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!
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.
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!
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:
- 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.
- Add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined.
- Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Using either a large cookie scoop or your hands, form 12 equal-sized balls.
- 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.
- Once chilled, transfer the cookie dough balls to a baking sheet and bake until slightly golden around the edges.
Cookie Dough Tip
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
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
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Even More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies – You won’t miss the butter in these olive oil chocolate chip cookies!! They’re soft and chewy, loaded with chocolate, and have a unique flavor from the olive oil but it’s not overpowering!
Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies — My gold standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for over two years.
Soft M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies — These cookies are a Pinterest hit and so good!
Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies – Move over butter, cream cheese keeps these cookies soft and extra thick
The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loaded with chocolate, and they turn out perfectly every time! Totally irresistible!!
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies — No butter in these soft, moist, chewy cookies that have tons of texture from shredded coconut and oats, and are loaded to the max with chocolate
They look so incredible! I will be trying these tomorrow :)
https://lifeisbeauty1994.blogspot.ie
LMK how it goes!
I’m shocked and impressed these are as good as the ones made with butter! They certainly look great! I need to use coconut oil as lotion – my hands are dead from this winter.
And it smells way better than any lotion too! :) Plus your skin absorbs some of the trace healthy fats (trace) but still, it’s nice you are delivering ‘food’ to your body via your skin!
Your cookies look scrumptious! I haven’t used coconut oil yet in anything, but I definitely plant to cause I want to make your cookies.
I LOVE coconut oil in cookies – it tastes so buttery and perfect :) And Coconut Oil does make the best hand moisturizer ever – one of the many reasons I love baking with it! Pinned!!
Thanks for pinning, Ceara!
Honestly I die. Look at those cookies. They look so delicious I can barely wait to make them! Your photos are so perfect!
The Macadame. xx
http://www.creamstop.com
Thanks for the nice compliments!
I’m crazy about coconut oil so I really want to try this!
All that chocolate!! YES!!!!
I really, really, really want to be your official taste tester. All of that gooey decadent melty chocolate?? YUM! Coconut oil is one of my new favorite fats for cookies right now. I love how it adds that super subtle, almost imperceptible sweet/floral/tropical/plain-ol’-delicious undertone to cookies. I hadn’t thought about moisturizing my hands by baking cookies — guess I have one more excuse to bake more! ;)
Goodness, these cookies look absolutely irresistible!! Dying to try them out :)
Thank you for ALL your comments today, Brandy! You are too sweet and thank you for taking the time to read all those posts and comment! You’re the best :)
All that chocolate makes my mouth water, those cookies look absolutely amazing!
I love all the details you share when comparing cookie recipes. These coconut oil cookies sound so good – I’m also a huge fan of soft, dense, and chewy cookies. Especially the ones bursting with chocolate!
These look so gooey and irresistible!
Thanks Avery for giving us such well-researched recipe explanations, it’s super helpful to have a good understanding of a recipe before starting out, especially with baking and when substituting traditional ingredients!
Glad it’s helpful!
I’m amazed at how thick these cookies turned out! It’s so interesting to me how different properties of baking ingredients affect the cookies in different ways, (e.g. soft, crunchy, etc) so thanks for noting that!
I was happy too! Thick cookies always rock :)
Averie, these look like heaven. Honestly! I love all the cookies I make from your site. Have a fun weekend and enjoy these cookies. :)
Thanks for trying so many recipes & glad you’ve loved them all!
I could live off of your cookie photos, they just look so delicious! I haven’t invested in trying coconut oil myself yet, one of these days…
Seriously, this is what I mean when I said no one can make a stack of cookies look as good as you do Averie! I want to take the entire stack and shove it in my face, that melty chocolate gets me every time!
You are so sweet! Thank you! I feel like all my shoots have a signature stack. Sometimes I wonder if people notice the difference but it’s just like…the only way I can even photograph cookies :) Thank you so much for the compliments!! :)