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
Rhea Patel
I'm a teen baker and this recipe is one of the best I've come across. They turned out just the way I like them, nice and chewy! Although they were a bit underdone, the output was delicious😋 Thank youuu sooo much for this recipe
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked them, Rhea! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
SG
This is a perfect recipe! Definitely using this again and again and again. I added just a tiny bit of walnuts because I had a few extra from another dish. I’ve been looking for cookies to make wit coconut oil and this did not disappoint! Great job!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it - LOVE the walnut addition!
Cindy
They look delicious but I'd never be able to eat these with all that sugar and white flour. I have followed a controlled carb program for 18 years and I'd gain all the weight back if I started eating cookies like these.
Jessie
Feel free to check out the healthy recipes in our recipe index!
Silvana Macri
So why are you even looking at this recipe?
Taylor O'Connor
I love this recipe! It's the only one I make anymore. I usually make them 1-2 times each month and my husband and kids usually have them gone the day after I make them! I love that they stay soft even when I get distracted and leave them in the oven a little too long. Although, the coconut oil I use (Crisco Organic) usually measures the same whether in solid or liquid form. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with all of us!!!
Jessie
I'm so happy to hear that, Taylor! Thanks for letting me know how you like them!
Neena
These were delicious! I used a lot less sugar and added a bit of maple syrup instead. Mine were just slightly burnt at the bottom. Could that be because I left them in the oven too long (11 minutes) or because I didn't move them to the cooling rack right away?
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them, Neena! Love the maple syrup addition! It's hard to say without being in the kitchen with you, but they might have burnt because they were too close to a heat source in the oven, in too long (although at 11 min they should be ok) or didn't like the pan they were on. You could try baking them a little less time or at a lower temperature, or further from the heat source in your oven if you want to experiment a bit!
Abby
CAME OUT GREAT! I didn’t have a full 3/4 of a cup of coconut oil so I added some vegetable oil. I had some dough left that had too many chocolate chips so I smashed inA bunch of shredded coconut. Those came out great also!
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them, Abby! I LOVE the shredded coconut addition!
Karoli
hi there! Has anyone tried to make these with gluten free flour? I’d love to try them but I have celiac disease.Thanks
Jessie
I haven't tested this specific recipe with gluten free flour but in general I find that King Arthur Gluten Free Flour does a pretty good job of mimicking all-purpose flour in baked goods! You might just have to play around with the ratios since gluten-free flours can sometimes be more absorbent than all-purpose, but these cookies are pretty easy to do in a half batch if you want to experiment. Hope that helps!
Dan
I'm not sure what went wrong -- by the time they were browned on top, they had burned on the bottom. That was about 11 minutes. I wish I had taken them out sooner (Don't worry, I'll cut the bottoms off an eat the rest; still better than no cookies!).
Lucie Kolinsky
This recipe was a hit in my household! I substituted half the chocolate chips for half dried cranberries and they were delicious! So delicious that I’m making another batch this week.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Lucie! I LOVE the cranberry addition!
Katelyn
I made these for a coffee date with my girlfriends on a blizzardy day here in Arctic Canada (Rankin Inlet, Nunavut). I substituted one egg for one banana and was so happy that I did! The flavour of these cookies is amazing and they are perfectly soft. Will definitely make again!
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them, Katelyn! Thanks for letting me know!
Starr
What if I dont have any brown sugar
Jessie
You can usually substitute an equal measure of white sugar + 2 Tbsp. molasses for brown sugar, although this recipe hasn't been tested with that variation.
Blanca
Love the results...I cut sugar by half (as I do for most baking recipes) and they still turned out good.
Jessie
Good to know! Thanks for the tip and for letting me know how they turned out!
Maggie
My son and I are trying to eat healthier and came across your recipe with coconut oil vs butter.
We also opted out of the white sugar and used Maple Syrup.
The cookies are amazing!
I am going to use a little bit less baking soda next time so they are flatter but oh my, these were amazing!!!Yummmmmy!
Thank you so much
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them, Maggie! And I love the maple syrup idea!
Debra
Hello! How much maple syrup did you use?
Christy
I just made these, and they turned out beautifully. I'm only sad my coconut oil is purposefully flavorless, because I think a little coconut flavor in them would be lovely. I actually didn't have any eggs, so I used banana instead, and they had a very slight banana flavor that was quite intriguing. The texture was just as I like, fat and gooey.
(I do like chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven, but I don't like them flat and crispy, so this was a perfect recipe for me. And no dunking, either. Ew.)
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the recipe, Christy! Thanks for letting me know!
Sammie
Over in the UK and loving this recipe. Had no butter in, but plenty of everything else. We added white choc chips and marshmallows and they were divine. Being pregnant I wanted something quick sweet and something I can make straight from the cupboard. Thanks Aimee, will bake this recipe again xx
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Sammie!
Aimee
Stuck at home due to Hurricane Irma, but blessed to have power, we wanted to make cookies but wanted to save the butter for other things....
Amazing.... this will be my go-to cookie base, so easy, perfect size batch and I love the taste and texture the coconut oil gives the cookie.
We made " I can't decide cookies" adding a new ingredient every 4 cookies or so.
Started with chocolate chips, the added butterscotch chips...wanuts, coconut flakes and finally oats.
THANK YOU!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the cookies, Aimee! LOVE the additions you chose! Thank you so much for letting me know how they turned out (and so glad to hear you're safe after Irma!)