat, so I don’t want to flood our blog with cookie recipes – although the temptation to do exactly that is there! LOL
Fabulous Flours
The additional challenge is also making our cookies gluten free as well as WFPB. The beauty of being gluten free is that our lifestyle (WFPB) is many times naturally gluten free. Our WFPB diet does not permit processed white flour; however, you may find it interesting to know that even some whole wheat flours contain processed white flour mixed in.
This recipe contains a mix of beautiful healthy flours, almond flour and brown rice flour, as well as oats. I absolutely love the combination of almond flour and brown rice flour. They perfectly complement each other for baking, then mixing in some chopped oats really creates this great flavor and texture foundation of an awesome chocolate chip cookie.
Fresh from the oven Cookie Heaven
Seriously, I don’t think there is anything quite as delicious as a freshly baked warm chocolate chip cookie! Believe it or not, these cookies are just as delicious as my old non-WFPB chocolate chip cookies. I seriously surprised myself. I just wasn’t expecting them to be as good. Boy o boy, they are all that and then some.
Into the freezer you go my lovelies
Another bonus about these cookies is they freeze really well, and when you thaw them out, they taste just as amazing as they did the day we baked them. So, if you are looking for a great make-ahead cookie as a treat or for company, this is the cookie to make and keep in the freezer. Plus, freezing is perfect for portion control.
A little something, something – when Monkey and I took a couple of cookies out the freezer to thaw, we allowed them to come to room temperature, then we just ever so slightly heated them up so the chocolate got all melty – it was like they were freshly baked all over again! Sooooo gosh, darned delicious! I’ll let Monkey tell you more.
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Ameera here!
OooooOOo doggies! These cookies are sooo good! Just a side note, we say “oooOoooO doggies!” a lot because Charlotte (my niece) always chastises us for saying “ooOooOo doggies;” therefore, we must say it a lot! LOL For some reason she has it in her beautiful little head that we shouldn’t say that. Too funny being comically chastised by a 2-year old, wagging her tiny little finger at us! LOL
There isn’t a lot I can say about these cookies except to tell you they are ooey gooey chocolately freshed baked cookie heaven – nuff said! If you love chocolate chip cookies, then this recipe is a must try!
If you try this recipe, we would love to know if you love it as much as we do, leave us a review!
Also, check us out on Facebook or Instagram!
Products Used:
- Food Processor
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper (or silicone baking mat)
- Wire cooling rack (optional)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 17-20 Cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
Chocolate Chip Cookies are truly the most quintessential satisfying cookie that just saying the name makes you smile, and these perfectly soft, ultra-thick, amazingly delicious Healthy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies are all that and more! Warm gooey melty chocolate chips are nestled inside a soft, chewy cookie that is sure to knock your socks off. Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups almond flour, lightly packed *
- ½ cup rolled oats, chopped (not instant oats)
- ¼ cup brown rice flour *
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 Tablespoon flax meal (ground flaxseed)
- 4 Medjool dates *
- ½ cup maple sugar *
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup unsweetened almond butter, softened *
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Tablespoon molasses
- ½ teaspoon sea salt *
- 1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place oven rack in the upper-center position if using 1 cookie sheet, or place the oven racks towards the middle if using 2 cookie sheets, avoiding the lower oven rack placement.
- Line one (or two) baking sheets with a silicone mat or parchment paper. We used silicone pads.
- Place the oats in a food processor and process just to break up the oats, about 20 seconds. Then add to a medium sized bowl. Add all the other dry ingredients (almond flour, rice flour, sea salt, baking soda, baking powder, flax meal, maple sugar) to the bowl with the oats, and whisk to combine.
- Place the Medjool dates, softened almond butter, molasses, and vanilla into the food processor and process until everything is combined. Then add it to the dry ingredients, use your hands to evenly distribute the wet mixture throughout the dry mixture. It will look like sawdust, that is OK.
- Add the applesauce to the dry ingredients, stir well to combine. You will feel like it won’t come together, but it will, just keep mixing the dough, then the dough should be a sticky lump.
- Add the chocolate chips (see notes if using Mega Chunks), stir to mix in.
