Throughout my childhood, Mom rarely baked treats from scratch because she spent so much time shuttling my brother and me between school, sports practices, and music lessons. (Thanks for doing that Mom! You’re the best!) As a result, we typically found store-bought desserts in our lunchboxes at school.
We occasionally received cream-filled vanilla cupcakes or miniature chocolate cake rolls as a special treat, but more commonly, Mom tucked in a cookie or two. Those varied a lot—everything from crispy sugar wafers and chocolate-filled elf cookie sandwiches to pink-frosted animal crackers and Fig Newtons to Oreos and chocolate chip cookies. As long as they were chewy, those last ones were our favorites!
During college, my brother realized he developed an allergy to eggs, so he gave up most of those store-bought treats… Except Oreos. Those omitted his new “problem food!”
While grocery shopping last month, I picked up a box of our favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies from our childhood, and I flipped it over on a whim to look at the ingredients list. In shock, I reread it four times to make sure I didn’t miss anything… They didn’t include eggs and were perfectly safe for my brother!
With that information in mind, I set out to recreate a healthier version of our favorite childhood cookies at home… And these Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Egg-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies are the result! They’re just as sweet and irresistible as those soft-baked childhood treats, but they have no butter, eggs, refined flour or sugar and just 66 calories!
Every person in my family called them the BEST egg-free chocolate chip cookies… And they take cookies very seriously! ??
To make these healthy chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need a few key ingredients, starting with white whole wheat flour. Yes, that actually exists! White whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of soft white wheat, which gives it a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour, as well as the same nutrients and health benefits (like extra fiber!) as regular whole wheat flour. It’s a staple in my pantry!
Note: I included my favorite gluten-free flour blend in the Notes section of the recipe, if you prefer!
You’ll skip the refined granulated sugar and sweeten your cookies with coconut sugar instead. Coconut sugar is exactly what it sounds like: an unrefined sweetener that comes from coconuts! However, it does NOT actually taste like coconuts! It has a rich, caramel-like taste, very similar to brown sugar. It’s dark in color and pours like granulated sugar. You can find coconut sugar (like this!) at many grocery stores, as well as Target and Walmart.
Instead of butter and eggs, you’ll use coconut oil and unsweetened cashew milk. Any milk will work—dairy milk, almond milk, soy milk, you name it!—but because my brother is lactose-intolerant and because I always keep unsweetened cashew milk on hand, that’s what I used. I absolutely love this cashew milk! It’s thick and creamy, very similar to whole milk or light cream, but it only has 25 calories per cup!
Exactly like in those childhood favorites, I just mixed mini chocolate chips into the cookie dough. These are the ones I use! They have a very rich flavor and melt well while baking. Plus their smaller size ensures that every bite contains multiple morsels of chocolate!
Once you’ve mixed it together, you’ll briefly chill the cookie dough to help it stiffen before dropping it onto your baking sheet and flattening with a spatula. (← Those are my favorites! Aren’t they cute?) Just like those store-bought chewy cookies, I made these cookies smaller than your standard cookie size, which means they bake faster! And when you’re craving chocolate chip cookies… Every saved second counts!
You just can’t beat a classic chocolate chip cookie! ??? And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your cookies and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Egg-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies | | Print |
- 1 cup (120g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
- 1 ½ tsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp (30mL) unsweetened cashew milk, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (96g) coconut sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp (35g) miniature chocolate chips, divided
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, bakingsoda, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the butter, milk, and vanilla. Stir in the coconut sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in 2 tablespoons of miniature chocolate chips. Chill the cookie dough for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet using a spoon and a small spatula. Flatten the cookie dough to the desired thickness and width using the spatula. Gently press the remaining miniature chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 7-9 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
For a gluten-free flour substitute, I recommend the following: ¼ cup (30g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, 3 tablespoons (21g) coconut flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Many store-bought gluten-free flour blends will work as well, if measured like this.
The cornstarch helps keep the cookies soft and chewy.
Any milk may be substituted for the unsweetened cashew milk milk.
Light brown sugar may be substituted for the coconut sugar.
These cookies are smaller than your average chocolate chip cookie to make them a similar size as the chewy chocolate chip cookies that my brother loved during our childhood.
This recipe is easily doubled!
{gluten-free, clean eating, vegan, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
♥ The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
♥ The Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
♥ The Ultimate Healthy Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
♥ Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
♥ Mini Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
♥ Blueberry Banana Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Chocolate Chip Eggnog Oatmeal Cookies
♥ Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
For those who use subs , white flour & brown sugar/white sugar or for those having issues. I Added a tsp more for milk (wasn’t needed but helped for mixing. 350 on a silicon sheet seemed to not bake had in for 15minutes… to cook the cookies i had to turn oven up to 375 and have on the pan itself as flat as i could get the cookies dough for 10 minutes. The raw batch was icky as it has starch and baking powder and needs to be cooked properly, but omg the second batch!!! Delicious!!! Will make again, don’t always have much eggs & butter on hand so this was amazing.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies Tracy! It means the world to me that you plan on baking them again — that’s the best kind of compliment! 🙂
I love ❤️ app your recipes but I was wondering what the corn starch how much ?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Teresa! I’m not quite sure I understand your question. If you’re asking how much cornstarch to use, that information is included in the Ingredients list in the recipe box! (If you’re not located in the US, then sometimes cornstarch goes by “corn flour” in other countries. It should be a fine, powdery, white flour! 🙂 )
I’d love to hear what you think of these cookies if you try making them!
