Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Crisp at the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, and generously studded with dark chocolate. Brown sugar gives these cookies their chew and their faint toffee flavour, while a short rest in the refrigerator before baking keeps them thick rather than spreading into thin wafers.
By Vegan Cook. Published 1 November 2026
Ingredients
Serves 16.
- 115 gvegan butter block, softened
- 150 gsoft light brown sugar
- 50 gcaster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 60 mloat milk or other plant milk
- 1 tspvanilla extract
- 220 gplain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1/2 tspbicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1/2 tspsalt
- 150 gdark chocolate chips, or a dark chocolate bar chopped into chunks
- to finishflaky sea salt, optional
Cookware
- Two baking trays lined with baking paper (parchment paper)
- Large mixing bowl
- Wooden spoon or electric whisk
- Wire cooling rack
Method
Read each step end-to-end before starting.
- 01
Beat the butter and sugar
Beat the softened vegan butter with both sugars in a large bowl for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture is pale and fluffy. This step, which bakers call creaming, beats tiny pockets of air into the butter and helps the cookies rise.
- 02
Add the liquids
Stir in the oat milk and vanilla. The mixture may look a little curdled and separated at this stage, which is perfectly normal, and it will come together once the flour goes in.
- 03
Stir in the dry ingredients
Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and stir gently until just combined with no dry streaks left. Stop as soon as the flour disappears, because overmixing develops the gluten in the flour and makes the cookies tough. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- 04
Chill the dough
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Chilling firms up the vegan butter, which tends to be softer than dairy butter, so that the cookies hold their shape in the oven.
- 05
Shape and bake
Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, 350°F). Roll the dough into 16 balls of roughly a heaped tablespoon each and space them well apart on the lined trays, since they spread as they bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centres still look slightly underdone.
- 06
Cool
Leave the cookies on the trays for 10 minutes, where they will finish cooking and firm up, then move them to a wire rack. Sprinkle with a few flakes of sea salt while they are still warm, if you like. They keep for up to 4 days in an airtight tin.
Allergen profile
Every recipe here is fully plant-based. Cross-contamination risk depends on your kitchen, so check all packaging.
Swap note
Wheat flour contains gluten, though a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend works well here. Check that your chocolate is labelled vegan, because some dark chocolate contains dairy, and bear in mind that some vegan butters contain soy.