This quick and easy butterless chocolate chip cookie recipe uses coconut oil instead of butter for a soft, chewy cookie.
Full disclosure: I am WEIRD about chocolate chip cookies. I don't know what it is, really. I'm just PICKY. And I'm picky, but, like, in the WRONG ways?
Example: I DO NOT like chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. Sometimes you get burned by a still-really-hot chocolate chip, which UGH. Give me room temperature cookies all day every day.
I also refuse to dip cookies in milk - milk makes cookies soggy and I just don't get the appeal, I guess.
SO. Just give me a soft, fluffy, room temperature chocolate chip cookie with no milk, please. This is the way to my strange, anti-all-the-regular-chocolate-chip-cookie-things heart.
These butterless chocolate chip cookies are actually kind of wonderful, though. Made from scratch? Check. Without butter? Check. Soft and chewy? Check annnnnnd check.
(And you are totally allowed to eat them hot from the oven and dip them in milk if those things make your heart happy. We accept all kinds of cookie monsters here at Life As A Strawberry HQ!)
Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Butter!
These cookies have NO butter! There's just a bit of smooth, melted coconut oil for body and flavor.
(Note: Coconut oil at room temperature is usually solid, but just spoon it into a glass measuring cup and zap it in the microwave to melt it down for this recipe):
I've been having a lot of fun baking with coconut oil lately, and it's a great alternative if you prefer to avoid butter/dairy in recipes (or have a craving for chocolate chip cookies but no butter in the house!)
You can taste a bit of coconut flavor in these chocolate chip cookies, but it's definitely not overpowering. The coconut oil also lends a very slight crispness to the outside of these butterless cookies - but the insides are soft and chewy just like a perfect chocolate chip cookie should be!
PS - You can also use coconut oil instead of butter for our small batch chocolate chip cookies!
How do you like YOUR chocolate chip cookies? Let me know in the comments!
Video: How to make butterless chocolate chip cookies
📖 Recipe
Butterless Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Oil
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Makes 25-30 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Description
Easy, chewy chocolate chip cookies with no butter.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup liquid form coconut oil (180 grams) (see recipe notes)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8 grams)
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup white sugar (150 grams)
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar (160 grams)
- 2 ½ cups flour measured correctly by scooping and leveling (330 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt (4 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 grams)
- 1 heaping cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine liquid coconut oil, vanilla, eggs, sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk to combine.
- Add flour, kosher salt, and baking soda to bowl and stir until ingredients are incorporated and you have a smooth dough.
- Fold chocolate chips into dough until they are evenly distributed.
- Line a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or a sheet of parchment paper.
- Use a large cookie scoop (I like this 3-Tablespoon one) to scoop dough, and place dough scoops 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake cookies at 375 degrees F for 9-12 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to let cool.
- Serve cookies immediately or let them cool completely and then store in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week.
Notes
How to melt coconut oil into its liquid form: Coconut oil is generally solid at room temperature, but we want to melt it into a liquid form for this recipe in order to incorporate it more easily into our chocolate cupcake batter. (We’ve used virgin unrefined coconut oils from 365/Whole Foods, Nutiva, and Carrington Farms and like them all). To melt coconut oil, scoop about 1 cup of coconut oil (in its solid, room-temperature form) into a microwave-safe glass measuring cup, and then microwave for 30-40 seconds until it’s melted down. Give the coconut oil a stir and then check the measurement – you may need to add another spoonful of room temperature coconut oil to bring the liquid up to the correct amount. Melt too much oil? Pour any excess right back into the container.
Work quickly when you bake these cookies – as the coconut oil starts to come back to room temperature, the dough will stiffen and be a little more crumbly and harder to work with, so plan to bake these in just one or two batches as opposed to storing the dough in the fridge for later!
If you use a larger or smaller scoop to form the cookie dough, you may need to adjust your bake time – just keep an eye on the cookies as they bake and pull them out when they’re very lightly browned!
Adjustments and Substitutions. Feel free to use more chocolate chips than called for, or to add nuts or white chocolate chips. Add a sprinkle of flakey sea salt on top if you like! You can also swap the chocolate chips for chopped baking chocolate (we like dark or semi-sweet) for chocolate chunks.
These chocolate chip cookies are relatively soft and slightly dense. If you like a thinner, crispier cookie, you can reduce the amount of flour in this recipe by ¼ cup. For an ultra-thick, especially dense cookie, you can increase the flour by up to ¼ cup.
Homemade cookies can dry out after a few days - to keep them soft, store them in an airtight container on the counter along with a small slice of bread (they’ll absorb moisture from the bread and stay softer!) or pop a cookie in the microwave for a few seconds to warm. These cookies also freeze well once cooked!
For more butter-free recipes, check out our Coconut Oil Chocolate Cupcakes or Salted Olive Oil Dark Chocolate Cookies!
Adapted from Nestlé Toll House.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cookies
- Calories: 201
- Sugar: 17 g
- Sodium: 95.2 mg
- Fat: 9.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.3 g
- Protein: 2.4 g
- Cholesterol: 14.9 mg
Leeann Daniels
Great recipe. Thank you!
