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 (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
Denise
Just tried baking these. They are delicious! I added a bit less sugar and melted the coconut oil bain-marie style.
Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Jessie
So happy you liked them, Denise! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
Traysia Sullivan
love this recipe! I've been trying to stay away from butter and I love using coconut oil for... Everything! this is an awesome way to combine a little bit of guilty pleasure with a little bit of healthfulness:-)
Jessie
I'm so happy to hear that, Traysia! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
BP
I had a craving for something sweet and got the urge to bake so I googled chocolate cookies with coconut oil (because I didn't have butter)... let me just tell you, this is the first time I've made choc chip cookies from scratch and WOW, these did not disappoint! I had everything on hand except choc chips so I chopped up a bunch of Hershey's kisses and YUMMMMMMMM.... I think they turned out better 🙂 I noticed the dough began to crumble as you mentioned so I just put each spoonful of dough into my hand and pressed the dough back together, my hands natural heat helped the dough stick together again. Thank you for posting this recipe, its a keeper!
Jessie
Wahoo! I'm so glad you liked the cookies - thank you so much for letting me know how they turned out (and I love the Hershey kisses idea! yum!)
Amanda
This recipe has to be my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies EVER!!!!. I highly recommend this to any beginner as well!
Jessie
This makes me so happy!! I'm so glad you like the recipe, Amanda!
Camilla
I goggled 'no butter chocolate chip cookie recipes' as we have no butter in the house and this recipe came up. Lucky for me we had coconut oil. Fantastically delicious. Will make these again even when we do have butter!
Jessie
Wahoo! So glad to hear that, Camilla!
Alicia
Oh my! These are the best chocolate chip cookies we have made! We used 1/2 c less sugar (1/2 C cane sugar, 1/2 c coconut sugar) and they came out perfect. We made them 30 minutes ago and my husband has already had 6. 😳
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked them, Alicia! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out!
Anna
Hi, your recipe looks anazing!! I am going to make them over the weekend 🙂 I was wondering how do you store them?
Jessie
I store them in an airtight container on the counter! They also freeze well.
Beth
I have made these so many times and they are a crowd pleaser! We are definitely a pro-butter family but everyone thinks these are delicious. The fact that they are super simple to make is a bonus, this is a very kid-friendly recipe that we love to do during sleepovers.
Jessie
I'm so happy to hear that, Beth! Thanks for letting me know how you like them!
Karen
Can you use almond extract instead of vanilla and do you have to use the brown sugar? I have all but the brown sugar and vanilla.
Jessie
I haven't tested it with almond extract but you could certainly give it a try! If you have molasses and plain white sugar, you can make your own brown sugar - there's a good walkthrough here. You can use just white sugar in a pinch, but the brown sugar (or the DIY molasses sugar) add a lot of flavor!
NANCY
I put the batter in the microwave for 40 seconds on high to soften.
M Campbell
Does this cookie dough freeze well? I usually make big batches, portion cookies, freeze and then bake from frozen.
Jessie
It freezes well taste-wise, but the coconut oil solidifies a bit in cold temperatures so they won't spread as much when baking. You can fix that to some extent by letting them come back to room temperature before baking or baking them at a slightly lower temperature, but they'll still taste good even if they don't flatten out as much. I actually also love freezing these once they're already baked!
Nick M
I agree, there's just something sinfully decadent about coconut oil that clean, salted cream butter can't match. Plus, vegetable oil is a no-go for me (soybean oil) and there's no such thing as a non-GMO canola oil (rapeseed oil, a traditional machine lubricant modified to be less toxic to humans), so coconut oil is the next best thing. It does amazing things with muffins and sweetbreads too, and I've heard it's superior in shelf-stable homemade chocolate.
One of the biggest benefits of coconut oil is the anti-inflammatory properties, which is great for your skin and your digestion -- a two-fer. I'm always interested in new ways to bring on the flavor, so I'll definitely give this a try. Thank you so much, Jessie, and enjoy in good health!
Danica
We loved these! I know you can swap different add ins like cranberries, different flavored chips etc, but I was wondering if you could use chopped Oreos or if it would dry the dough out. Any advice?
Jessie
I haven't tried it with Oreos but you could certainly give it a try!
Claire
I will never bake chocolate chip cookies with butter again! These are the softest, most delicious cookies I've ever made! I'm actually not sure how much coconut oil is really in it, I eye lined it in solid form and completely forgot to measure it before pouring it in. But, they turned out delish. The coconut comes through with the perfect hint.
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the recipe, Claire! Thanks for letting me know how the cookies turned out!
Yums
Just wanted to say a big thank you for sharing the recipe, it’s absolutely delightful!!
I’d been looking for a soft cookie receipt with healthier ingredients when I came across your page. This looked like it would satisfy my appetite for naughty sweets and still be gentle on my sensative stomach and it didn’t disappoint me.
I used just half a cup of brown sugar overall (no additional white sugar), and replaced about half of flour with whole wheat flour - happy I did, it was sweet enough for me and the whole wheat adds a bit more flavor (I think!)
I struggled with step 3 though, the coconut oil started to solidify really quickly and I could only add 2 cups of flour & whole wheat mix, as opposed to 2.5 cups. Maybe because of that the cookies turn out a lot flatter than the images...But still gorgeous! So happy I met your recipe!!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked the recipe - thanks for sharing your tweaks! If you're using a non-metal bowl and the coconut oil starts to solidify, you can zap it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Wheat flour also tends to be more absorbent than white flour, which is why you may not need as much. Thanks for letting me know how the cookies turned out!
Jerusha
I feel the same way about CC cookies. These are so perfect, and easy. Thanks
Jessie
So happy you liked them, Jerusha!