Growing up, chocolate chip cookies became a Sunday evening tradition that my brother, Todd, started. Nothing beats a warm melty chocolate chip cookie. One Sunday evening a few months ago I was reminiscing on this tradition and decided it was time to start it up again with my own family. Originally I just made a normal chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chips we use to buy but substituted out the egg and dairy for allergen friendly ingredients. They worked out pretty good, but when we had to cut out gluten/wheat too, I knew that wasn’t going to work quite the same. I’ve experimented a little with different ingredients and combinations until I made these amazing cookies. I had to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, so I made them a few more times.
These are our family’s FAVorite chocolate chip cookies and we devour them so fast. This is one of those recipes that has my husband asking me “are you sure this is gluten free?” every time I make them, and I love that all of us can enjoy them.
What Makes This Recipe So Great
- Egg-Free, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free: It’s so hard to find yummy recipes that match our dietary needs and turn out “right,” but these check every box for our allergens, flavor, and texture!
- Easy To Make: I can whip these up in less than 10 minutes and then they only bake for another 10!
- It’s Delicious: When you’re newly gluten-free spouse asks “are you sure these are gluten-free?” You know you’ve found a winner recipe. I myself eat more than I should every time I make these.
Ingredients & How to Substitute
- Ground Flax – This acts as the egg in this recipe, if you can do eggs, just swap out the flax eggs for 1 chicken egg. While technically this is two flax eggs, the recipe is good with just one large chicken egg, though I’m sure 2 eggs would make it more rich.
- Vegan Butter – Our favorite vegan butter is Country Crock brand, but any vegan butter will do. You could even substitute the butter for vegetable oil if you wanted to, or use real butter if you can have dairy.
- Granulated Sugar – Can you really have delicious cookies without a good amount of sugar?
- Brown Sugar – I actually like to make mine with coconut sugar if you can do coconut!
- Vanilla – This is a necessary ingredient for the right flavor.
- Gluten Free Oat Flour Blend – I’ve tried this recipe with other rice based gluten free flours and they just weren’t the same. You need a really good oat flour blend to achieve the right texture and depth of flavor. I love this gf oat flour blend best (not an affiliate link, I just really like this blend for these cookies). If you can do wheat, just use normal wheat flour if you’d like, but the oat flour is still better in my opinion.
- Baking Soda – Essential for the cookies to bake properly.
- Baking Powder – Essential for the cookies to bake properly.
- Salt – Essential for the flavor integrity of this recipe.
- Vegan Chocolate Chips – Another essential part of this recipe – we love Enjoy Life chocolate chips (not an affiliate link).
Some Recipe Tips
If you’ve never baked with flax as an egg replacement, it works great! It’s important you let it sit long enough to congeal so that it gives the binding properties of a real egg. See the images below of the flax in the water after initially mixing it, and then after letting it sit 5 minutes. You’ll notice the flax egg after it’s sat for a good amount of time, thickens up as the flax absorbs the water.
Try to get really finely ground flax so that you don’t notice the flax in your cookies.
The type of flour matters! Not all gluten free flours are created equal, and the blend I normally use for baking that we really like didn’t actually turn out well for this recipe. When I used oat based gluten free flour though, it came out so moist and soft, whereas other gluten-free flours came out more grainy and you could tell it was gluten-free.
If you haven’t tried the Enjoy Life chocolate chips and you are dairy-free, you have to give them a try! They taste just like normal milk or semi-sweet milk chocolate to me and I put them in all kinds of recipes that calls for chocolate.
Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp ground flax
- 6 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup vegan butter
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup gluten free oat flour blend
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- scant 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cups vegan chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and prep a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, mix the ground flax and water and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes to form a flax egg.
- Cream the vegan butter and sugars together in a medium bowl.
- Add the vanilla and flax egg and combine.
- In another mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients together (gf oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt).
- Add the dry mixed ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined.
- Mix in your vegan chocolate chips.
- Form your dough into golf-ball sized balls and arrange on your prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake for approximately 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool for a couple minutes before transferring to a cooling rack and enjoy!
