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
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 (see recipe notes)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 ½ cups flour (measured correctly by scooping and leveling)
- ¾ 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 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
Keywords: no butter, christmas, homemade
Simone
Thank you SO much for developing a coconut oil chocolate chip cookie recipe that doesn’t need to rest! When we decide we want cookies, we don’t want them the next day. Haha.
I used King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour and mini chocolate chips and these are wonderful! My cookie scoop is smaller, 1.5-2 Tbs; 9 min was perfect.
★★★★★
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
We are so glad you liked them! Happy baking!
Shelby
This is now the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I make in my house. My husband and kids agree, it's better than any butter recipes I've ever tried!
★★★★★
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you and your family love it!
Kyra
Could I use liquid coconut oil instead for this recipe?
Team Life As A Strawberry
Yes! We recommend using liquid coconut oil for this recipe. 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 cookie dough.
Shana
I have a question. Can I replace gluten-free flour (1:1) I am not allowed to eat gluten. I get hospital sick.
Thank you.
Team Life As A Strawberry
This recipe hasn’t been tested with gluten-free flour, and straight substitutions of gluten-free flour do tend to affect the texture and outcome of baked goods quite a bit, so we don’t recommend swapping the flour here for a gluten-free blend (although we’re working hard on a gluten-free version, so stay tuned!)
Lily
This recipe is very nice with pumpkin spice, especially in cake form they’ll make your tastebuds have a dance party in your mouth, sincerely 🍪 cookierlover
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy to hear you loved the cookies!
Erin
Super good! I made these cookies using whole wheat flour so i had to add a splash of almond milk at the end to give it a little more moisture. Also added a couple teaspoons on vanilla... mmm!!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy you enjoyed them!
Kate
I made these because I didn’t have any butter at the moment and it was the easiest recipe I’ve ever tried for chocolate chip cookies and the cookies are really particularly good. This is my new go to recipe for cookies!!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YAY! We're so happy to hear you loved the butterless cookies!
Georgia
I somehow mess up cookies every time, but not this time!!! This recipe is great and so easy. The cookies are so tasty 🙂
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy the cookies were a success!
Lauren
These are my favorite cookies EVER
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're so happy you love it!
Kayla cenic
Absolutely delicious!!!!
Would make again and again.
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're so glad you loved the cookies!
nina
amazing recipe! if you’re worried about leaving it in the fridge i’ve done an experiment. i cooked half of them when i made the dough and i cooked the other half after leaving the dough in the fridge overnight. i had to warm the dough in my hands but both batches were great! 🙂
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're so glad you enjoyed them both ways!
Kimi
These are amazing! I’m in San Diego and baked these for 9 minutes. They came out perfect! I substituted Kamut flour for regular white flour. I needed a butter alternative as I’m breastfeeding a baby with a cow milk allergy. I then used dairy free chocolate chips. These were soo yummy!! Thanks for the butter alternative.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
WAHOO! We're so happy you loved them!
Karen Simas
These turned out great! I used 2 duck eggs and one chicken egg since I live in Reno, NV which is a very dry climate. SO GOOD YUMMY!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you loved them and we love the swap for duck eggs!
Z
cookies melted into one giant sheet of cookie. bad recipe.
★
Team Life As A Strawberry
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?
Kristen
I’ve tried making these twice now, a few years part. Both times my cookies didn’t spread or flatten when I baked them. What did I do wrong? They look so good in the picture and I want them to turn out like that!
Rochelle
The most amazing cookies! I use a 1 in. cookie scoop and bake for 6 minutes. I let them rest for a minute or two before moving to a cooling rack. They're so perfect and often get confused for store baked. I have your page bookmarked so I can easily share the recipe with others.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We're so happy you love these cookies!
Judy
Hello I just finished eating 1 of these cookies, okay it was 2 so who counting 🙂 here's what I did I had to tweak the recipe because I don't like a lot of sugar I reduce both sugars to a half a cup. I'm assuming that is the reason I was only able to add 2 cups of flour 🤷 I don't know I'm a self-proclaimed I don't like to bake person lol and I used butter flavored coconut oil which taste delicious and added toasted pecans 😋
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
We're SO happy you loved them! We love the addition of pecans!