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Vegan Dark Chocolate, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Cookies

05.31.14

Olive Oil Chocolate Cookies

I’ve never doubted that vegan cakes could taste as good as their non-vegan counterparts, but I wasn’t quite sold on vegan cookies. There are a number of good substitutes for butter (although recently, I’ve been reading how terrible palm oil is), but replacing an egg can be tricky. I’ve tried the flax egg thing, and maybe I’m doing it wrong, but it just doesn’t taste right to me. However, my opinion of vegan cookies changed when I made these.

The egg is replaced by tapioca flour (also known as tapioca starch), which can just be dumped into your recipe as is- no grinding of flaxseeds necessary! I read about this swap in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and apparently, it works well with other starches like arrowroot and cornstarch, although I’ve never tried them so I can’t say for sure.

Olive Oil Chocolate CookiesOlive Oil Chocolate CookiesOlive Oil Chocolate CookiesOlive Oil Chocolate Cookies

The Texas heat makes me a little sluggish and I wasn’t up for anything elaborate, so this is a total lazy girl’s (or guy’s, no discrimination here) cookie. One bowl, dump and stir, and no chilling time! Instant cookie gratification! However, the food blogger in me did want a little bit of fancy, so I busted out the good olive oil since I thought it paired nicely with the chocolate and topped the cookies with a little bit of flaky sea salt. I like a salty cookie anyway, but dark chocolate practically screams for it. If you’re not a fan of the olive oil in your cookies, this recipe will work just fine with any neutral vegetable oil or even melted coconut oil, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I liked the olive oil/chocolate combo so much, you may see it soon in the form of a cake!

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Vegan Dark Chocolate, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Cookies

Yield: about 30 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (120 ml) good quality extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup (80 ml) unsweetened non-dairy milk
  • 2/3 cup (150 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1/3 cup (67 grams) organic granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon tapioca flour
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all purpose flour, divided
  • 1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup (175 grams) vegan bittersweet chocolate chips
  • flaky sea salt for topping

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together the olive oil, non-dairy milk, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and tapioca flour, and vanilla extract with a fork for about 2 minutes until the mixture thickens and looks like caramel.
  3. Add 1 cup of the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix until combined.
  4. Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of the flour.
  5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  6. Using a cookie scoop, drop balls of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets one inch apart. The dough will be a little but greasy, so you may need to use your fingers to push the dough together into balls.
  7. Sprinkle the dough with a little bit of sea salt and bake them for about 8 minutes (9-10 minutes for a crisper cookie.
  8. Cool completely on wire racks.
3.1
https://cakemerchant.com/2014/05/31/vegan-olive-oil-chocolate-sea-salt-cookies/

For a thicker, puffier cookie, reduce the non-dairy milk to 1/4 cup.
Baking time is based on cookies that I made with a small cookie scoop. If you make larger cookies, you will need to increase the baking time.
Natural cocoa powder will work in this recipe, but you will end up with a lighter colored cookie.

32 Comments · Cookies, Vegan

Comments

  1. Ashley says

    May 31, 2014 at 2:12 pm

    Wow these cookies look so good! I’ve actually never tried olive oil in cookies but you definitely have me wanting to do it! And with the sea salt … you can’t go wrong there!

    Reply
  2. Baby June says

    May 31, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    Those look sooo good right now, I could totally go for a couple of those. 🙂 Love the use of olive oil, it lends such a nice flavor to desserts like these.

    Reply
  3. dina says

    June 1, 2014 at 10:30 am

    these sound amazing!

    Reply
  4. Aasim says

    June 2, 2014 at 5:56 pm

    I haven’t looked in to vegan cookies yet, but I’m definitely going to invest a little time and effort to make these! Thanks for the share 🙂

    Reply
  5. Elizabeth @ SugarHero.com says

    June 3, 2014 at 1:33 am

    Yesss, olive oil chocolate cake, I will so be here for that! I also love these beautiful cookies! I don’t have a ton of vegan baking experience, but I have successfully used Ener-G egg replacer, which (I think??) is a mix of starches, including tapioca. But I didn’t know you could use it on its own–nifty!

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      June 7, 2014 at 1:10 pm

      I’ve never tried Ener-g, mostly because I haven’t been able to find it, but I’ll be on the lookout. I’d be interested to try it and see how it compares to tapioca.

