Ovenly's Secretly Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been trying to get this recipe to work for YEARS now, and finally came to the frustrated conclusion that there's so many issues with this recipe I'd just bin it. No amount of fancy salt on top or gimmicky “aging” for a day is going to save this dough. I liked that the recipe calls inexpensive ingredients like canola instead of pricey vegan butter, which is why I kept at it so long. But without the butter, milk and eggs/egg substitute there simply isn't enough hydration in the dough to develop any structure. You're left with a crumbly, greasy mess both before and after going in the oven, unless you majorly overbake it. Even with overtaking, the texture turns out somehow both simultaneously underbaked and mushy but also crumbly and dry, again probably from the lack of adequate dough hydration & structure to bake through properly. I really don’t understand the notes about managing cookie spreading either, because this dough hardly spreads at all. Why should it? There’s no solid fat to liquefy and slack the dough at oven temp. And as for the flavor itself, it doesn’t matter if you age it for one minute, one hour, one day or more - I’ve tried, and the a 24 or 48 hour rested dough makes just as bland cookies as baking immediately after mixing. There’s nothing actually IN the dough to give it any flavor - no butter, milk, vanilla, or spices. Sticking flour, water and sugar in the fridge overnight doesn’t pull a Rumpelstiltskin and spin it into confectionary gold.

I don’t want to impugn the bakers who posted this recipe, but for the above reasons I’ve encountered trying this recipe over a dozen times, I have a really hard time believing it could ever produce cookies like the ones in the photos and video. Either there’s a discrepancy in the recipe, or it’s extremely sensitive to variations in brands of flour, sugar, magical troll sous-chefs… Either way, there are plenty of better & more reliable recipes out there to waste any more time on this one.

Next time, I would add at least 2 tsp vanilla and use dark brown sugar. But they are still fantastic as-is.

I love these cookies! I let the dough refrigerate 24 hours but didn’t chill the cookies before baking. I subtracted 1 tsp water and replaced it with vanilla extract. I added two extra minutes baking time for a little extra color.

Delicious! I just made these cookies and though I was a little doubtful after reading the comments, the cookies turned out perfectly- soft and chewy. I followed the recipe exactly for the ingredients (I used a scale and weighed them out), except I only let the dough rest for 6 hours in the fridge and I did not freeze them before baking as I found it was not necessary. The cookies flattened out just right, and as soon as I took them out I banged the pan against the counter a few times so they would have beautiful crinkles on the surface. They were delicious, gooey, and definitely something I will be making again!

I have made this recipe too many times to count and love it so much. My favorite version uses Guittard dark chocolate chips and California Olive Ranch everyday olive oil. I have also made them gluten free, using Cup4Cup, with great results. Another nice thing about this recipe is that it makes fantastic cookie dough you can eat raw because there are no eggs.

The BEST chocolate chip cookies i have EVER HAD! I cut back on the white sugar to 1/2 cup and found that sweetness was perfect. Instead of 2 cups of flour, I added 1 3/4 cups. I also added 1 tsp vanilla and would add some chopped walnuts nxt time I make these. They have a crispy outside, and a soft doughy inside, and are soooooo good! I would really recommend making these :)

I'm not vegan, though others in my household are, but I love these chocolate chip cookies. I do find I end up having to troubleshoot the amount of flour a little bit-- if I make them with the weight measurements the dough comes out super greasy, and I usually end up adding 25-30 more grams of flour. On the other hand, the one time I've made it by volume measurements I clearly had packed significantly more flour per cup than 125 g, and the dough was really crumbly as other reviewers have described. If I were making this recipe without a scale again, I'd start with 1.5 or 1.75 cups of flour and evaluate how much of the last half or quarter cup I needed. It's also a ton of chocolate chips-- for me just a cup is totally fine. Even with those caveats, this is still definitely my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe-- it's so simple and delicious.

These were a complete mess! I used grapeseed oil and made sure not to overmix. When I pulled the dough out of the fridge they were complete grease bombs. After 18 minutes in the oven I pulled them out and they ended up being almost raw in the middle. I don't get this recipe, at all.

