As I was perfecting the recipe for my single serving (vegan) chocolate chip cookie, I hit a point where I realized, "This is so good, it would be amazing if I could make a whole batch of cookies like this." It was a bit of a lightbulb moment: now that I had successfully engineered a single serving cookie recipe, I now wanted to reverse-engineer that recipe and scale it UP to a full batch. Thanks to the simplicity of the original recipe, I figured it should be pretty easy to scale up and extremely easy to make, just like the single serving version. Stir together dry ingredients, stir together wet ingredients, combine them, scoop into cookies and bake. Easy-peasy. It would be the kind of recipe you can whip up on a weeknight because you feel like it, or last minute for a party, and bonus points because it's VEGAN. Once I had this idea in my head I couldn't let it go.

So I did some research and some math (I love this part), and I typed up a scaled version (roughly multiplied by 12). I gave it a shot and they turned out perfectly on the first try. (Shout-out to research and my math nerdiness.) I was sooooo excited. They even stay moist remarkably well, for like a solid 3 or 4 days. (My original non-vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe starts to go downhill after 48 hours.) I sent the recipe over to my resident vegan blogging BFF and recipe-tester, Abby from Heart of a Baker. She has since made them like five times because they're so easy but also because her coworkers and non-vegan husband love them. (Thanks Abby!)

I had been getting a little worried that I'd become so used to my single serving cookie that even though I loved it, some people might find it odd, especially as a full-blown batch of cookies. So I was very encouraged by the reviews from Abby. My parents also loved them, and Robert got mad at me for making them, which translates to: he likes them too much to have around as a temptation. My coworkers even gobbled them up - one of them said to me after eating one, "Sara what WAS that; it was so good!" I especially enjoyed letting them eat the cookies before breaking the news that it was a vegan recipe. They were definitely not expecting that.

So that's how I accidentally came up with my ultimate vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's surprisingly similar to my original "ultimate" cookie in texture and flavor, especially for a vegan cookie versus one with brown butter. They're not exactly the same, of course, but they both have the crispier edges with a chewier interior that I love. These vegan ones are smaller and a little thinner, but they still have the toffee/caramel notes I go for thanks to coconut sugar, dark brown sugar, vanilla and olive oil. And it obviously has that salty-sweet factor going on since I top them with my flaky vanilla salt, just like my originals. I guess my initial chocolate chip cookie experiment really helped me to figure out what I want from a chocolate chip cookie. I know what I like!

If you're vegan or non-vegan or maybe just avoiding dairy, I hope you give this (super easy) recipe a try. I love having it in my back pocket for last-minute cookie needs, or at least for when I need a bigger batch than the single serving option. (By the way, you should try that too if you haven't already.) I also like to convince myself that the amount of olive oil in these cookies means they're good for your cholesterol. I hope you love them as much as I do!

Illustration at top created with pencil and Photoshop. Prints of my illustrations (plus other products with my work on them) are available in my Society6 shop.

My Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Makes 27-29 three-inch cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 cups (292g) all purpose flour
1/3 cup (35g) flaxseed meal
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups (267g) chocolate chips (make sure they're vegan if you're trying to be vegan)
3/4 cup (140g) coconut sugar
3/4 cup (153g) dark brown sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
flaky salt for topping (preferably vanilla flaky salt - see note)

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat your oven to 350°F. Prep one or two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, flaxseed meal, kosher salt and baking soda. Add the chocolate chips and toss to coat.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the coconut sugar, dark brown sugar, olive oil, water and vanilla until it is emulsified. It will take a minute or two, but just be patient and then all of a sudden it will come together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula to combine until there are no more visible streaks of flour.
Using a medium cookie scoop, place 12 scoops of dough onto your parchment lined baking sheet, 1-2 inches apart. Top each dough mound with a little sprinkle of flaky salt.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown.
Let them rest on the cookie sheet for three minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.
Repeat with the rest of the dough. Enjoy!

NOTES

To make your own flaky vanilla salt, just mix some "caviar" from vanilla beans with some flaky sea salt, like Maldon. I use 2-3 beans for about 1/3 cup of salt. It'll keep in your pantry forever (but you're gonna start using it on all of your cookies, I promise).