These delicious Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies are perfectly crispy on the outside with a warm, gooey center, and super thick middle. You’ll beg for more!
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We have made A LOT of vegan cookies here (over 20 to be exact). Veganizing all of our favorites and some of yours too. However, these Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies may just be the best yet.
If you have never heard of these cookies before, they are an ode to the infamous Levain Bakery. They started in New York City in 1995 and are known for there insanely thick cookies with gooey centers and the perfect crisp outside texture. It’s the best of all the worlds on cookie lovers, and today we are veganizing them.
Still super thick. Still gooey on the inside. And still have that crispy outside. Proving yet again, we can veganize it all (It just may take a lot of trial and error and time).
Oh, and they just need 9 ingredients and only one bowl. Oh yes, let’s make a double batch!
Tips on how to make the best Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe:
We list a ton of tips above and highly recommend that you read each one if before you cook your cookies; however, if you want the short version here’s some easy tips on making the best vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe.
- Preheat the oven before you start making your dough and let it preheat for at least 30 minutes.
- Make sure to watch the video before making
- Use a cookie scoop to ensure uniform size of cookies so they bake at an even temperature.
- Don’t make substitutions unless you are aware of the changes it will make to your cookies
- Watch your cookies in the oven as all oven temperatures are different you may need to pull out your cookies earlier or leave longer
Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the main ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make this easy vegan dessert recipe:
- Flours – We are using all purpose flour and cake flour for this recipe. Cake flour helps to make the cookies lighter and fluffier. When you combine the two in this way for cookies, you get an impeccable texture.
- Flax Egg – Our egg replacer of choice here. When you combine ground flax seed and water together and let it sit it will become gelatinous. This is called a flax egg
- Vegan Butter – we need oil in cookies for moisture and the best texture. It also provides the richness we expect cookies to have
- Brown and Cane Sugar – We are using both brown and cane sugar. Obviously it’s about sweetening, but the amount of brown sugar we are adding here also helps with the softness of the cookies thanks to the presence of molasses. If you want to learn more about why your sugar may not be vegan, you can learn more by clicking on the link.
- Baking Powder – helps again with the softness and helping us get that thick texture
- Vegan Chocolate Chips – We are using semi-sweet vegan chips that you can now easily find.
- Walnuts – The original Levain Bakery cookies have walnuts, and we personally love chocolate and walnuts together, so it was delicious and we recommend it!
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- Flours – You can do the entire amount of just all-purpose flour, but you will get some texture changes. What we recommend instead is where the recipe calls for ¾ cake flour to measure out ¾ all-purpose and then remove 1 tablespoon of the flour, replace this with cornstarch. It will give a similar effect to you adding the cake flour. Alternatively, you could also do gluten free 1:1 flour blend like King Arthur or Bob’s.
- Flax Egg – You can sub the flax egg with ½ cup unsweetened applesauce. That would be our first preference, but you could also sub the same amount of banana, pumpkin or sweet potato puree, or non-dairy yogurt. Some of these may alter taste and texture.
- Brown and Cane Sugar – You can try coconut or date granulated sugars, but we have not tested these.
- Vegan Chocolate Chips – Try vegan white chips or dark chocolate or a combination of them all
Frequently Asked Questions on how to make the best Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Can I make these Top 8 Allergen Free?
Whether you have a gluten allergy or dairy or another Top 8, you will be happy to know that you can make these completely free of top allergens.
For the vegan butter, we would recommend using a soy free vegan butter, like Earth Balance soy free in the red tub
For gluten free, we have had the best of luck with King Arthur Measure for Measure flour.
Can I make any substitutions?
Besides the substitutions above for making Top 8 Allergen free, we are frequently asked if you can make them without vegan butter or swap out the sugar for a healthy sugar source.
The answer is yes, but. Yes, you can, but the taste and texture is obviously going to differ once you start making any changes.
For the butter you could make these Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies with applesauce by replacing in the same amount.
For the sugar, we would recommend just replacing with a coconut sugar versus something else.
