Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe (Gluten Free)

Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Today we are making a Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe! For as long as I’ve been on this Earth, I can confidently say that classic chocolate chip cookies were my favorite things in the world – snack, dessert, breakfast, lunch and dinner growing up. As in, I was actually nicknamed Cookie Monster in grade school for my obsession with chocolate chip cookies (and Oreos, but Cookie Monster doesn’t discriminate).

But what do I mean by classic? You know, the slightly thick and chewy on the outside with crisp edges, with a super tender, soft, and chewy middle, with chocolate chips oozing and melting out with every bite. That type of classic cookie.

Betty Crocker’s Accidentally Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Mix

I will say that during COVID, when we weren’t even allowed to go to grocery stores (I kept Instacart-ing to my doorstep), I bought tons of Betty Crocker sugar cookie and chocolate chip cookie mixes. They just needed two basic ingredients (an egg and a stick of butter) to be added to the dry mixture (hello, chia egg and vegan butter)! They always came out fantastic, and were my go-to pre-made mix for when I didn’t want to buy other ingredients.

At some point, Betty Crocker changed the recipe to add milk powder, making it not vegan (surprisingly, it was “accidentally” vegan before)! Unfortunately, my addiction with her cookie mixes came to an end. After that, I turned to homemade cookies to satisfy my snack cravings!

No Raisins Here – Chocolate Lovers Only!

Let’s not bring up the “raisins are healthier” argument. Oatmeal raisin cookies have a place of their own, but nothing can top the original chocolate chip. Do you see nearly as many oatmeal raisin Christie Cookie varieties on the supermarket shelves as you see for chocolate chip? No, you clearly do not.

If there’s one thing I wished I could do though was to make this favorite household cookie somewhat healthier. Remove some of the sugar (and milk) from the chocolate? Use dark chocolate – it’s usually vegan (no milk content to make it creamy like milk chocolate, although there are companies that make vegan milk chocolate too! Albeit with more sugar) and use less sugar if possible.

So this recipe actually came about by accident! I was substituting different ingredients and proportions based off of another recipe (which is linked in the recipe card under Notes), and this happened to just taste amazing when I baked it.

Chickpea Flour to the Rescue

Replace the all purpose flour with a … GLUTEN FREE OPTION? Begone, white all-purpose no-good-for-you flour! I mean, it’s a treat at times, but if you want to feel good about eating cookies everyday, you’re going to need to take out that flour that makes you feel fart-y and bloated after dunking ten cookies into a cup of milk. The flours that we use today are chickpea (besan) and almond flour – I don’t know why or how, but these work wonderfully. Like, gluten-free cookies always taste … gluten-free. And that isn’t going to fly! But these cookies shattered my expectations that gluten-free cookies have a bad rep.

When I made the dough to freeze, I could clearly taste the flavor in the flour. If you’ve tasted besan, you’ll know how strong of a flavor it has by itself. Usually it’s used in cooking, so you don’t just eat the flour raw.

But after baking the cookies, the taste was much less noticeable. So much so that my siblings loved it and didn’t complain about me adding what they deem as “weird” ingredients into my recipes.

If you have a huge sweet tooth, these are pretty nutritious and are perfect from your midnight snack. Or, when you decide to take a break from your working-from-home computer to make some hot chocolate to have with a cookie. Enjoy!

Why You’ll Love This Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

High Protein Flour: These vegan chocolate chip cookies use chickpea flour and almond flour in the base. They’re soft, unlike other cookies that are crunchy or super thick. These cookies stay soft after baking and completely change flavor when baked.

The raw cookie dough may not taste pleasant with chickpea flour, but baking them completely changes that. These flours are also high in protein. One cup of almond flour has 24 grams protein, one cup of chickpea flour has 20 grams!

Substitutions: Dry Ingredients

Chia Seeds: Chia seeds with a few tablespoons water form a “chia egg” when set aside for 15 minutes to thicken. If you don’t have chia seeds on hand, then you can also try chia meal or flax meal, which is ground chia or flax seeds.

A “flax egg” is made if you use flax seeds or flax meal, and vice versa with chia seeds or chia meal.

Cane Sugar: I replaced the white sugar with a healthier option and used cane sugar, but coconut sugar may work as well. Coconut sugar is usually not as sweet, so you’ll have a more subtle sweetness (and the texture will change).

Different types of sugar that may work include light brown sugar, dark brown sugar or xylitol.

