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
Louise
I made these at the weekend as I had so much leftover Easter chocolate, and no butter in the house. These were amazzzing!! And i will definitely be making them again!
Added a bit of cocoa powder to make them extra chocolatey. Everyone has said how good they were! Such an easy recipe to follow
Price
Homemade chocolate chip cookies are my favorite things on earth. However, for a YEAR and a HALF after marrying my husband, I haven't made a good batch...they always turn out too thin and awkaward. UNTIL THESE!
I only make 4-6 cookies, but then I freeze the rest of the dough balls to pop in the oven for guests. Perfect every time. Thank you for curing my cookie curse.
Julie Ann Price
P.s. my weird cookie thing is that I love making chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. People think they are just sugar cookies. But they are not the same!!! They have brown sugar which makes them wonderful & I love them.
Jessie
Oh, yay!! I'm so happy you liked the recipe! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out (and I love freezing the dough so it's on-demand! Great idea!)
Taisa
I made these tonight and added dark chocolate chunks, macadamia nuts, and unsweetened shredded coconut. My family loved them!
Jessie
Wahoo! I'm so glad! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Charlotte
These cookies are FABULOUS. It was a snowy day and I wanted to bake. Not having butter I Googled "butterless cookies" and this recipe popped up. I didn't know what to expect, except I was happy there was a recipe that didn't require butter, and the taste, TBD. These are the most beautifully done cookies I have ever made.The color was great, the chewiness was incredible, and they tasted like chocolate coconut. WOW. I even gave them to my coworkers who all loved them. I will definitely make this again! I may even try to sub out egg for a vegan substitute. Thanks for posting!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them (and wahoo for baking on snowy winter days!) Thank you for letting me know how they turned out!
Ruby
Accidentally used 3/4 cup of flour - these cookies looked like toffee and tasted like beef
Jessie
Oh no! Definitely give it a try with the correct amount of flour and let me know how it goes!
Rida Zaidi
can we use vegetable oil?
Jessie
I haven't tested this recipe with vegetable oil but you can certainly give it a go! It won't have the same mild coconut-y flavor, but consistency-wise it should yield similar results. Just keep an eye on the dough in case you need to make any other adjustments. Hope that helps!
Megan
I absolutely love this recipe!! I've made it probably like 10 times now! It also tastes amazing with 'special'? coconut oil. Thanks for sharing!!!
Also as a side note make sure oil is just melted and not to warm as it melts the chocolate chips and in turn gives you a can cookie lol
Katee whitesides
Made these tonight and used m and m's and gluten free flour and added a handful of shredded coconut so yummy
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
Priti
Followed your recipe thru except that I ran out of flour so I added whole wheat flour. It baked faster than I had expected and came out overcooked. Taste was still great
Jessie
Thanks for letting me know how they turned out! I have never tried this recipe with whole wheat flour but I'm so happy you liked them!
Kaitlin Harding
These are fantastic! My mum and brother have eaten almost half the batch and I've only made them two hours ago! Will be making again - and using your recipes. This was SO easy.
Do you have any idea of nutritional information?
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them - thanks for letting me know how they turned out! I don't have nutritional information for these cookies at this time, but a quick Google search will bring up several sites and services that can help you calculate that if you're interested!
Elizabeth Oppermann
I want to try these cookies because I'm tired of waiting for the butter to soften!!! Don't have time with kids. And I don't have an electric mixer so anything that is easier to mix than hard butter, hooray! I'll let you know how they turn out. I am also going to try using whole wheat flour!!
Jessie
Hooray! I hope you love them!
Karen
Made these today . Yum ! I was out of brown sugar so I just used the organic sugar I had , it's already kind of brown . When I was spooning these out they seemed way to greasy from the coconut oil but they turned out beautifully ! I will make them again .
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them, Karen! Thanks for letting me know how it went!
Jill
The dough for these cookies was sticky and brown. I added a bit more flour and sugar then made a tester cookie. They were delicious!! I dont know if anyone else has had this problem but, they turned out fine.
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them! Thanks for letting me how they turned out - when it's this hot and humid out (at least where we live!) I find that dough can get a little stickier, but it sounds like you made the perfect adjustment!
Anna
Made these today and they were amazing! I have a stash of coconut oil that I need to use up, so I was happy to find this recipe. The kids gobbled them up.
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them, Anna!! Thank you for letting me know how they turned out 🙂
Sarah O.
I just want you to know I feel you about cookies out of the oven. I like a cookie to have some chew to it, and warm cookies are just too soft! They are like puddles of goo and totally unsatisfying. I've made these before and they definitely needed to cool down, but then they were friggin amazing. Yours look even better!
Jessie
Thanks, Sarah! I'm so happy to hear there's someone else out there who hates straight-from-the-oven cookies!!
Bethany @ athletic avocado
Im DROOLING over these perfect chocolate chip cookies and I haven't even had breakfast yet!
Jessie
Thank you so much, Bethany! 🙂