Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls taste just like real cookie dough, except they’re raw, vegan, gluten-free and healthy. They freeze wonderfully so consider making a double batch and stashing a dozen in the freezer for when your cookie dough cravings strike!
This recipe has me really excited!
If you like cookie dough as much as I do, I know you will love these little doughy balls.
The beauty of this recipe is that because they are vegan (and gluten free) so you don’t have to worry when eating raw cookie dough.
Well, the only worry is that these little cookie dough bites are good. A little too good. Ahem.
Tip: You can make them in batches and store extras in a tub in the freezer and take out a handful at a time.
Or don’t store them in the freezer...
And just go to town on them right away
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Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites (gluten-free, soy-free)
Ingredients
- ⅔ c raw cashews
- ⅓ c oats
- 2 Tbsp Agave
- 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup, Omit and use Agave to preserve true Raw Status if you care
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ c Chocolate Chips, or to preserve true raw status, take 2 Tbsp Raw Cocoa Powder and add 1 Tbsp Agave, optional dash of vanilla extract, whisk and blend. Spread into a thin layer on wax or parchment paper, freeze. Take frozen chocolate off parchment and crumble the shreds into the mixture as your raw “chips”.
Instructions
- Blend the cashews and oats in a Vita-Mix, food processor, or high speed blender until they’re a fine powder. Don’t overblend or you’ll wind up with cashew butter very quickly.
- Add the agave, maple, vanilla and blend until incorporated. Be careful to just blend in short bursts and only until combined; don’t over-process.
- Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.
- Form into balls and serve. If dough is sticky, chilling it in the refrigerator or flash-chilling it in the freezer helps make it easier to work with.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Take Oats & Cashews and get ready to Blend in your VitaMix
After you have your Oat-n-Cashew Flour…
…To it Add the Agave, Maple, & Vanilla Extract
Blend Again
Tip for Vita-Mix Users: You know you have “The Right Consistency” of Dough when the dough starts to ball up like a tennis ball and bangs around from side to side in the canister. I have learned this through trial and error and wanted to pass along my wisdom. Once you see The Ball (what I am talking about is in the above photo) start whipping around, Stop Blending. You have reached Perfect Dough Consistency Status.
Add the Chocolate Chips (or the Raw Chocolate Chips like I told you how to make)
Either Stir them in By Hand, of a 5 Second Blend in the VitaCookie (or Food Processor)
Transfer Dough Blob to plate or working surface. Tip: If for some reason your dough was too sticky, gummy, runny, or unworkable, refrigerate for a half hour and you should be back in business.
Roll Into Cute Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. I yielded 17 Balls from this Recipe. Clearly, not an exact science but that’s what I got.
The Pretty Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
Pretty is nice. But they are freakin’ amazing. I am not just saying that, either.
Optional Tweaks:
Add a dusting of cocoa powder, carob powder, or powdered sugar to the finished balls
Roll in raw cocoa nibs or shredded coconut
Rather than adding in chocolate chips, add raisins instead and add a dash of cinnamon to the batter for Oatmeal-Cinnamon-Raisin Raw Cookie Dough Balls
Flatten or mold into larger cookie shapes
Dehydrate for a more “cooked tasting” version of a chocolate chip cookie. But gawd I love the raw dough taste so this is out for me!
Now I wanted to touch on about why this may be one of my best dessert recipes ever! For me, a recipe has to encompass many things if I am going to actually make it and then continue making it as it becomes a go-to favorite.
Some of those recipe elements include:
1. Easy. The less steps the better.
2. Time Involved. If I cannot make the entire thing from walking into my pantry to grab the dry goods to the last dish is dried and put away 30 minutes later then I am probably not going to make it. I have a life outside of the kitch, too.
3. One appliance. For me, this is my Vita-Mix. For you, it may be your food processor. Dehydrated food is lovely, but it can be a lonnnnng wait and too much advance planning. And also the amount of dishes involved factors in here too. If you need a whisk, spoon, spatula, mixer beaters, Vita canisters, dehydrator screens, 7 bowls, forget it. One Appliance Please.
4. Very simple and short ingredient list. Nothing exotic. Nothing too expensive to deplete your savings account.
5. Taste. Must be excellent and if it’s a raw approximation of Something Else, it’s gotta taste like the Something Else it’s trying to be otherwise why bother. Just eat the Something Else or skip it entirely. Unless I can make a raw approximation that is spot-on in the flavor department, I’d rather just not have it.
These Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls have all of items 1 through 5. And using the above as my criteria, the cookie dough balls are in company with these other Raw Vegan Desserts I have created that also encompass items 1 through 5:
Raw Vegan Chocolate Donut Holes
And All my raw baking tips that I just gave you in the recipe! Now go make yourself some of these Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
I was wondering if you ever tried peanuts. We always have peanuts on hand.
cashews give the feel and taste of butter b/c of their softness and creaminess in a way that peanuts don’t; peanuts aren’t “bad” and they will work, but will not be nearly as authentic as using cashews, which are softer, creamier, blend better, and for this recipe, my #1 choice by a landslide.
Just made these; so easy & yummy!! Thank you
glad you enjoyed & thanks for the feedback!
I am so excited to try out this recipe, both as cookie dough balls and as dehydrator cookies.
After finding one of your recipes on Pinterest your blog has given me all kinds of exciting new things to try- I’ll have to find more hours in the day so I can make them all. I’ll also probably need to find people to help me eat it all, or else a gym membership.
I know what I’m going to be making tomorrow. These look yummy! Thanks for posting this.
You Are aware that there is milk in chocolate, and milk is an animal product… Therefore your “vegan” cookie dough isn’t vegan at all??
In milk chocolate, there’s milk, of course.
In semi-sweet chocolate, no, there’s no milk. Not in the semi-sweet chocolate I use or that most people use anyway – just cocoa butter solids. Or buy vegan chocolate chips that are certified vegan, which guarantees no trace milk or cross contamination in processing.
So yes, they are 100% vegan.
Just made this – yum! My new favorite. I ate a couple “raw’ and then put some flattened-out, cookie-shaped ones in the dehydrator. So quick in the Vitamix! And they really do taste like gooey choco-chip cookies.
Glad you enjoyed them so much!
I don’t know if anyone has already mentioned this in the comments, but agave nectar is highly processed and not raw. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=highly+processed+agave&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
this recipe is fabulous! i made a double batch of the dough (omitted agave and instead used four tbsp. maple syrup and two tbsp. water for the double batch), then separated it into three sections. for the first section, after i formed each ball i rolled it in a small bowl of finely shredded coconut. the second section was the same but with rainbow sprinkles. for the third i added mini chocolate chips to the dough then rolled the bites. i refrigerated all of them for about 30min before serving. i think the choc chip bites were my favorite but the coconut ones were really good as well – i think if i made them again i’d also put some coconut in the dough itself in addition to the coating on the outside. the sprinkle ones were okay, but i think next time i’ll use colored sugar instead (there was a bit too much crunch with the sprinkles). thanks so much for sharing this!!
Glad you loved them and were so creative. Here is a variation to them, with coconut – since you’re a coconut fan
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/06/6.html
that’s so funny – after i made this batch, i was thinking these would be really good as “almond joy” bites with a 50/50 mix of almonds and cashews to blend with the oats, then add coconut and choc chips. i’ll use the recipe you listed and just add the almonds to it and see how it goes – hopefully it still has a good creamy texture, thanks again for this recipe, really i can’t thank you enough! i don’t really like plain nuts or nut butter so i’m always on the lookout for recipes that incorporate nuts and these bites are just soooo good!
I would caution against using too many almonds; they don’t quite give the same richness, creaminess, and just overall effect that cashews do. The cashews are basically your “butter” substitute in the dough; almonds just don’t work the same magical way. They’re “fine” but I love my cashews.
i made the “almond joy” bites last night and they were really good – definitely not as smooth and creamy tasting as the 100% cashew version but almond joys aren’t super smooth either so i think it worked out well. mixing the almonds in is also a good way to cut down on some saturated fat, though they do add more fat overall. if anyone is interested, these are the ingredients i used to make the almond joy bites:
1/3c almonds
1/3c cashews
1/3c oats
1/3c finely shredded coconut
2tbsp. maple syrup
1tbsp. water
1tsp. vanilla
1/4c mini choc chips
extra coconut to coat bites after rolling
…some people may like more choc chips than i used – choc is a pretty strong flavor to me so i didn’t want to add so much that the coconut didn’t come through.
Glad you enjoyed them!
correction: 1/8c choc. chips.
I calculated the calories for this and thought I’d pass it on if anyone cares.
total calories in the recipe: 1044
when making 17 balls, per serving is calories: 61.5, fat: 3.2, fiber: .7