Vegan Chocolate Chips: Enjoy Life is a great brand for vegan chocolate, sweetened with cane sugar. However, you can use any brand of semisweet dairy free chocolate chips. Some brands add milk fat or milk powder – just check the ingredient label.

Some brands may be vegan but are not labeled specifically as such. I usually find President’s Choice Dark (or Semisweet) Chocolate Chips in my local grocery store (I love this brand of chocolate chips). This is an “accidentally vegan” popular brand of chocolate!

Baking Powder: I do not recommend any substitute for the baking powder.

Substitutions: Flour

Besan: This is otherwise known as chickpea flour, garbanzo bean flour or gram flour. I do not recommend any substitution here. Bob’s Red Mill is a great brand for this (garbanzo bean flour).

Almond Flour: This is flour made by grinding almonds with the skins removed (blanched almonds). If you have just whole blanched almonds or slivered almonds on hand, run them through a spice grinder to make a fine powder. It should not have any pieces of almond left at all! This can be used instead of buying almond flour separately.

Alternatively, try almond meal, or a flour from another neutral nut, such as macadamia nuts or cashews. Do not try coconut flour though, as it makes baked goods dry and crumbly without adjusting other ingredients for it.

Substitutions: Wet Ingredients

Vegan Butter: I like using butter sticks from Melt Organics (this dairy free butter mimics regular butter very well in baked goods!). Earth Balance is another great company for vegan butter if you find their products. Don’t use margarine or a butter spread though.

Melted coconut oil (only refined coconut oil, without a coconut flavor or smell), vegetable oil, vegetable shortening may also be options to replace the fat in butter. I have not tried these though.

Maple Syrup: Use the lightest grade 100% pure maple syrup for less of a “molasses” flavor. It should be only pure maple syrup, not pancake syrup. Check the ingredient label – it should only have one ingredient.

Maple syrup ranges from Golden, Amber, Dark and Very Dark. This goes from the lightest to the darkest color. It also ranges in flavor from a mild maple flavor to a heavier flavor with more molasses taste.

You can also use agave syrup. You may see varieties of agave as well, ranging from light, amber, dark and raw (or even blue agave)! This is similar to maple syrup in that the light agave (or blue agave, which is the bottle I saw in grocery stores where I live), also has the most mild flavor with the lighest type and would work the best as a liquid sweetener, without imparting too much of its own flavor.

Vanilla Extract: I use an alcohol-free Madagascar vanilla extract that I find in the natural section of the grocery store. The taste and thickness is much better than a cheaper, diluted vanilla.

Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Notes

• For best results, use a cookie scoop to shape the cookies evenly after freezing. You can even rub a little bit of vegan butter inside the scoop so the cookie dough doesn’t stick to it.
• Make ice cream sandwiches with these cookies by adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between two cookies once cooled! To make sure the cookies don’t break, freeze them before adding the ice cream, then freeze them again to harden it all.
• Sprinkles these cookies with a bit of sea salt before baking if you love a sweet and salty flavor!

New Recipes You’ll Love

No Bake Oatmeal Chocolate Vegan Cookies: When it comes to no bake vegan cookie recipes, this one is at the top for me! It’s full of chocolate flavor, oats and is ultra-sweet. It’s so good for a chocolate craving or a snack!

Chocolate Pecan Toffee Bark: This is the best dairy free toffee bark! It uses a graham cracker base with vegan butter to make toffee, then a melted chocolate and pecan topping all wrapped up in this holiday recipe!

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: Another one of my favorite chocolate chip cookies! These cookies use regular all purpose flour, but browning the butter makes all the difference. These have crispy edges and a chewy middle, just what comes to mind when I think of perfect chocolate chip cookies.

Chocolate Rice Krispies: This is a remake of the childhood favorite Rice Krispies snacks! It’s a chocolate twist using vegan marshmallows that melt just like the original gelatin marshmallows do. They make a great treat to bring to a picnic, road trip or school bake sale!

Raw Snack Recipes

Cookie Dough Energy Bites: These raw energy bites taste like eating cookie dough. But this time, without the flour, eggs, sugar or butter. It’s cashew and date based!

Raw Butter Pecan Tarts: I love gooey raisin butter tarts! So, I recreated a raw vegan version that requires no rolling of pie dough, no cooking the filling and no baking. It’s all made in a blender using cacao butter, cashews, coconut oil and dates as the main ingredients!

Raw Lemon Coconut Bars: These raw vegan lemon coconut bars use only five easy ingredients and a blender. Dates, almond meal, vanilla extract, lemon (or lime) and coconut!

If you make this Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!