- Take a golf balled-sized piece of cookie dough and roll it in your hands to form a ball, then place the ball onto the parchment paper/silicone mat lined cookie sheet. Try to keep the cookie size uniform. Continue until you have rolled all the dough into balls, and placed the dough balls on the baking sheet(s). See notes about cookie dough tips.
- After the 2nd round of cookie ball rolling, then slightly flattened each ball to form a thick disk. Firm up the edges (if needed) to keep a cohesive well-formed disk. The cookies only spread a little bit while baking.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets from bottom to top racks and vice-versa half-way through if using two cookie sheets. If using one large (14 x 20) cookie sheet, just use the center rack and there is no need to move the cookies around the oven.
- After 12 minutes, remove from the oven, allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet(s) undisturbed for 4 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Enjoy warm, soooo delicious!
Notes
*Medjool dates and Maple Sugar: We get tons of questions about sweetener substitutions. We totally get it. Some folks want to use all Medjool dates, while others want to use all maple syrup. We’ve tried these cookies using all Medjool dates, they turned out gummy. We also tried using all maple syrup, they just didn’t hold up. Honestly, the best sweetener for this cookie recipe is the combination of Medjool dates and maple sugar. Additionally, using date sugar is not recommended either as it just doesn’t have the same flavor and texture needed for this recipe. ***We also get a lot of questions about using coconut sugar, if your diet permits, you can substitute coconut sugar for the maple sugar. However, we have not tested with coconut sugar; many of our readers have let us know that coconut sugar works well as a substitute for maple sugar.
*Mega Chocolate Chunks: We love the Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mega Chocolate Chunks, the issue we have with them is that they can be challenging when making chocolate chip cookies simply because the mega chunks are not uniform in size. They have some really long pieces, so we lay out the one cup measurement of mega chunks out on our chopping board and chop in half the really big ones to make it easier to roll the cookies.
*Cookie Dough Tips for Success: The cookie dough is sticky, but it should form a ball easily. Tip: The more round and smooth you make the cookie ball, the better cookie texture results. What we have found works well and creates a great cookie is the following: We create all the cookie balls, washing our hands between every 5 to 6 balls until we have created all the cookie balls. Then we wash our hands again and with slightly dampened hands, pick up each cookie ball and roll it again in our hands to create a very smooth round ball. The 2ndround of rolling is not required, but it does make a really nice cookie shape. Then slightly flatten each ball to form a thick disk, understanding that the shape that you just formed will be very close to the cookie size and shape that comes out of the oven.
*Almond Flour/Brown Rice Flour: We designed these cookies specifically to use almond flour and brown rice flour. We do not have any substitutions to offer.
*Almond Butter: Bring the almond butter to room temperature to soften. Do not melt in the microwave. Additionally, we do not have any substitutions for the almond butter as this recipe was specifically designed to use almond butter.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes approximately 17 to 20 cookies.
*Storage: Use within 5 days. Freezes well.
This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a very small commission if you purchase through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! For more information, see our disclosures here.
There’s nothing better than the classic chocolate chip cookie! Yours look so delicious and gooey. Can’t wait to try 🙂
Hi there Elizabeth 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind words about our cookies. We truly appreciate you stopping by and leaving a comment. Thank you so much! <3
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made these tonight and they were great. The whole family loved them.
Hi there Ashlie 🙂
Yaaayy! So excited that your enjoyed these cookies. They are definitely one of our new favorites and we got a batch in the freezer for those special occasions. Soooo glad the whole family enjoyed them and we truly appreciate you taking the time to write such wonderful feedback!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I cannot find brown rice flour where I live. Aside from using Amazon, can I substitute another flour?
Hi there Lisa 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. This recipe was developed specifically for brown rice flour, and unfortunately, we didn’t test another type of flour. You could try gluten free flour or regular flour if you aren’t gluten free, but honestly, we don’t know how well it would work. You’d need to test it. Wishing you all the best and happy cooking/baking <3
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
If u have a vitamix or blendtec u can make ur own brown rice flour
Hi there Teresa 🙂
Great tip, thank you so much!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Thank you Teresa!