Can I prep these ahead?
Yes! Let cool completely and then leave in an air tight container on the counter for up to 5 days.
Can I freeze the dough?
Of course. Whether you want to eat the entire batch at one time or you just need a couple here and there, you can totally roll out what you need and then freeze the remaining batter in an air tight freezer container or bag
Can I refrigerate the dough until ready to use?
Absolutely! Make the dough ahead, cover the bowl and place in the fridge up to a week.
It does take very chilled cookies longer to cook so check after the recommended baking time and you may need an additional few minutes to finish your cookies.
What is vegan sugar?
In the United States, most sugar has been processed through bone char. While there are no animal parts left in the sugar, many vegans are not okay with the practice of using animal parts in the refining process.
This refers to white sugar, brown sugar, and powdered sugar.
One easy way to ensure that your sugar has not been processed with bone char is to look for Organic or Non-Gmo sugars as bone char is not allowed with either of these.
Some sugar packages also say bone char free.
This is not the case in most other countries.
What makes these Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies easy?
First, if you are newly vegan and looking for something that reminds you of traditional chocolate chip cookies without sacrificing anything in texture or taste, then this is the easiest recipe you are going to find.
Also, it’s only made in one bowl, there’s only 9 ingredients, and you don’t need to chill the dough before using, which means you can have cookies ready to eat in under 20 minutes.
Are vegan chocolate chip cookies healthy?
When you eat a cookie like this, you release serotonin which is always a healthy thing to have happen.
This recipe does contain vegan butter and vegan sugar; however both of those could be replaced with substitutions like applesauce and coconut sugar to make healthier, although the taste and texture would differ.
Can I eat this cookie dough?
Many people believe that since there’s no eggs in the dough, that they could just eat the dough; however, flour is actually more a risk for salmonella poisoning than eggs.
For that reason, we do not recommend eating this dough.
However, we do have an edible vegan chocolate chip cookie dough that you can eat. As well as a gluten free edible vegan chocolate chip cookie dough.
Are chocolate chips vegan?
Traditionally, milk chocolate chips are not vegan; however, many dark chocolate chips can be vegan.
The main ingredient that makes a cookie not vegan is either milk or whey (whey powder). If those ingredients are not included in the ingredient list, then the chocolate chips are likely vegan.
You could also make your own vegan chocolate chips by following a homemade chocolate recipe and then piping chips instead.
Where do you find vegan chocolate chips?
If you are looking to just find vegan chocolate chips in the store, then you can absolutely find them. They are actually getting easier and easier.
One of our favorites is Enjoy Life, and they can be found in most grocery stores, Target, Walmart, and stores like Whole Foods and natural grocery stores. They are Top 8 Allergen Free and do not contain and dairy or eggs making them completely vegan.
Stores like Whole Foods will also have a large variety of other vegan chocolate chips like Lilys or Chatfields.
What are your favorite vegan chocolate chips?
We have a tendency to just stick with Enjoy Life or the Top 8 Allergen Free Organic line from Great Value (Walmart). They are easiest to find and they taste almost indistinguishable from traditional chips.
However, if we found a good dark chocolate bar that we like, for example Aldi’s 70% cacao bars, then sometimes we use those too.
Should my dough be sticky?
No. If you have sticky dough and followed the instructions, it could be because of the altitude that you live at or maybe things weren’t measure entirely correctly.
In the case of your dough because sticky, we first recommend that you watch the video.
After that, you can able a few tablespoons of flour at a time until the dough is no longer sticky.
What are other awesome vegan cookie ideas that I should make?
Whether you are doing a cookie exchange or you just want to switch up and make a new vegan cookie recipe, we have you covered.
We have over a dozen vegan cookie recipes that you can find when you click on our best vegan cookie recipes roundup.
We have everything from the salted caramel cookies you see above, as well as things like:
- vegan snickerdoodles
- vegan classic sugar cookies
- vegan peanut butter cookies
- vegan oatmeal cookies
- and more!