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Glad you loved it!
K D
Wow! I have a big jar of unrefined coconut oil that I needed to use up so I searched for a cookie recipe and I am so pleased this one came up. I also used this recipe as a base dough without the chocolate chips and added lime zest and unsweetened shredded coconut.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you found a way to use that coconut oil - and great additions! If you need another great recipe to use up some coconut oil, try the Chocolate Cupcakes - one of our all-time favorite posts.
J
9 minutes resulted in a melted sheet of sugar flour. 7 minutes results in not cooked.. wasted ingredients
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
7 minutes is not enough time, but a sheet of sugar flour says there was a definite problem - probably with the measurements or ingredients. We had someone measure their flour with the wrong size measuring cups one time - resulting in flat runny cookies. Not being in the kitchen with you, I'm not sure what went wrong, but this recipe has been tested and made by readers A LOT and it does work. I'd confirm you have the right ingredients and measurements. Email us directly, and include photos, if you'd like to figure out what the problem was.
Heather
Excellent. Made for my daughter who is dairy and gluten free. Just subbed gluten free flour mix for the wheat flour. Delicious!
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you loved the recipe and it worked for your daughter!
LD
These cookies are some of the best I’ve ever made! I have a tried and true recipe I always use, but I was out of butter so I looked up a chocolate chip cookie recipe with coconut oil and this came up. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad we had this recipe online for you - there's nothing worse than wanting a cookie and not having the ingredients.
Love to bake
I added coffee extract instead of vanilla. WOWWWW THEY CAME OUT AMAZING
Very soft rich coffee chocolate cookie
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Great way to make this your own - glad you loved them!
Georgina
Super easy and a wonderful tasting cookie. I am Australian and since cup measurements can vary I used the measurements in grams. I made 15 large cookies using a small ice-cream scoop. The cookies spread beautifully. Fabulous recipe that is definitely a keeper. Thank you so much.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad the grams were handy for you and that you loved these as much as us!
Mallory
Literally the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made and I’ve made quite a few recipes. I didn’t have any butter which is why I went with this one and now it will be one of my go to recipes.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you loved it as much as we do!
Emily R
I typically never leave a comment but this was AMAZING. Put a tad extra vanilla bean and salt and it was BANGER!!! Measured recipie using a scale, it will improve your baking so much. After the cookies came out we put some extra chocolate chips on top to let it melt and that was a cherry on top.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Love the extra, melty chocolate chips! Glad you love it as much as we do.
Elle
These are excellent. I found the dough to be difficult to work with and ended up putting half of it in the fridge for 20-25 minutes. It both made scooping easier and also helped the cookies maintain their shape. The unrefrigerated cookies spread and were flat. The refrigerated cookies were plump. Both were excellent.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Yes, refrigerating the dough was a great idea! Chilling it — or even letting it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature - helps re-solidify the coconut oil, allowing the cookies to hold their shape a bit more when baking. If the dough becomes too firm to scoop, shape the cookies first, then chill before baking. So glad you loved them!
Fish
Yall, just eant to warn you, these are not very good cookies. They didn't flatten, or turn cookie shape. I tried adding some milk to the second patch and they flattened a little, but took shape of mini scones rather than the full ball shape they were before adding liquid. They're pretty dry
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Without being in the kitchen with you to know what went wrong, it sounds like you measured your flour by volume (using a measuring cup) instead of by weight (using a scale) and had too much flour. It is SUPER easy to be heavy on the flour when using measuring cups. Since most people add too much flour to a cup, we recommend using a kitchen scale. Also, make sure you measure and melt the coconut oil correctly (see the recipe notes) to help ensure all dry ingredients mix completely with the oil.
Beth
These were EXCELLENT !!! I made them with gluten-free flour and everybody raved on them.
I added nuts to some of them and we loved those !
I made large ones and I made smaller ones. Both turned out great.
Obviously, less time to cook on the smaller ones.
And they were just as described, slight crunchy on the outside and chewy inside.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you loved them and way to have fun with the sizes and nuts!
Dereshnie Rohanne Marrian
Used honey instead of the sugar and it came out really delicious, definitely one for my books.
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Trading honey for sugar is one of our favorite substitutions! Glad you love this recipe!
Chrysanthemum
These are very pretty and extremely sweet. They are very classic and will definitely please guests! In my quest for the *perfect* cookie, I find these need a little more depth of flavor to offset the lack of butter— not being able to let them sit in the fridge means a little less developed taste. If I do them again I will add a splash of whiskey or molasses and use dark brown sugar.
I did not melt my coconut oil and instead baked at 400F and that worked!!
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad these worked out for you. We love when people make a recipe their own!
Liz
Ma'am, these had no right to be so good!!! 100/10!!
Thank you so much!
I've never commented on a post before but these deserved it!
One little change cuz I didn't have vanilla but I did have almond extract and that was so good too!
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
Thank you - so glad you loved them! Great idea to sub the almond extract for the vanilla.