I’ve been making these for awhile, not because I’m vegan but because they are easy and delicious. Today I experimented with adding 160g of my sourdough discard- I then adjusted the recipe to 170g of four (instead of 250g) and did not add any water. It worked great- maybe a tiny bit loose and spready, because 80g of water works out to a bit more than a 1/4 cup- but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again and I’m always looking for places to squirrel away my discard- adding this to my crackers/waffles/crumpets/pizza dough rotation.

Mine are ready to bake but when they came out of the fridge they were very crumbly and I had to form them by hand or they just fell apart. I even bent the ice cream scoop, the dough was that hard. Any ideas where I went wrong? I am betting they will be delicious but hard for me to work with.

I just made these, followed the method exactly as written and had pretty good results. I made the following adjustments to the ingredients to make them gluten free:

subbed AP flour for 250g Bob's red mill 1:1 gluten-free flour
used only 3 Tbsp of water instead of 5 tbsp water
added a flax egg (2.5 tbsp water + 1 tbsp flax meal, stir and let sit 5 mins before adding to wet ingredients)
added 1 tsp vanilla extract
subbed olive oil for canola

Hope that helps for anyone who's wondering how to make them gluten free.

I just baked some cookies off, after being chilled overnight. Well worth it! The batch I froze for 10min pre baking definitely held their shape much better. The taste!! Omgeee!! I was wondering if I could substitute a portion of the oil with unsweetened apple sauce. I know chocolate chip cookies need the fat though. Amazing cookies! 🍪🌿✌️

These cookies are awesome! Chewy, thick, and flavorful. I also love to freeze them after baking and biting into a cold cookie :)

Shockingly good!

I mostly make these cookies when my vegan or allergen friends are coming over! They always turn out great and I love them. I most recently tried a 1 to 1 gluten free flour though and they did not turn out great. They were grainy. Just an FYI for anyone who would want to try them gluten free. I used Target's Good and Gather flour. If anyone has a suggestion on a different gluten free alternative, let me know!

Without a doubt the best cookies ever! I followed the instructions, right down to freezing and a little sea salt and they turned out absolutely amazing. I used light brown sugar and grapeseed oil.

These cookies were such a pleasant surprise! I am a former professional pastry chef so I immediately noticed issues with this dough. I could tell it was going to spread like crazy and not be anything like the photos. I used a scale for measurements so I know my measurements were accurate. People seem to be complaining of crumbly dough, mine was just the opposite. It was extremely smooth and soft and wouldn’t hold a shape at all. I was going to add a little more flour but I decided to remedy this issue by putting in my freezer for a few hours. I did not have time to wait for 12 hours. The dough never froze into a solid mass and it was in my freezer for three hours. It became firmer though. I used a cookie scooper and scooped it out onto a baking sheet covered with nonstick foil. I think if I had baked this in a conventional oven there would have been problems but I used my countertop Breville smart oven on the super convection setting. The hot air circulated evenly around the cookies and this helped them keep their shape. They spread out into a perfect cookie, not too thick, not too puffy....they were just right. I used dark brown sugar instead of light and I did add 1 tsp vanilla. I didn’t top with salt because I am not a fan of this. I baked at 350 on the super convection settling for about 9 minutes. The cookies were soft and chewy. For a crisper cookie I would up the time to 11 minutes. I would definitely make these again!

So I read the reviews after I made the dough because of the water in the recipe, I thought that a vegan milk would have given the cookie more flavor.
I don't think they were the best cookies I've tried, and with the 12-24 hour rest, I definitely think there's some better recipes out there. It is nice to see something without vegan butter and vegan milk for those who might not have access to it though.

So I found that when the cookies were warm, they indeed tasted like nothing, as other reviews have mentioned. But left to sit out overnight, they were pretty good, and the one I just had thawed (but not heated) from the freezer was excellent. I really enjoy the texture. I don't agree with putting vanilla in all baked goods, but I think it would add something here, as would a bit of whole wheat flour.

Has anyone else noticed that it says 2 cups of flour but 250 grams? 250 grams is 1 cup of flour! I made them with 250 grams and they’re chewy and really thin. They were great but I’m Wondering if I should make them with two cups next time?