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
Kelly
You can easily buy dairy free chocolate chips! I use Enjoy Life. Thanks for sharing your recipe
Stephanie
Had to substitute one egg with mayo, regardless, very tasty, crunchy on the outside, cherry in the inside. Even used my toaster oven. No parchment paper, but no problem taking them off the pan. Love the hint of kosher salt at the end. Yum. Will make these again! Delicious! I also rated them via facebook post with a link. Thank you!
Stephanie
*chewy... Pardon my swype!
Carrie
I made these because we where out of butter and they came out pretty darn delicious. I took them out at 7mins because we know our stoves cookie time. Definitely will make again if out of butter.
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hi Carrie - glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe and that you'll be baking them again!
Renee
These are delicious! I was out of butter and seriously craving a treat. I also used whole wheat flour and think they still tasted great. Thank you for the great recipe.
Renee
Adding my rating. Sorry, sleep deprived mama here.
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hi Renee,
I love this! Of course, who doesn't want to satisfy that sweet craving!
Charlotte
Delicious cookies! This recipe is a keeper!
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hello Charlotte - thanks! Happy to hear they are a hit!
Tony Janus
I just made this recipe using cannabis infused coconut oil, swapped out 1/2 cup of flour for hemp protein powder, preferred milk chocolate chips, added crushed walnuts, and used hand-crushed Himalayan salt. These turned out amazing, even with my personal tweaks. I'm a medical card holder here for Crohn's disease, and always looking for new recipes to convert to meds. This is my favorite cookie recipe to date! Thank you so much!!!
Kevin
Hi I was thinking of trying this, how much Cannabis infused coconut oil did you use and how many cookies did this make all together?
Carrie
Tried it. They taste amazing! Thanks for the fantastic recipe!
Yael
Just made it. Very good. Perfect texture crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Amazing recipe with no butter.
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hello Yael - so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
Chelsea
This recipe makes the worlds best Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough! I almost didn't want to bake any of it so I could eat it all raw, however, that would have caused the worlds worst stomach ache. So it turns out it also makes really yummy cookies the only change I made to the recipe was adding a tbls of cinnamon.
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hi Chelsea, LOVE the addition of cinnamon to the recipe! Happy to hear you enjoy the cookies!
Amy
So delicious! I used 1:1 gluten free flour and dairy free chocolate chips. I froze the dough in scooped out portions so it is an easy treat to make. Thank you for this recipe!
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hi Amy, Wonderful to hear you enjoyed the recipe, thanks!
Kay
My son is lactose intolerant and needs a gluten free diet. I used Aldi’s coconut oil and I bought milk free dark chocolate candy bars and broke them into small chunks. I was a little leery about the taste of coconut but when they were done there’s a small hint of coconut but I believe it adds to the wonderful flavor! They barely cooled before everyone started taking a cookie! I used gluten free flour as well. I will be making these again real soon!
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Hello Kay,
That's great that they were popular with the family! So happy to hear that your son could have them as well!
Dashie
I halved the recipe. Also, My coconut oil was infused with decarbed BHO. delicious weed cookies! thanks for the recipe!
Tanja
I halved the sugar and they were still really sweet. Very nice, easy recipe. My 3 year old helped me. Really quick to bake if you're after a snack in a hurry.
Jackie @ Life As A Strawberry
Thanks Tanja!
Heather
These came out pretty good. I just wanted to throw out a warning that the cookies will not get very dark on top so don't wait until they look golden like a cookie made with butter would. I took one sheet out while quite pale and left the other one in for two more minutes and they got very dark on the bottom. They go from perfect to burnt VERY quickly! But they tasted quite good. (We used Aldi brand organic coconut oil and definitely taste a hint of coconut.) If your kids are skeptical don't let them taste the dough! It has a much stronger taste and I was left with one boy who wouldn't even try the cookies. Oh well... more for me!
Jessie
Great tip, Heather! I'm so glad you liked the cookies!
Brenda
Wow these were amazing! I didn't add the salt in your recipe and instead sprinkled sea salt flakes on top of the cookies before they baked and it was sooooo good! I also used the "enjoy life" mega chunk chocolate chips that are dairy free as well. These were better than any other chocolate chip cookie I've made!
Jessie
Yum! Sea salt on cookies is the best! Thanks for letting me know how they turned out, Brenda!
Justin A
Ab-Fab and DELISH!!! Just made them for friends who are travelling to Hong Kong and Taiwan as a little nosh for their flights. Dropped off this morning after freshly baking. One of them is lactose intolerant so I was happy to find this recipe. I stole a few cookies for myself to try and sample before packaging theirs up. Definite two thumbs up! I was very happy! Amazing taste and texture. I used dairy free chocolate chunks and also added craisins. I sort of goofed...as I was scooping them after the recipe was mixed, I suddenly realized I somehow forgot the salt. Oops. I didn’t mush up the scooped balls and remix. I was hoping the chocolate chunks and dried cranberries would lend a sort of salty flavour. But at the last minute, as soon as I baked them and came out of the oven, I sprinkled kosher salt from a salt mill in top. Nice finishing touch! Their flight isn’t until 1am tonight but I already got a call to say how amazing these cookies are. Hoping they keep some for their flight to Taipei !! PS...I mixed, scooped and let sit in a ziplock for 2 days. No issues baking.
Justin A
Me again! I Forgot to add in my above post that I only used 2 cups flour and added in 1/2 cup old fashioned oats. I love Oats with chocolate and cranberry. Ratio was still perfect!
Jessie
Wahoo! So happy you liked the recipe, Justin!