I made my own. I used brown rice and put it in the processor till it was broke down into flour.
I was short on a date so I used a fig. Seem to work out good.
Hi there Lauren 🙂
We are glad that you were able to make this recipe work with what you had on hand, and happy to hear it went well!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
We made these yesterday.
They were absolutely perfect. This is a wonderful recipe IMHO. So now three households in my extended family will be using your recipe. You rock !!!
Hi there Cathleen 🙂
Yaaayyy!!! We are so excited that you enjoyed these cookies. They are definitely our go-to cookie. We are so thrilled that your extended family will be using this recipe too! Thank you so much for your awesome feedback and kind words! We truly appreciate you and taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Did you use black strap molasses or regular molasses?
Hi there Jess 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. We used regular molasses.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Wow! No one would believe these are vegan and healthy! Thanks, once again for an amazing recipe!
Hi there Jill 🙂
Woo hoo!!! We are SO excited that you enjoyed these cookies. They are definitely a favorite in our home. Thank you so much for your awesome feedback and support! We appreciate you taking the time to write *hugs*
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
If I don’t have molasses can I skip it or add something else?
Hi there Natasha 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out. We haven’t tried leaving out the molasses. We think that you could substitute the molasses with maple syrup as we believe that the moisture is needed in these cookies.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made these yesterday and they are fabulous!
I made them without molasses. I don’t have that. I added a couple of extra spoonfuls of the unsweetened applesauce.
I used coconut sugar with some vegan organic cane sugar because that is all I had. Again … they turned out great.
I froze 1/2 of the dough in balls for ready to bake cookies. The cooked ones are frozen too and they are delicious.
Thanks again for another great recipe
Hi there Cindy 🙂
WOO HOO! We are so thrilled that you gave these cookies a try and enjoyed them! We always have a batch in the freezer as these cookies are one of our absolute favorites. Thank you so much for sharing your adaptation, we appreciate it! Thank you so much for your support and wonderful feedback!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
These cookies are absolutely delicious, they seem to get better with time. They are very filling, I can’t eat more than two at a time, that is probably a good thing 🙂
thank you monkey and mom for another jackpot!
Hi there Annette 🙂
WOO HOO!!! We are so thrilled that you enjoyed these cookies. They are definitely a favorite in our home. We truly appreciate your wonderful feedback and taking time to write! Thank you!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Made these yesterday and the flavor is spot on! I live 8,500 above sea level in the Rocky Mountains. I’d be happy to be your high altitude tester! I’ve read high altitude baking tips to reduce baking soda and sugar, and increase liquid and oven temperature. My cookies didn’t set up well and spread out quite a bit in the oven. No worries, I’ll eat them anyway – they are delicious! Next time I’ll add walnuts. Thank you for the healthy recipe!
Hi there Amy 🙂
Woot!!! We are so thrilled that the cookie flavor was spot on for you! They are definitely a favorite in our home. Wow, yes, living in the Rocky Mountains has a large impact on baking. Unfortunately, we don’t have any high-altitude tips for baking. We are sorry they spread out quite a bit, but glad they were delicious anyways. Oooo, love the idea of adding walnuts – yum! We definitely need to try that next time too. Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
These came out so delicious! I hate spending lots of money on almond flour, so for the almond flour, I subbed in 3/4 cup oat flour and 1/2 cup coconut flour. I also subbed oat flour for the 1/4 cup brown rice flour. Since I’m diabetic, I used Swerve zero calorie sweetener instead of the maple sugar, and I ended up needing about a tablespoon more of applesauce. This worked great, they are soft and tasty.
Hi there Tom 🙂
Woo Hoo!!! We are so thrilled that you enjoyed these cookies. Thank you so much for sharing how you made this recipe your own. We appreciate the awesome feedback and thank you so much for taking the time to write!
