A (mostly) dairy-free version of a chocolate chip cookie

Vegan Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made July 24, 2021, recipe modified from Cooking with Karli

I visited my niece and her husband last month and one of the things they asked me to do was bake some cookies, some for my niece to send to a friend and some for my nephew-in-law to give to some of his customers at work. My niece isn't strictly lactose intolerant but she does minimize eating dairy as much as possible. 

Cookie dough made with vegan butter

I have a long-standing love affair with dairy butter so the world of vegan baking and vegan butter is quite alien to me. But I'm always willing to learn and try new things in baking (most of the time) and I was intrigued on how this whole vegan butter thing would work. After doing some googling on the subject, it appears not all vegan butters are created equal. This article from King Arthur Flour was useful but what was even more useful is my niece has been baking with vegan butter long enough to have personal knowledge of "the good kind" and, most importantly, had some Miyoko's vegan butter on hand for me to work with. 

Cookie dough made with dairy butter

I used the Crumbl copycat recipe I posted earlier from Cooking with Karli since I already knew the dairy butter version was fantastic. I wanted to see how it would hold up using vegan butter so I made a half recipe using dairy butter and a half recipe using the Miyoko's vegan butter to test whether they would be a noticeable difference in taste or texture. I've captioned which was which in the pictures so you can tell the difference.

Dough balls with vegan butter

The dairy butter version was slightly more moist than the vegan butter version. I had some dry bits with the vegan butter dough but it wasn't too bad and I simply used the warmth from my hands when shaping the dough balls to help the dough stick together.

Dough balls with dairy butter

This is not a vegan cookie since it still has eggs nor is it completely dairy free since the chocolate chips also have dairy in them. But we went with dark chocolate chips for my niece's batch to minimize the milk in the chips. And please note vegan butter is usually made up of nut butters so this is not for anyone with a nut allergy.

Cookie made with vegan butter

So I guess I should call it "minimal dairy cookie" or "cookie made with vegan butter" to be accurate. I was pleasantly surprised that this was pretty good, both in flavor but also in texture. Moist, "fudgy", chewy, not dry or crumbly at all. I have the privilege of not being allergic to anything so I have very limited experience with having to limit my food choices because I need to avoid dairy, nuts, gluten, etc. But it's nice to know viable options are out there for a variety of tastes, whether it be for physiological reasons or more climate conscientiousness or for any other reason.

Cookie made with dairy butter

Now that I've had my first successful foray with vegan butter, I'm now inspired to see if I can make the complete plunge into vegan baking and tinker with this recipe to accommodate an egg replacement and vegan chocolate chips. More to come.

Vegan butter

Inside the vegan butter chocolate chip cookie

1 cup vegan butter (I used Miyoko's brand)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (if chilling the dough, do not do this step until you're ready to bake).
2. Cream together vegan butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition to combine. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Add in two additions to butter mixture, mixing after each addition until just combined. If dough is a little dry, mix by hand to incorporate the dry bits. Add a drop or two of vanilla extract if you still have dry bits.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls and flatten slightly; these cookies don't spread very much. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw.
5. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely.