The Best Soft and Chewy Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies — You won’t miss the butter at all in these coconut oil chocolate chip cookies! They’re so soft and ever so slightly chewy. Dangerously good!  

stack of Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ultra Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies … Without Butter!

If you think cookies made without any butter mean making a sacrifice in the taste department, think again. No butter, no problem. You definitely won’t miss it.

These coconut oil chocolate chip cookies are very similar to my favorite Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. I loved them and wanted to see what would happen if I omitted all the butter and replaced it with coconut oil.

The results? Big success. It’s hard for me to say which cookie is ‘better.’ They’re similar, yet different, and both will leave you with your hand caught way too many times in the cookie jar.

Both versions are insanely soft and moist, with slight chewiness around the edges and at the base. There’s nothing crispy or crunchy about them, although you could bake the cookies longer if you’re looking for crunchier cookies.

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies on countertop

Ingredients in Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

For these seriously addicting chocolate chip cookies with coconut oil, you’ll need the following ingredients: 

  • Melted coconut oil
  • Light brown sugar
  • Granulated sugar
  • Egg
  • Vanilla extract
  • All-purpose flour
  • Instant vanilla pudding mix
  • Baking soda
  • Salt
  • Semi-sweet chocolate chips

How Does Swapping Butter for Coconut Oil Affect a Cookie’s Texture?

I find in general that cookies made with coconut oil are heavier, denser, and not as light as those made with butter.

It’s a function of oil versus butter; oil is just denser and heavier. It’s not a bad thing, but if you want a light, delicate, airy cookie, these aren’t that.

These chocolate chip cookies that are made without butter are wonderfully weighty and thick so you can really sink your teeth into the pillowy soft interiors dripping with chocolate!

stack of Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies with top cookie broken in two

How to Make Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Making chocolate chip cookies with coconut oil instead of butter is just as quick and easy! Here’s a look at how the no-butter chocolate chip cookies are made:

  1. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the oil, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined.
  2. Add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined.
  3. Mix in the chocolate chips.
  4. Using either a large cookie scoop or your hands, form 12 equal-sized balls.
  5. Chill the dough before baking. It’s absolutely crucial for thick, puffy, full cookies. If you bake with warm dough, your cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter and the coconut oil will render them oil puddles rather than cookies.
  6. Once chilled, transfer the cookie dough balls to a baking sheet and bake until slightly golden around the edges.

After getting the dough to the point where you add the dry ingredients, it’s super weird looking and does not look like ‘dough’. It’s shaggy and looks like shredded Play-Doh bits piled loosely in the bottom of a bowl. It’s both oily and dry, and you’ll think something is horribly wrong, but it’s fine.

If your dough is absolutely not coming together, and is fluffy, fuzzy, or too dry, drizzle in 1 tablespoon of coconut oil at a time until it comes together. Do this as a last resort because it can make the dough oily.

stack of Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies oozing melted chocolate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do the Cookies Taste Like Coconut?

The coconut oil chocolate chip cookies do NOT taste strongly of coconut. If you’re thinking piña colada, Hawaiian Tropic, tropical vacation, Seven Layer Bars type of in-your-face coconut flavor, no, not at all. It’s very subtle.

If anything, I think coconut oil creates cookies that taste a bit sweeter than butter-based cookies.

Do I Have to Use Pudding Mix? 

Yes, the instant vanilla pudding mix is a must in this recipe! You want to get the instant mix, not the cook and serve kind (and also don’t get sugar-free).

You don’t actually make the pudding according to package instructions, you just add it to the cookie dough and treat it like a dry ingredient. 

Can I Use Vegetable Oil in This Recipe? 

Without having tried it myself, I can’t say for sure. Like I said, I really love the subtle flavor the coconut oil adds to these cookies, so use it if you can. 

Can I Chill the Dough and Then Form the Cookies? 

I don’t recommend doing that since the dough becomes hard as a rock once chilled. It’s really hard to shape cookie dough once it’s chilled, so follow the recipe instructions as I’ve written them for best results. 

Can the All-Purpose Flour Be Substituted?

I’ve never made these no-butter chocolate chip cookies with any flour but all-purpose, so I can’t speak to how well these will turn out if you use a gluten-free flour or whole wheat.

I definitely don’t recommend using coconut flour in this recipe, as it acts like a sponge and will make the dough incredibly dry. 

three coconut oil cookies stacked on top of each other

Tips for Making Coconut Oil Cookies

Measuring the coconut oil

Your coconut oil MUST be liquid before you measure it out. Coconut oil becomes liquid when it’s warm, so you may need to heat yours for a few seconds in the microwave to get it to the right consistency. 

Shaping the cookie dough balls

When shaping the cookie dough into balls, you need to compress and compact the dough by squeezing it and it’ll come together. Don’t be afraid to really squeeze it!

As a bonus, your hands will be wonderfully moisturized from the coconut oil and it’s some of the best raw cookie dough I’ve ever had. I’ve sampled tons and I’m alive.

