This quick and easy butterless chocolate chip cookie recipe uses coconut oil instead of butter for a soft, chewy cookie.
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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!
How do you like YOUR chocolate chip cookies? Let me know in the comments!
VIDEO: HOW TO MAKE BUTTERLESS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
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
- 3/4 cup liquid form coconut oil (see recipe notes)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 and 1/2 cups flour (measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 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 1/4 cup. For an ultra-thick, especially dense cookie, you can increase the flour by up to 1/4 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.
Keywords: no butter, christmas, homemade
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I should have been wary when you said you were weird with chocolate chip cookies. We didn’t like these. The flavor was fine, but how can you mess up sugar and flour? These things were flat and gross looking. Never again.
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We’re sorry to hear these didn’t work for you, Mindy!
I added an extra egg and they turned out perfectly! I had to adjust the time a little though, 12 minutes was not enough. My family loved them!
★★★★★
I forgot to say that I also used olive oil instead of coconut. Thank you!!! 🙂
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We’re so happy everyone loved them!
I love these. I only had milk choc. chips and added a few pecans. I undercooked the first tray a bit…used centre rack…may have been the problem. Thank you
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Thanks, Cindy! We love the addition of pecans!
Best chocolate chip cookies I’ve made to date. My boyfriend loved them and I ate majority of them, so good. Best recipe hands down.
★★★★★
Thank you SO much, Piper!
just made these cookies and they are amazing!!! the perfect cookie
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Thank you so much, Sophie! They’re definitely one of our favorites!
Got a cookie cake instead of cookies…..
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Hi Brenna, we’re so sorry to hear these didn’t turn out for you! We haven’t run into this problem before, but we’d love to help you troubleshoot! It could be that the cookies were simply too close together on the sheet and ended up running into each other while they baked. Or, if there was enough space but they got extra thin and melty, our first guess would be that too little flour was used. We recommend weighing flour or using the scoop and level method to get the most accurate flour measurement!
I made them correctly, but fro some strange reason, they totally flattened and “melted” in the oven. I think it was due to the coconut oil but I followed the recipe exactly.
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Hi Kate, We’re so sorry to hear these didn’t turn out for you! We haven’t run into this problem before, but we’d love to help you troubleshoot. If you followed the rest of the recipe to a T and didn’t make any substitutions, our first guess would for a “melted” cookie culprit would be that too little flour was used. Flour is notoriously difficult to measure by volume, so we recommend measuring by weight or using the scooping and leveling method for best results. A quick way to double-check that you have the right amount of flour is by looking at the texture of the cookies when you scoop them – did the dough hold together and look like it does in the photos, or was it already liquidy/puddly?
Love the recipe. I split my dough in half and put cranberry in half and chocolate chips in the other. Didn’t miss the butter.
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We’re so happy you liked it, Kay! Love the addition of cranberries!
it tastes like cheap bread dipped in expired motor oil
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That was not very nice to say. As they say, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all’ or at least have constructive criticism.
★★★★★
I used monk fruit sugar and they were delicious. Came out thick and fluffy. Great recipe.
★★★★★
Not to be dramatic but I think that these cookies just changed my life for the better. I used Trader Joe’s tiny chocolate peanut cups as a substitute and they cooked beautifully… I was also without brown sugar, so I used coconut sugar as a substitute as well and they cooked through beautifully, nice and soft in the middle 🙂 Thank you for this; a new favorite!
★★★★★
This is our go to recipe ever time! We don’t miss the butter at all.
★★★★★
I followed the recipe exactly as it was written, and baked 12 minutes. Mine turned out a bit dark and not baked properly.. I’m letting them sit for 10 or 15 minutes due to them falling apart when I try to lift one. The dough tastes good though.. Hoping the first batch turns out ❤
So delicious, loved every bite!!
★★★★★
I was hesitant after I took a small taste of the dough, but the cookies turned out fantastic!
★★★★★
Beautiful biscuits, my youngest daughter made them (14 y.o), I’ve copied the recipe to definitely use again. As noted, I might try a bit less sugar next time, but what a great find, I love Coconut flavoured foods, and having a number of friends and family who require dairy free, this is awesome. Thank you! 💕
★★★★★