dairy free cookies

Name: Orange Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened (or solid coconut oil); 1/2 cup coconut sugar; 6 Tbsp brown sugar; 1 large egg, room temp; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour; 6 Tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 1/4 cup chopped dairy-free dark chocolate or chocolate chips; Zest of 2 large oranges (+ extra for topping, if desired)

Orange Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies (DF + vegan option)

March 10, 2020 by Rachael Ng 5 Comments

Who else loved those orange flavored chocolate oranges as a kid?! You know, the ones that are – for whatever reason – popular at Christmas time. I’m going to go ahead and say those little, smack-able oranges are the sole reason I’m such a fan of chocolate orange flavored desserts as an adult. Orange chocolate bars, orange brownies, orange chocolate cupcakes (coming soon!) – I’ll take them all!

These cookies are the perfect mash up of orange and chocolate. Dark chocolate cookies (thanks to the wonderfully rich Dutched cocoa) with pools of melted dark chocolate chunks and tons of fresh orange zest. For me, the orange zest adds just enough flavor without being overwhelming. And then I added more on top of each cookie because just look how pretty it is!

This cookie dough comes together like any other standard dough – mix wet, then dry, and stir it all together with a big spoon. There’s no refrigeration required (woo hoo!), so you’re only minutes away from delicious and rich orange chocolate cookies!

Some of the ingredients I like for this recipe:

Vegan butter keeps these cookies tasting like regular, butter-filled cookies! If you’d like, you can replace it with solid coconut oil (either refined, which is flavorless, or unrefined). Tip: if using coconut oil and it’s liquid, you can place it in the refrigerator until it solidifies.

Coconut sugar is my go-to sugar for baked goods. It’s low GI, unrefined, and tastes nothing like coconut! It’s a bit better for us than regular white sugar, so I like to use it whenever I can.

Brown sugar lends moisture and sweetness to these cookies. With the added molasses in brown sugar, these cookies come out wonderfully chewy.

Dutch process cocoa powder is richer in flavor and darker in color than regular cocoa powder. The chocolate flavor is heightened with this kind of cocoa powder, but if you’re having a hard time finding it at your local store, you can use natural (regular) cocoa powder. Tip: Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa has been reformulated to contain 100% Dutched cocoa.

Dark chocolate chunks (chopped from a chocolate bar) create those wonderful melty pools of chocolate! Chocolate chips or chunks from a bag are made to keep their shape, so if you want the melty pools then go for the chopped chocolate! Tip: Trader Joe’s sells 1 pound bars of dairy-free dark and semi-sweet chocolate for $5 – perfect for baking!

Yield: 20 Cookies

Orange Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The perfect dark chocolate cookies, loaded with dark chocolate chunks and lots of fresh orange zest! Crispy at the edges and chewy in the middle, these rich, citrus-y cookies make for a delicious chocolate treat!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegan butter, softened (or solid coconut oil)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
6 Tbsp brown sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup chopped dairy-free dark chocolate or chocolate chips
Zest of 2 large oranges (+ extra for topping, if desired)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring your eggs to room temperature by placing them in a glass of warm water for around 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat together the vegan butter and sugars. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla; set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together until uniform in color. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and use a large wooden spoon or spatula to mix until nearly combined. Stir in 1 cup of the chopped chocolate and the orange zest.
Scoop dough balls 1.5 Tbsp in size. Top each dough ball with extra chopped chocolate (you should have 1/4 cup remaining for this purpose). Bake six cookies at a time at 350°F for 5 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. If desired, sprinkle cookies with extra orange zest.
I recommend enjoying these cookies warm! Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

For vegan cookies: replace the egg with 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 Tbsp water, mix and allow to thicken for 5 minutes)

Soft Iced Lemon Cookies (DF)

February 17, 2020 by Rachael Ng 6 Comments

It’s still citrus season, and is it just me or does the coming of Spring scream CITRUS DESSERT TIME? Lemon, orange, grapefruit, and lime. All of those fruits peak during the cold season here in North America, but they’ll forever remind me of Spring and Summer; after all, I didn’t even know that winter was citrus season until I started food blogging. Anyway, these Soft Iced Lemon Cookies are the perfect (seasonally appropriate!) dessert to take us into warmer weather. A sweet, chewy sugar cookie flavored with fresh lemon zest and then topped with a tangy lemon icing with lots of lemon juice. So good. And if you’re going to cheat on chocolate, it might as well be with these gems.

