Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan)

Olive oil chocolate chip cookies - these delicious vegan cookies use olive oil instead of a butter substitute and are totally egg-free. They are crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle and utterly addictive!

My vegan chocolate chip cookies are one of the most popular recipes on my site, and for good reason, they are super easy to make and the cookies are delicious!

They do use a vegan butter substitute however, which not everyone has access to, and if you use one that doesn't have a high enough fat percentage then they won't work as well.

For this reason, I wanted to create an oil based vegan cookie recipe for those of you who can't get hold of or don't want to use a vegan butter.

These vegan olive oil chocolate chip cookies are my perfect cookie - crisp around the edges, chewy in the middle, full of flavour and loaded with dark chocolate chunks.

They are very easy to make, but the dough does require chilling overnight before it is baked, so do bear that in mind.

What Do I Need To Make Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies?:

Olive oil: Obviously. I prefer to use a mild flavoured olive oil. I find that you can taste the oil in the dough but once the cookies are baked it doesn't really come through. Of course if you want to be able to taste it you can use a stronger flavoured one, though I would avoid using extra virgin olive oil.

Plain flour and white bread flour: using part plain (all-purpose) flour and part bread flour helps to give the cookies a nice chewy texture, this is due to the extra protein in the bread flour. If you don't have any then you can just use all plain flour instead.

Cornflour (cornstarch): A bit of cornflour helps to give the cookies a nice texture. You can swap it for more plain flour if you don't have any, but if you do have some in the cupboard then I recommend adding it.

Non-dairy milk: Non-dairy milk replaces the moisture that would usually come from egg. You can use any kind you like as long as it is unsweetened (except coconut milk), but I recommend using soy milk if possible. It has the highest protein content so is the closest swap for egg.

Light brown soft and caster sugar: The best cookies use a mixture of white and brown sugar. I recommend using the exact amounts given in the recipe; sugar is very important for the structure of cookies and reducing it or changing the ratios of white to brown can drastically affect the outcome. You can however swap the caster sugar for granulated, and the light brown for dark brown.

Chopped chocolate: you can use chocolate chips if you really want to but I strongly recommend using chopped chocolate for the best cookies. Dark or milk is up to you but I always plump for dark, cookies are quite sweet enough already.

Salt: Salt is important in cookies, it tones down the sweetness a bit and helps to bring out the flavour. Particularly as we are using oil rather than butter (which generally contains salt) you definitely need to add some.

Vanilla: Cookies without vanilla are bland af; don't skip it.

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda: The cookies need a bit of raising agent so that they puff up, this doesn't make them cakey at all.

Can I Use Another Type Of Oil?:

Yes, any neutral oil will work in place of the olive oil, such as sunflower, vegetable, rapeseed etc.

I haven't tested them with coconut oil however.

How To Make Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies:

(For ingredients and full instructions see the recipe card below)

Whisk together the olive oil, light brown soft sugar, caster sugar, milk and vanilla extract until they are well combined.

In a separate bowl, sift together the plain flour, bread flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt then stir through the chopped chocolate.

Mixing the chocolate into the dry ingredients rather than adding it to the dough at the end means that you are less likely to overmix the dough. Overmixed dough can result in tough cookies.

Tip the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until no dry patches remain. The dough will be a bit soft at this point but will firm up as it chills.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill overnight. The dough will keep in the fridge for up to two days.

The following day, use a cookie scoop to scoop out balls of cookie dough - I do a heaped tablespoon per cookie. Or you can just roll it into balls with your hands.

Place the balls of dough well spaced apart on a couple of baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes until they are golden around the edges.

When you remove the trays from the oven, bash them on the countertop a couple of times; this will flatten out the cookies and give them the classic cookie appearance.

This step is totally optional if you prefer your cookies to be a bit more puffy.

Let the cookies cool on the tray for ten minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Do I Have To Chill The Dough?:

Unfortunately yes. Chilling the dough is absolutely necessary. It allows the flour to hydrate, the flavours to develop and the dough to firm up so that you can scoop it.

If you bake the dough right away without chilling it first you will struggle to scoop the dough and end up with weird looking cookies that aren't as flavourful. Trust me, I tried it.

If you want cookies RIGHT NOW, then my standard vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe does not require chilling.

Can I Freeze These Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies?:

I recommend freezing the dough rather than the baked cookies.

Once the dough has had it's overnight chill in the fridge, portion it out as if to bake the cookies. Place the cookie scoops on a lined baking sheet then freeze until they are solid before transferring them to a container or freezer bag.

The cookies can be baked right from the freezer, no need to defrost the dough first, they just may need an extra minute in the oven.

This way you can have freshly baked cookies in around 15 minutes whenever you get the craving!

Top Tips:

For the best results make sure that you follow the recipe closely. As always, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients using the gram measurements (with a digital scale), rather than the cup conversions. Cup measurements are simply not accurate enough for baking and I cannot guarantee the best results if you use them. A gram is always a gram, but a cup won’t always measure out the same amount.

Cookies may seem like a simple thing to bake but they can actually be quite tempermental and any seemingly minor changes to the recipe or exact ingredients used can have a drastic effect. For this reason you should make the recipe exactly as written.

The dough may feel a bit oily, this is normal and the baked cookies aren't greasy at all.

For the best looking cookies, save a few of the chocolate chunks to press into the tops of the balls of cookie dough before you bake them.

Bake the cookies on a metal baking sheet, not in a glass dish or on a silicone sheet. These do not conduct heat in the same way as metal does so the cookies won't turn out as well.

These vegan olive oil chocolate chip cookies are best eaten on the day they are baked but they will keep in an airtight container for up to three days. They will become a little softer over time.

More Vegan Cookie Recipes:

Classic vegan chocolate chip cookies

Vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Vegan oatmeal raisin cookies

Vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Vegan gingerbread cookies

Vegan maple cookies

Chocolate raspberry skillet cookie for two

Chocolate chip cookies for one

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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