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
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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. Use half semi-sweet chocolate chips and half mint chocolate chips for a fun twist! 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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These cookies were AWESOME!
★★★★★
I have been using this recipe for about 6 months now. It is so quick and easy. I get perfect results every time. My son is lactose intolerant and was super excited the recipe tastes just as good as it looks! I do use refined coconut oil and add almond extract but have also made it verbatim with yummy results.
★★★★★
These are delicious and so easy! I halved the recipe for just me and my husband and I still filled a full baking sheet (about 17 cookies). I cut down on the sugar like the other comments, used chocolate chips and walnuts, and it turned out great. Baked about 10 mins and pressed them down a little when they were cooling. Definitely making these again!
★★★★★
Just made this recipe tonight to give to our Moms for Mother’s Day. Didn’t realize I had absolutely no butter left in the fridge so quickly googled, chocolate chip cookies without butter, and this was the first recipe! THEY ARE SO GOOD. recipe came out perfect and they seriously taste so so good. Even if I have butter I think I’ll bookmark this for the future 🙂 I only had no sugar added dark chocolate chips too and overall it worked. I did add a bit more salt in than calls, maybe just an extra two sprinkles of kosher salt.
I have a ton of macadamia nuts in my cupboard too so I’m thinking of using this recipe with white chiclet and adding in the nuts as that would be yummy with the coconut oil.
Question. Is it necessary to put chocolate chips?
amazing cookies! The best gooey texture, super sweet with a tinge of coconut that melts into chocolatey goodness as you eat. Definitely making these again.
★★★★★
Best cookie recipe I have every made. Make these like once a week now
★★★★★
Really good cookies! And quick to make.
★★★★★
The recipe is really good, just the amount of sugar is way too much, that surely makes them very unhealthy. I have made them with just a half a cup of coconut sugar and they were absolutely delicious.
These came out amazing! They were so soft and chewy. I added some almonds in the dough in addition to the chocolate chips and they were so good! Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
I Made it with coconut sugar, and they came out perfect! Absolutly Love it!!! Thank you!
★★★★★
I rarely come back to a recipe to comment. This is my first cookie recipe using coconut oil. I love cookies but haven’t found a chocolate chip cookie recipe I love. However, this is now my favorite! Soooo good. No issues with the batter. I like that these don’t spread and flatten out in the oven. I feel like my oven temperature is off but I baked each batch 10 minutes but felt the third pan could’ve come out a minute sooner but they were still great!
★★★★★
Hi Andrea, thank you SO much for the comment.
This recipe. I’ve made these cookies perhaps half a dozen times over the past couple of months. I just ate the last one from a batch made last weekend. They are a life saver – both to bake (precise, easy, make me feel competent) and to eat (not too sweet (i go a bit easy on the white sugar, with that lovely coconut flavour.
Please know that you and your recipe made a difference!
These came out perfect. Thank you!
★★★★★
Bongi, so happy you enjoyed it!
These cookies came out great but they were were too sweet. I would make again but with half the sugar. These cookies came out crispy on the bottom and soft in the middle. Thank you!
★★★★