This cookie dough is my favorite dough for any and all chewy sugar cookies, and this version is quick and so easy – no refrigeration required! Plus the icing is a simple, 4-ingredient mix! Basically, if you want lemon cookies to eat right now, or you don’t have a lot of time to bake, then this recipe is for you! These cookies also save really well, so if you want to make them the day before an event, they’ll still be soft and chewy the next day. In fact, I like them even better after given a day to set/rest.

Yield: 16 Cookies

Soft Iced Lemon Cookies

Soft and chewy lemon sugar cookies topped with a sweet, tangy lemon icing. The perfect quick and easy cookie for any citrus lover!

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

Lemon Cookies

1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
2/3 cup granulated cane sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla extract)
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest (from ~3 large lemons or ~5 small lemons)

Lemon Icing

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
Juice from 1-2 lemons
Zest from 1 lemon

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, sugar, oil, and almond extract; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the liquid ingredients and use a large wooden spoon to work the ingredients together - the dough may seem dry at first but keep mixing. Finally, mix in the lemon zest.
Roll dough balls 1 1/2 Tbsp in size and bake six at a time on your prepared baking sheet at 350°F for 5-6 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack. Continue until all cookies are baked.
Once your cookies are totally cool, you can make the icing. In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar, almond extract, and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Mix until combined. Then add more lemon juice, 1 tsp at a time, until you've got a thick glaze - when you drizzle the glaze on itself, it should take 2 or 3 seconds for the ribbons to disappear. Mix in the lemon zest.
Spoon the glaze/icing onto each cookie, using the back of your spoon to spread the icing over the cookie surfaces.
Allow icing to set before storing. Once set, store the cookies in a single layer in an airtight container.

Notes

Feel free to use any kind of plain granulated cane sugar for the cookie dough: white granulated sugar, unrefined granulated sugar, raw sugar, etc. I used an unrefined cane sugar.
You can add however much (or little) lemon zest you like to both the cookie dough and icing. 1 Tbsp of fresh zest will give a mild lemon taste to the cookies. The lemon juice in the icing is where the tangy lemon flavor comes from, so if you choose to forgo the icing, you may want to add more zest to your cookie dough.
I don't include nutrition information for recipes where you may not use all of the icing.

Collagen Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 11, 2020 by Rachael Ng 2 Comments

Chocolate chip cookies have to be one of my all time favorite treats. It doesn’t really matter the texture or size, I’m always down for a good CCC. I’ve made countless cookie recipes, and this version with collagen powder has been on my mind since I first came up with it over a year ago. I use my favorite Cold Brew collagen flavor and wow, okay, I could eat five of these! Obviously you can use whatever collagen you see fit – even unflavored – but I highly recommend a coffee flavor (that’s what gives my cookies the darker color) because you just can’t beat it.

I opted for coconut oil in this recipe because it felt like a better option than some of the dairy-free butters that are out there. With coconut oil you know exactly what you’re putting into the cookies, with no extra fillers. You will need your coconut oil to be solid for these cookies to turn out, so if your oil is liquid then you’ll need to chill it in the refrigerator until it’s solid. Then you’ll simply beat it with the sugars just like you would a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe. The rest of the recipe is straightforward and nearly identical to my Dairy-Free Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe (i.e. if you’ve made cookies before then you’ve totally got this).

The collagen powder keeps these cookies soft and tasting fresh for days. Seriously, I took a big bag of these to the hospital to have my baby, and I happily snacked on them for the few days after I gave birth. These cookies are so soft and delicious!

Yield: 14 Cookies

Collagen Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

Classic chocolate chip cookies made with dairy-free coconut oil and collagen powder. These soft cookies stay tasting fresh for days and make for the perfect on-the-go snack!

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup coconut oil, solid
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 scoops or 1/4 cup collagen powder, (I used the Cold Brew flavor from Ancient Nutrition)
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips

Instructions

Bring your egg to room temperature by placing it in a glass of warm water for around 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat together the solid coconut oil and coconut sugar. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and collagen powder. Add dry ingredients to wet and use a large wooden spoon or spatula to gently mix until nearly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips, reserving 1/4 cup of chips to top the dough balls. Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop cookies 1.5 Tbsp in size and roll into smooth balls. Top each dough ball with extra chocolate chips* and bake, six at a time, at 350°F for 5-6 minutes.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes and then gently move to a cooling rack.
Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. Cookies will be softer the next day.