The best cookies ever! My oldest has many issues with food, and thanks to your recipe using oat flour and without the chocolate I was able to give him cookies!! They’re so good that now they have become our favourite treat! Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you and your oldest loved these cookies Monica!! That means the world to me, especially since he has many food issues. Between all of my various family members, we have a plethora of food allergies and intolerances to deal with here too, so I have an idea of how tricky it can be to find a recipe that works for everyone. I’m really happy the oat flour option works for your family!! 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a a comment — it made my day!
But what about the chocolate chips? They contain a ton of unhealthy ingredients? 🙂
If you’re concerned, then I recommend using my homemade chocolate chips recipe! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try these cookies (and the homemade chocolate chips!) Debbie!
These tasted great! However, no matter how many times I’ve made these cookies, they all have a really wet bottom (not underdone, just wet). They also don’t spread a lot, and I have trouble making the cookies have those beautiful crack lines (they can be seen in the pictures above, but if you look at your latest red velvet chocolate chip cookies recipe, they look more prettier & obvious). I’ve made no substitutions and weighed all my ingredients.
Any advices?
I’m so glad you love these cookies’ flavor Sue! My red velvet chocolate chip cookies recipe is a tiny bit different than this one (it has cocoa powder as well as 1 additional tablespoon of liquid {between the food coloring and milk}, and that makes the cookies spread more!), which is why the crack lines are much more pronounced in those cookies. However, I’m still happy to try to solve that mystery of your missing cracks with this recipe!
By “wet,” do you mean soft? Or chewy? I’m not quite sure I fully understand the difference between “wet” and “underdone,” so I just want to make sure I get exactly what you’re saying!
Did you use a kitchen scale for the milk, or did you use measuring cups? Did you use unsweetened cashew milk? Did you use white whole wheat flour or gluten-free? (I know you said you didn’t make any substitutions, but I did provide different options, so I want to make sure I know exactly which ingredients you used! 🙂 )
When you flattened your cookies with the spatula before baking, did you smooth their tops really well? So there were no lumps or bumps?
I know I just asked a LOT of questions, but once I know your answers to all of them, I should have a much better idea of the culprit and how to fix it!
For the wet part, it’s soft, moist and sticky (some parts stick to the baking sheet). It does dry after some time, but then the cookies felt more cakey than chewy. I used measuring cups/tablespoons for the milk (whole/cows’ milk). I used all purpose flour, and I roll the cookie dough into balls with hands after chilling (the top is smooth, so could that be the case?).
Yes! If you’re rolling the dough into balls after chilling, then that’s why. If you do as Step 3 directs and use a spoon and spatula to drop the cookie dough onto the baking sheet, that will leave some of the “natural” cracks in the cookie dough that you see from scooping it out of the bowl with the spoon. If you roll the cookie dough into balls, that smooths out all of the cracks in the dough, so you won’t see any in their tops. Does that make sense? 🙂
Are you using a silicone baking mat or parchment paper to line your baking sheet? How long are you baking your cookies?
1st time I made them: 7 minutes at 175 Celsius. They were much softer and cakier like sponge and the top was already a little burnt.
2nd time: I reduced to 6 minutes at 160 Celsius (to prevent burning and in another recipe you wrote that the cookies will turn cakey if baked too long). This time was soft but not in a chewy kind of way. It’s like cake but slightly harder (not airy and spongy though).
I used aluminium foil for the 2nd time.
Thanks for sharing Sue! If the cookies were almost burnt after 7 minutes, at 175°C, then it really does sound like your oven isn’t functioning properly — or at least not like American ovens! I know we’ve covered this in another set of comments on my chai spice snickerdoodles recipe, but these cookies should not be even close to burnt after 7 minutes. It should take at least 25 minutes to burn them!
Did you use the middle oven rack position when baking? (Not one of the other four notches in your electric oven?) If you measure with a ruler or measuring tape, what are the dimensions of the inside of your oven?
At this point it seems like it’s my oven that has problems, since it has also been in house for quite some time. I’ll change it to a new one soon if possible. Thanks for the advices!
It’s my pleasure Sue! I’m always happy to help — or at least try to identify the issue and possible solutions! 😉
hi I am from India. Today I tried this recipe. I used whole wheat flour which is available here and I used butter. My dough was not like yours as it is shown in picture and my dough was in solid form. I made cookies shape by rolling on my hand and pressing it. What can be the reason for my mistake. Please suggest.
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Priti! I’m happy to help figure out that issue. 🙂 How did you measure your whole wheat flour? Did you use a kitchen scale or measuring cups? If the latter, can you describe in detail how you used them to measure?
Also, did you make any modifications to the recipe, including those listed in the Notes section, besides using whole wheat flour? And did you use the full amount of milk?
Excellent recipe! Very nice chewy texture! I used gluten free flour and didn’t completely melt the butter so it didn’t need chilling. Fantastic result!
Thanks for this valuable addition to my recipe collection!
I’m so glad you loved these cookies, Joanne! That means the world to me that you’d add this recipe to your collection — I’m honored! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