Just click here.
Pin these easy Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies for later:
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 6 tbsp water
- ½ cup vegan butter, cold, sliced into tablespoon pats (115g)
- ¾ cup vegan brown sugar, packed (160g)
- ¼ cup vegan cane sugar (30g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour (150g)
- ¾ cup cake flour (90g)*See notes below
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 cups vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (340g)
- 1 cup walnuts, (115g) chopped, OPTIONAL
- salt flakes for topping, OPTIONAL
Instructions
- In a small bowl, add the ground flax and water. Stir together, set aside. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add vegan butter and both sugars. Beat with a mixer (stand or hand) for 4-6 minutes. It should be light and creamy.
- Add vanilla extract and flax mixture. Beat them until combined (about 20-30 seconds).
- To the same bowl, add the flours, baking powder and salt and beat just until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
- Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (if adding).
- Use a large ice cream scoop or your hands to make 6 cookies and place on a baking sheet. Optional, place a few more chocolate chips on the the tops of the cookies. Chill cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes. While waiting, preheat oven to 375˚F (190˚C).
- Bake the cookies for 15-18 mins. Remove from oven and let rest about 15 – 20 mins to set. Add salt flakes if desired.
- Store any leftovers in an air tight container.
Hi, I tripled the recipe to give cookies out for the holidays and so far I’ve gotten great feedback on them. They’re light and crisp on the outside and gooey on the inside. I used the country crock plant butter stick with almond oil (because I thought the almond oil would pair well with the walnuts). I am curious to try it with the earth balance sticks, regular brown sugar instead of light, and chocolate chunks instead of chips. Very delicious cookie and the size really sets it apart. I used a large cookie scoop and my cookies were done in 17 minutes. Thank you for the recipe. 🙂
So glad that you are enjoying the recipe and so is everyone you are sharing with!
Made these yesterday and they’re sooo good! I actually made them smaller then I should’ve, but next time I’ll get the size right.
They’re really delicious!! Can’t belive I made these at home, haha.
Next recipe I’ll be doing is the Cinnamon Vegan Star Bread. Can’t wait for it!
Thanks for teaching us how to make such delicious food!!
So glad that you are enjoying the recipe! Hope you love the next one too!
I am a YTube subscriber and this video..! I could no longer put off making these cookies. I just took them out the oven and they’re beautiful! Who says that about cookies (that you bake lol)?! Thank you both for what you do! I am ecstatic about how this recipe turned out.
So glad that you love them!
Really simple and ended up delicious! Thick and chewy with a crunchier outside. Definitely making it again!
So glad that you are enjoying the recipe!
So I baked these to spec last night, (almost – no walnuts, so subbed in some chopped pecans, because yum), and they were a lot of fun! I had a small issue with oven temperature and baking time however. 375° for 15-18 mins did not work well for me. They came out well over browned and almost blackened on the base at barely 15 mins, but still doughy/almost raw in the middle. The bake temp was too hot and time too short for such a large, heavy cookie. I think next time, I may try 350° and bake for longer. Aside from the raw dough in the middle, these were delicious and will be a repeat. Thank you!
Sorry that didn’t work for you. It sounds like your oven runs hotter and would agree to reduce your temp. If you try again, let us know how it works
This sounds delicious and I will definitely add it to my cookie collection in my new growing dairy free recipe collection. My son does well with eggs, just not milk. I wonder if swapping the flax egg for a regular egg will be okay in this recipe. Do you recommend it, or will I have to make an adjustment in the dry/wet proportions?
Sorry we don’t have recommendations for that as we don’t cook with eggs
These are looking fabulous!
I appreciate the (new?) option to convert the measurements into metric, but as far as I can tell the conversions are off by quite a margin, maybe there’s a little tweaking needed?
Anyway, keep it up with those awesome recipes 🙂
Greetings from Germany,
Johannes
Thanks, we’ll take another look
Should I sift the cake flour
It never hurts to sift!