Notes

*feel free to add the extra chocolate chips pre or post-bake. I did both for my cookies, adding a couple of chips to each dough ball and then immediately after the cookies came out of the oven, pressing a couple more chips into the top of each cookie

Orange Iced Ginger Molasses Cookies (DF)

December 12, 2019 by Rachael Ng 6 Comments

When I set out to compile a list of new (and old) holiday cookie recipes for my 12 Days of Dairy-Free Cookies over on Instagram, I knew I needed a ginger cookie of some sort. Last year, I made these Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies with coconut oil, but I’ve since fallen for the tase and texture that dairy-free (vegan) butter adds to a cookie dough! For this recipe, I adapted the cookies from last holiday season, swapping the coconut oil for vegan butter and adding a delicious (and perfectly festive!) orange icing. You can think of these as the easier version of those stamped and iced gingerbread cookies that are all over the internet. No special tools required!

The dough comes together like any other traditional cookie dough. You’ll cream the butter and sugar together, add molasses and egg, and then stir in the dry ingredients. The dough will be sticky. Too sticky to scoop or roll. But popping the dough in the refrigerator uncovered allows the dough to dry out and firm up just enough to get the dough balls rolled. I don’t recommend chilling the dough for any longer as the cookies might not spread!

Once your cookies are baked and cooled, you’ll make a simple icing flavored with a bit of vanilla extract and fresh orange zest. Then you’ll dip the tops of each cookie into the glaze, careful not to submerge the sides, allow the excess icing to drip off, and voila! You’ve got beautifully iced, totally delicious, soft ginger molasses cookies!

Some of the ingredients I like for this recipe:

Coconut sugar is my favorite, better-for-you sweetener. It’s low GI, unrefined, and tastes nothing like coconut. It makes a great 1:1 replacement for regular, high GI sugars like granulated sugar and brown sugar.

Molasses brings that seasonal taste we all know and love to these cookies. It also adds necessary moisture to keep these cookies nice and soft.

Egg adds moisture, fluff, and chewiness to these cookies. For a classic cookie texture, egg is best.

Yield: 22 Cookies

Orange Iced Ginger Molasses Cookies

Soft and chewy ginger molasses cookies topped with a simple icing made with fresh orange rind! A pretty and extra delicious way to enjoy your favorite ginger cookies!

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Additional Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes

Ingredients

Cookies

1/2 cup vegan butter stick, softened
2/3 cup coconut sugar
3 Tbsp molasses
1 large egg, room temp
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
3-4 Tbsp granulated sugar for rolling (optional!)

Orange Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tsp plant-based milk
Zest from 1 medium orange

Instructions

Make the Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring your egg to room temperature (if it's not already) by placing it in a glass of warm water for around 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and coconut sugar until fluffy. Beat in the molasses and then the egg; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add dry ingredients to wet and use a large wooden spoon or spatula to gently mix. The dough may seem dry when you begin mixing, but it will turn out quite sticky. Chill dough, uncovered, for 15 minutes - this helps dry it out a bit.
Scoop six dough balls 1.5 Tbsp in size. Roll each dough ball and then roll in the granulated sugar (totally optional). Place on prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake at 350°F for 7 minutes or until cookies have puffed up.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before gently moving to a cooling rack. Continue baking the rest of your dough. There's no need to re-chill the dough. Be sure to use a room temp baking sheet each time - this is why two baking sheets are handy!

Make the Icing

Once your cookies have totally cooled, you can make your icing. In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, vanilla, and 3 tsp of the plant-based milk. Add milk 1 tsp at a time until you've reached a thin, drip-from-your-spoon consistency. Finally, stir in the fresh orange zest.
Dip just the top of each cookie into the icing, allowing excess icing to drip off. This process is a bit tedious but necessary. Ideally, you want only the tops of the cookies iced, so be careful not to submerge the sides of the cookies while dipping. Turn each dipped cookie over and allow to set on a cooling rack.
Once icing has set, you can store cookies in an airtight container at room temp, placing a piece of parchment paper between each layer to keep the cookies from sticking to each other.

Notes

You won't use all of the icing, but it's nice to have the icing deep enough to dip (which is why I recommend mixing it in a small bowl!).
Feel free to leave the icing off. These cookies, especially when rolled in granulated sugar, are delicious and sweet as-is. Alternatively, the granulated sugar can be left off the dough balls if you're icing the cookies. I chose to do both.

Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Cookies (DF)

December 28, 2018 by Rachael Ng 9 Comments

Marshmallow. Stuffed. Cookies. Does it get any better?! If you like chocolate, and you like marshmallows, then you have to make these cookies. They’re crispy on the outside, fudgy on the inside, and filled with a delicious, melty mallow. And they’re even better when they’re warm! These cookies will stay chewy for a few days thanks to the marshmallow that melts while baking, but I highly recommend eating them once they’ve been warmed up a bit.

These cookies are a pretty standard chocolate cookie – one you can customize by adding peppermint extract or a little cayenne pepper! – stuffed with a marshmallow pre-bake. I took large marshmallows and sliced them into halves. You’ll flatten your dough balls, place the marshmallow in the center, and then wrap the dough up and over the mallow. Then you’ll shape and smooth each cookie, gently dip/roll them in granulated sugar, and bake!

Some of the ingredients I love for this recipe:

Coconut sugar is my go-to low GI sweetener. It makes for a perfect better-for-you alternative to regular white sugar. I haven’t tested this recipe with any other sugar type.

Chopped chocolate adds a rich chocolate flavor and lots of moisture to these cookies. Feel free to use 6oz of your favorite milk chocolate, semisweet, or dark chocolate bar.

Marshmallows are key for that hot cocoa look and taste – at least I think so, because what’s hot cocoa without marshmallows?!

Granulated sugar (for rolling) gives these cookies an extra touch of sparkle, which I think makes them even more festive and exciting!

Yield: 15 Cookies

Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Cookies

A perfectly chewy chocolate cookie filled with melty marshmallow and then topped with sprinkles - hot cocoa in cookie form! These seriously delicious cookies will have any chocolate lover swooning.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes

Ingredients

6oz semisweet or dark dairy-free chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup coconut oil, measured as a solid
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup natural cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 large marshmallows, cut in half (see note 3)
1/4 cup white granulated sugar for rolling (optional)
1-2 tbsp chocolate jimmies sprinkles for topping (optional)

Instructions

Bring your eggs to room temperature by placing them in a glass of warm water for around 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium, heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate and coconut oil together using the double boiler method (see note 1). Once the chocolate is smooth, remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
After allowing the chocolate to cool, whisk in the coconut sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs until totally combined.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into the chocolate mixture. Use a large wooden spoon or spatula to gently mix until everything is combined. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill a shallow bowl with white granulated sugar and set aside.
Begin scooping dough balls 2 Tbsp in size. Take each dough ball, flatten to a circle, and place half of a large marshmallow in the middle, wrapping the dough up and over the marshmallow. Smooth out the stuffed dough ball, making a disc shape (like a hockey puck). Then gently turn each dough "puck" in the granulated sugar (optional).
Place cookies, six at a time, on your baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 6-8 minutes, or until cookies have spread and begun to crack. If you've used marshmallows without corn syrup, your cookies won't spread (see note 3).
Immediately top your baked cookies with chocolate sprinkles for a more festive hot cocoa look! Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for around 3 minutes before gently transferring to a cooling rack.
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

Double boiler method - place a medium pot with an inch of water over medium heat. In a heatproof bowl - big enough to sit on top of your pot and not touch the water - add the chopped chocolate and coconut oil. Place your bowl on the pot, stirring frequently until chocolate is totally melted.
Chilling the dough is key for the perfect cookie texture and shape! The dough must firm up before it can be handled enough to roll and shape.
Different marshmallows will yield different end results. "All-natural" marshmallows without corn syrup don't tend to spread, so your cookies will be thick and the marshmallow will remain in tact inside of your cookies. Regular marshmallows made with corn syrup will spread (I used these!!), melt into the cookies, and leak out of the cookie cracks.
I haven't made these cookies with any alternative ingredients (i.e. GF flours, egg replacers, or other sugars), so I cannot vouch for how they would turn out - let me know if you try something different and succeed!

dairy free cookies

Some of the ingredients I like for this recipe:

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More orange recipes:

Orange Loaf with Almond Buttercream (dairy-free + vegan option)

Grain-Free Orange Brownies (dairy-free)

Soft & Chewy Orange Sugar Cookies (dairy-free)

Glazed Orange Almond Muffins (dairy-free + vegan option)

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Lemon Cookies

Lemon Icing

Instructions

Notes

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Orange Loaf with Almond Buttercream (vegan option)

Glazed Orange Almond Muffins (vegan option)

Orange Iced Ginger Molasses Cookies (dairy-free)

Soft & Chewy Orange Sugar Cookies (dairy-free)

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Ingredients

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