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I usually don’t bake because I don’t like sweet. But decided to try these for my husband today. He loved them . I actually tasted them as well. Delicious
Hi there Jane 🙂
We are so thrilled you gave this recipe a try and you and your husband loved them. We always have a batch in our freezer as they are one of our absolute favorite cookies. We appreciate your wonderful feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I made these today using coconut sugar in place of maple sugar, because it’s what I had on hand. They taste amazing. My husband and kids loved them too! I will make these again. Soon, judging on how quickly they are disappearing.
Hi there Tara 🙂
Wooo hooo!!! We are so glad that you and your family enjoyed these cookies! Thank you so much for sharing your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
We loved these cookies! I had to make substitutions of coconut sugar for maple sugar and extra applesauce and a bit of maple syrup for the molasses. These turned out awesome so I don’t know if I want to stick with how I made them or buy maple sugar and molasses and make the original recipe. Thank you for your recipes, I have tried others but haven’t written a comment.
Hi there Lynn 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed these cookies as well as our other recipes. Thank you so much for sharing your adjustments with us. We appreciate your awesome feedback and for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Love at first bite! ? And I hadn’t even baked them yet!! Yeah, I knew they were going to be good when I tried the cookie dough. ?
Baking didn’t alter my opinion at all. ? Such a good cookie! I am definitely going to be making these again.
I will be freezing the rest of the cookie dough for the next time I have a cookie emergency. ?
Hi there Sandra 🙂
Awesome!!! We are super glad that you enjoyed these cookies. We always keep a batch in the freezer for when those cookie emergencies happen too 😉 Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us your wonderful feedback <3
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I’ve been making many different kinds of vegan cookies since transitioning to plant-based twenty months ago but have been feeling conflicted about the copious amounts of vegan butter and coconut oil that go into my recipes. I was searching for a plant-based chocolate chip cookie that wasn’t trying to be a Toll House replica. Something that was nourishing and delicious. These 100% fit the bill! I doubled this recipe to feed my family plus have some extra to freeze and they exceeded my expectations. I have a nut allergy, so I subbed sunbutter for the almond butter (I’m waiting to… Read more »
Hi there Denise 🙂
Yaaaay!!! We are so glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed this recipe and it hit the spot for healthy and delicious chocolate chip cookies. We appreciate you sharing your adjustments and wonderful feedback with us! Thank you so much for taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
I can’t get over how awesome these are! I’ve made them a few times now and they are just SO delicious! Only modification I make is I use whole wheat flour in place of the brown rice flour since it’s what I have. But wowzer. Great job you guys this is seriously some WFPB wizardry
Hi there Shannon 🙂
Woo hoo!!! We are so glad to hear that you have been enjoying this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing your adjustments and wonderful feedback with us! We truly appreciate your kind words and taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Can you please clarify whether it is Maple Sugar or Maple Syrup. Thanks!
Hi there Trudy,
Thank you for your question. This recipe uses Maple Sugar. It states the same in the recipe notes. You can substitute the maple sugar for coconut sugar if your diet permits.
-Ameera and Robin
Do you have any suggestions for chips that don’t have sugar?
Made these for a monthly friends supper. Two small children tooka bite of the not-vegan buttery white sugar cookies, then a bite of these -.handed the sugar cookies to their mom & said I WANT THESE!!!
Hi there DawnMarie,
WOOO HOOO!!! We are so happy that you made these cookies for your monthly friends support group. Loved that the children enjoyed them. Thank you so much for taking time to leave us an awesome review of this recipe.
-Ameera and Robin
I am an elderly woman, and I was wondering if it was OK to use a kitchenAid stand mixer to blend the dry and wet ingredients together? Any thoughts on this?
Hi there Elizabeth,
Thank you for your question. Sure, you can use a stand mixer. 🙂
-Ameera and Robin
I have a ton of deglet dates but no Medjool! Would deglet dates work, and if yes, about how many would you suggest using? I realize you probably didn’t test this, so an estimate is fine :-))
Hi there Annette,
Thank you for your question. As you know there are some differenced between the two dates. You can use Deglet dates, you will just have to attempt to compensate for the smaller size and less moisture content. If you are an experienced cook, then you can easily make the changes to arrive at a beautiful cookie. :). As you know, we did not test this ourselves so we would not know.
-Ameera and Robin