Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Treat yourself to one of these Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re soft and tender and filled with tons of chocolate goodness submerged in subtle notes of rich and buttery peanut butter.
So I had a major craving for a good chocolate chip cookie… Being fairly new at this whole vegan baking thing, I had to scour the Internet in search of ideas and inspiration, so I could whip me up a batch.
One thing I quickly came to realize is that “vegan” isn’t necessarily synonymous with “healthy”… There are TONS of really yummy looking vegan dessert recipes out there, but as soon as you start to read the ingredient list, they quickly loose their appeal! Indeed, a lot of them call for standard ingredients, such as vegan butter or margarine, granulated sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.
Hmpft. While I understand that there is no real way to create a truly healthy chocolate chip cookie, I still wanted to indulge in a somewhat healthier treat. So I went ahead and crafted my own recipe. And while I’m still new at this, I think I managed to whip up a pretty decent batch of vegan cookies, seriously!
Those cookies are loaded with flavor, super soft, tender, slightly chewy, and all kinds of yummy! And while they do contain peanut butter, the peanut taste is very subtle and not at all overwhelming… it just contributes in making the cookies taste super rich and buttery.
One thing’s for sure: they totally, positively took care of my craving!
Preheat your oven to 375°F; line a large cookie sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper and set aside. Then, in a large bowl combine the firm coconut oil, peanut butter and coconut sugar.
It’s very important that your coconut oil be firm and not melted. If it’s too soft, don’t hesitate to stick it in the fridge for a couple of minutes until it firms up.
Beat on high with a hand mixer until well combined and creamy.
Pour in the almond milk and vanilla extract…
…and resume beating on high until fluffy, about 1 minute.
In a separate bowl combine the flours, corn starch, ground flaxseed, baking soda, and salt; whisk well to fully combine and add to the wet ingredients.
Beat the wet and dry ingredients on low speed, increasing gradually to medium-high, until everything is combined, no more.
Now throw in about 1-1/4 cups of the chocolate chips. Save a handful of them to push into the cookies later…
About those chocolate chips, be sure to read the ingredients carefully as most of them contain dairy and other unhealthy ingredients! My personal favorite brands include Enjoy Life and Made Good but of course, there are many other good ones to choose from. Feel free to use your own favorite!
Switch to a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula and delicately mix those chocolate chips right in.
Next, using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough onto the cookie sheet. If you didn’t have one of those, a large spoon would also do the trick – you’ll want to use about 3 tbsp of dough per cookie. Once that’s done, press the dough balls down gently with a fork (or with your fingers) to flatten them…
I chose to make big cookies but I suppose you could make smaller ones, if you preferred. Only you’d need to cook them for a few minutes less, I guess!
Flip the cookies over so the smooth side is up; just because it makes for a prettier cookie… Then, press a few extra chocolate chips on top of the unbaked cookies (again, for an even prettier cookie!) and then send them to the oven.
Bake your cookies for 10-12 minutes, depending on how soft you want your cookies to be. When baked to your liking, take the pan out of the oven and press yet a few more chocolate chips on top of the warm cookies;
How pretty do we want those cookies to be?
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before delicately transferring them to a cooling rack.
The cookies will still be quite soft at this point, so be sure to use a good flat spatula to handle that transfer!
And then, give them another good 15 minutes to cool before you have a taste…
Trust me, those babies taste much better when you give them at least 30 minutes to cool before you eat them. This will not only allow the cookies to firm up some — enough that you can finally lift them up with one hand without them falling to pieces — but it will also give their flavor a chance to sort of settle and intensify.
Oh, and speaking of flavor… if you want to take that to the next level (and yes, you guessed it, make your cookies even more prettier!) sprinkle your cookies with a little bit of Fleur de Sel before you indulge. Oh hell yum!
Then, before you store them, be sure to let your cookies cool completely. Those cookies are rather delicate so I strongly recommend that you store them flat and in a single layer to avoid breakage. After all, you’ve worked so hard to make them all kinds of pretty…
Keep them in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to a few days. Or was that hours?
Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 cup organic unrefined coconut oil, solid
- 1/4 cup organic all natural peanut butter
- 3/4 cups organic coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup almond milk, or other non-dairy milk of your choice
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup organic unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 tbsp organic corn starch
- 1 tbsp organic ground flaxseed
- 1-1/2 tsp pure baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt, I use Himalayan salt
Add-ins
- 1-1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F; line a large cookie sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl combine the firm coconut oil, peanut butter and coconut sugar. Beat on high with a hand mixer until well combined and creamy. Add the almond milk and vanilla extract and resume beating until fluffy, about 1 minute.
- In a separate bowl combine the flours, corn starch, ground flaxseed, baking soda, and salt; whisk well to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat on low speed, increasing slowly to medium-high, until all the ingredients are combined, no more.
- Switch to a spatula and stir in about 1-1/4 cups of the chocolate chips.
- Now, using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough onto the cookie sheet . If you didn’t have one of those, a large spoon would also do the trick – you’ll want to use about 3 tbsp of dough per cookie.
- Then, press the dough balls down gently with a fork (or with your fingers) to flatten them and flip them over so the smooth side is up. Press a few extra chocolate chips on top of the unbaked cookies and then send them to the oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how soft you want your cookies to be.
- Take the pan out of the oven and press yet a few more chocolate chips on top of the warm cookies;
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing, preferably flat and in a single layer to avoid breakage.
Nutrition
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4 Comments on “Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies”
They look yummy. I am not a big fan of pb but at least it has a small amount.
Sonia you are a mastermind!! Why am I not surprised? My little niece has an intense sweet tooth and loves my treats but I’ve been trying to make them a little better for her lately and I will be giving these a go tomorrow:)
Haha, thanks Jordan! I hope your niece likes ’em! 😀
So would this work with vegan butter? Dont care for coconut oil. plus substitute the sugar with date paste much better option.