Edible Vegan Cookie Dough

Edible cookie dough is everyone’s favourite part of baking cookies, and with this recipe, you don’t need to bother with the baking. Coming from someone who used to buy tubes of cookie dough and eat it with a spoon, this is a serious level up.

In addition to being vegan (egg-free, obviously) this cookie dough is also gluten free, made with coconut and almond flour. Wheat flour can cause some serious illnesses when consumed raw, so going GF sidesteps that issue no problem. These naturally sweet high protein flours also make for a delicious cookie dough that is vaguely healthy-ish, too.

There are a number of variations provided below so you can mix up your cookie dough however you like. I’ve gone with a standard chocolate chip cookie flavour, with a touch of peanut butter, but all of the options are equally delicious.

I love pressing the dough into a tin and cutting little squares for later, especially since it’s best straight out of the freezer. Whether you want to go right in with a spoon, or make individual bits for later, it’s great in any form. I wanted this to really taste like cookie dough, rather than being soft like chickpea cookie dough dip, so it can be formed into squares and balls.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Coconut oil: to make an oil-free version, I recommend using coconut butter in place of the oil. You can also try using more nut or seed butter, but you may need slightly more water in that case, depending on how dry it is. I imagine you could use vegan butter but I haven’t tried it.
• Peanut butter: for a nut-free cookie dough, use sunflower seed butter, tahini, or another seed butter. I don’t recommend replacing this with water or non-dairy milk as it makes for a bland end result.
• Almond flour: you can substitute hazelnut flour for the almond. In this case, hazelnut butter is also very nice! To make it nut-free, try a very finely ground seed meal.
• Coconut flour: it is probably possible to use other flours like oat or cassava for the coconut, but I haven’t tried. You’d have to increase the amounts slightly to make up for the absorbing powers of coconut flour. Do not use any flour blend containing chickpea flour, or chickpea flour on its own. It tastes terrible raw and will ruin your cookie dough.

Step by Step

1. Make the dough: mix the wet ingredients, then add the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.
2. Add chocolate: mix the chocolate chips into the cookie dough until evenly incorporated.
3. Transfer: line a square tin with parchment and transfer the dough to it.
4. Press in: use your hands to press the cookie dough into the tin as evenly as possible. Place the tin into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.

5. Cut into shapes: once the dough has chilled, cut it into small squares.
6. Add chocolate: top the squares with melted chocolate if desired.

Recipe Notes

I highly recommend taking the time to cut the cookie dough in squares and drizzle them with chocolate if you can. While the cookie dough is very nice as is, it is truly excellent (like most things) when coated in extra chocolate.

As with most GF recipes, the texture isn’t the same as it would be with white flour. If you’re looking for a replica of the cookie dough you looted from the tube, or from your grandmother’s mixing bowl, this isn’t going to be quite the same.

As noted in the recipe card, you might need to add a tablespoon or two of water to the mix. This depends on how oily/dry the nut butter is, and it’s added after the cookie dough is mixed. Don’t worry about over-mixing.

How to Store

Storage: if you want to eat the dough with a spoon, it can be stored in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a week.

Freezing: this is best stored in the freezer. Keep in an airtight container for up to a month and serve from frozen.

Variations

• Add a couple tablespoons of quick-cook oats for oatmeal cookie dough
• Try almond butter or another nut butter to change the flavour (cashew will make the most neutral dough, perfect for sugar cookie flavour)
• Add a couple tablespoons of shredded coconut to the mix for a coconut cookie
• Dried fruit, nuts, and seeds will make a delicious no-bake version of a trail mix cookie
• Use a couple teaspoons of cocoa powder for double chocolate cookie dough
• Leave out the chocolate chips for a sugar cookie
• Or, add cinnamon for a snickerdoodle!
• Go for mixed spices if you want a gingerbread dough

Expert Tips

• Use mini chips: mini chocolate chips are best if you have them, or very finely chopped chocolate, since the dough isn’t being baked. I can only get chocolate drops so they’ve been quartered before being added.
• Use runny nut butter: this is not the time for dry, bottom of the jar peanut butter – the fresher, the better for this recipe.
• Don’t worry about tin size: since this is no-bake, the size of the tin used is noted but it doesn’t matter. You can use any size (within reason – smaller is fine, but don’t go much bigger), or eat the cookie dough with a spoon, or roll it into small balls.

More Gluten-Free Desserts

Vegan Gluten Free Banana Bread
Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars
Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Almond Flour Brownies

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by Alexandra Daum

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