      Reply
  6. Nancy @ gottagetbaked says

    June 4, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    Natasha! These photos are soooooo gorgeous! These cookies look so dark ‘n decadent ‘n chocolatey, my favourite. It’s the trifecta of deliciousness! And a big yes to combining olive oil, chocolate ‘n sea salt. I love that these are a one bowl kind of cookie (sometimes I’m way too lazy to use the stand mixer ‘n wash all of those components). I can’t wait to try this! As for the flax egg, I’ve only ever used it in cake but never cookies. I’d be interested to see if a cookie recipe could be developed using it with good, non-weird-tasting results.

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      June 7, 2014 at 1:11 pm

      Thank you, Nancy! I’ve never actually used flax egg in cake, but I definitely want to experiment.

      Reply
  7. Michelle says

    June 9, 2014 at 2:10 pm

    Made these over the weekend and they’re delish with a nice brownie-like quality. I didn’t get as much spreading, so the first bake looked more like drop cookies. The second pan I pressed flat with the palm of my hand. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      June 9, 2014 at 4:55 pm

      Glad you liked them, Michelle! Thanks for your feedback.

      Reply
  8. Erika says

    June 10, 2014 at 2:39 pm

    YES OLIVE OIL + CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! WHERE IS IT NATASHA WHERE IS IT?!

    Reply
  9. lizzy says

    February 8, 2015 at 6:11 am

    Hi I just made these and I’m so so excited to eat one after dinner, but since I’m the only vegan in the house I was wondering if I can freeze these? If yes, how would I go about it..?

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      February 11, 2015 at 4:47 pm

      I think these would freeze well. I usually double wrap baked cookies in saran wrap and then in tin foil to prevent against freezer burn. They should keep in the freezer for a couple of months.

      Reply
  10. Becky says

    June 5, 2015 at 2:48 am

    I’ve made these cookies about 5 times now, and I’m in love with them. And so are my friends! The sea salt and chocolate mix is just divine. Thank you!

    Be

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      June 5, 2015 at 8:46 pm

      That’s awesome, Becky. So glad they turned out well for you!

      Reply
  11. Lauren says

    February 6, 2016 at 11:25 am

    Hi! These look great. I do have Ener-G egg replacer and plan on using that—is your tapioca substitute the equivalent of one or two eggs though? Just so I know how much Ener-G to use.
    Thanks!

    Reply
  12. Melody says

    December 2, 2017 at 12:16 pm

    I thought I had tapioca starch but I didn’t. I have mochiko (sweet rice flour) and it worked! The batter was very easy to work with and I had very little spreading. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      December 2, 2017 at 4:27 pm

      I’m glad they turned out well for you! I’ll try them with sweet rice flour next time. Thanks for the tip!

      Reply
  13. Reagan Swan says

    March 31, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    have you ever refrigerated this dough before baking it? do you think doing so will effect the consistency?

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      April 11, 2019 at 5:52 pm

      I haven’t, but cookie dough that has been refrigerated generally doesn’t spread as much. You may end up with thicker, puffier cookies.

      Reply
  14. Louisa Dell'Amico says

    January 3, 2020 at 8:53 am

    Thank you for this recipe! I’ve been looking for an olive oil-based cookie as I’ve been reading about the green-washing of “sustainable palm oil” and coconuts picked by enslaved monkeys. It’s getting harder and harder to bake with ingredients I can feel good about. Can’t wait to try this!

    Reply
  15. Madison says

    March 29, 2020 at 8:19 pm

    These look amazing! I can’t wait to try. I am curious though, have you ever tried replacing the two sugars with just coconut sugar? Also I only have arrowroot on hand, and I have read that may serve as a replacement for tapioca flour.

    Reply
    • Natasha says

      April 25, 2020 at 8:15 am

      I haven’t tried replacing with coconut sugar, but I have subbed cornstarch for tapioca flour with success. Arrowroot should work.

      Reply
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    December 3, 2020 at 1:34 pm

    My daughter shared this recipe with me to make for her 39th birthday! They were absolutely delicious! Only lasted 2 days with the 3 of us! I’m not much of a baker, but the recipe was spot on and easy to follow! Thank you for such a delicious, vegan and gluten free cookie recipe!

    Reply
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Welcome to the Cake Merchant! I’m Natasha, the cake maker behind this blog. Here, I share my favorite cakes, baking tips, dessert experiments, and the occasional picture of my dog... READ MORE

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