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookie

Bake time

Be careful not to over bake these cookies. They’ll likely still be pale and glossy in the very center when you take them out of the oven, but that’s okay!

I baked the cookies for 11 minutes, but if you choose to make smaller cookies, you’ll need to bake for less time. How much less? I don’t know.

The secret to these cookies is keeping them a touch underbaked, which I think is the secret to most good cookies. 

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies — You won't miss the butter at all in these coconut oil chocolate chip cookies! They're so soft and ever so slightly chewy. Dangerously good!  

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4.50 from 8 votes

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Averie Sunshine
You won't miss the butter at all in these coconut oil chocolate chip cookies! They're so soft and ever so slightly chewy. Dangerously good!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 11 minutes
Chill Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 26 minutes
Servings: 12 cookies
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Ingredients  

  • ¾ cup melted coconut oil, in liquid state, measured like you measure canola, olive, etc. oil
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • one 3.5-ounce packet instant vanilla pudding mix, not sugar-free and not ‘cook & serve’, no substitutions
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch salt, optional and to taste
  • one-12 ounce bag, 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Trader Joe’s)

Instructions 

  • To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the oil, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 2 minutes.
  • Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
  • Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Mixture will look shaggy and like shredded Play-Doh bits, and is both oily and dry; this is okay.
  • Using a large cookie scoop, 1/4-cup measure, or your hands, form approximately 12 equal-sized mounds of dough by compressing, compacting, and squeezing until the dough comes together; don’t be afraid to really squeeze it.*
  • Place mounds on a large plate or tray, flatten slightly (when properly chilled, cookies don’t flatten much while baking so flatten them now), cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading. Make sure the cookies are in the exact shape you want them before chilling, because it’s exceedingly difficult to re-shape them after chilling.
  • Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 11 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
  • Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

Notes

*If your dough is absolutely not coming together, and is fluffy, fuzzy, or seemingly too dry, drizzle in one tablespoon of coconut oil at a time until it comes together. Do this as a last resort because it can make the dough oily in a hurry. The chips are prone to falling out, but just keep pushing them back in.

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 442kcal, Carbohydrates: 60g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 16g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 16mg, Sodium: 284mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 41g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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4.50 from 8 votes (8 ratings without comment)

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Comments

  1. I love baking with coconut oil. I think you are absolutely right that it doesn’t make things taste like coconut per se but definitely a bit sweeter.

  2. Ohmy! These look superb. I had plans to start making your other chocolate chip cookie recipe with butter today, but when I came to your site to grab the recipe…and saw these…I cant resist but bake these as well!

  3. “All that chocolate” describes these cookies perfectly! I can’t stand CC cookies that only have a few stray chocolate chips here and there. LOVE how yours are loaded to the absolute MAX with choc chips!
    Cookies made with coconut oil has been on my must-make list and yeah, it is so happening here soon. pinned!

    1. Thanks for pinning & yeah, skimpy on the chocolate doesn’t work for me in a CHOCOLATE chip cookie. In other cookies, I can go without, but in my CCC’s, must be loaded!

  4. I have substituted butter in my favorite chocolate chip cookies before with a coconut oil based butter substitute and they came out great. I’ll have to try completely using coconut oil next time.

  5. I bought coconut oil several (ok, like 6) months ago and every time I bake, I glance at it and grab the butter. But not any more! You have convinced me. Must. Try. Coconut Oil! They look so soft and chewy and if the oil makes them more dense, then I am all in!

  6. I have had coconut oil based cookies on my white board for about 3 months now. WHY haven’t I done them yet? Happening this week, decided. :) These are fabulous – I love how you get the melty chocolate. Do you photo them warm? I can never get mine to be all glossy and perfect like that in shots.

    1. My routine is bake them, wait about 10-15 minutes, then photograph them. Just a normal cooking time so they’re not super fragile and then shoot them. But the melty chocolate shots, I do take a ton of pics to make sure I get the ones I really want. Sometimes melty choc can look like a literal hot mess and not pretty…LOL

  7. I love all your cookie recipes. They’re always so thick and fudgy and ridiculously delicious looking! Love that these are made without butter – they look just like the real thing! P.S. your sweet potato/potato fries are delicious! They were a breeze to make – and eat! ;)

  8. Oh yum! I absolutely love coconut oil in cookies and I love that it doesn’t give you that strong coconut taste. Lovin’ all of the gooey chocolate, oh my!

    Looks wonderful as always, Averie. Happy Saturday! :)

  9. Looks incredible, Averie! I really love how you described not only the texture but flavor difference when it comes to using coconut oil vs. butter. I have still not gone the coconut oil route but I’m really curious. Hearing your detailed explanation about the taste is so interesting and it’s very clear.

    1. Glad my descriptions & details are helpful. I tried to highlight the similariies/differences and you will love coconut oil baking when you try it!

  10. MY goodness these cookies look AMAZING with all those nibs of melted chocolate chips. Coconut oil in a cookie is defo a winner