Need cookies, and you find out you have no butter? No problem! Make these No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and you’ll get your dairy-free cookie fix!
No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
We’ve all been there. A strong craving for chocolate chip cookies hits and there are none in the pantry. Ignoring your sweet tooth isn’t an option, is it?
You really want those cookies, so you decide to whip up a batch! You begin gathering all the ingredients together only to find you’re out of BUTTER. How does this even happen by the way?
Oh my goodness you cannot make chocolate chip cookies without butter!! With your sweet tooth now insisting you make chocolate chip cookies you need a backup plan and FAST!
No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies to the rescue! This recipe is originally from a previous contributor and is based on her experience. I gave her recipe a try and updated this post with new pictures in February 2019.
Out of desperation when this situation occurred I quickly hopped on my computer. I began searching for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies without butter and I luckily one was found.
This recipe, in particular, uses vegetable oil instead of butter. I will wholeheartedly admit, I was skeptical at first.
The cookies turned out great, they were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I did definitely miss the butter flavor but they totally satisfied my craving in a pinch!
If you have anyone that’s dairy free this is an awesome recipe to make for them! I love having a set of recipes that I can make for anyone no matter what their allergy!
What do you need to make No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- Flour
- Salt
- Baking Soda
- Brown Sugar
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Vegetable Oil
- Chocolate chips
Some tips for making No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- Use a cookie scoop. My scoop of choice is a 2 teaspoon scoop which yields cookies which are approximately 2″ in diameter.
- Bake on parchment paper or silicone baking sheets, makes cleanup a snap.
- I used mini chocolate chips.
- The texture of the dough is slightly different than traditional chocolate chip cookie dough. Add a tad more oil if the mixture isn’t coming together.
- Do not overbake. Mine were done in 8 minutes.
- Read the reviews below. These cookies aren’t for everyone, but if you love them you REALLY love them!
Love chocolate chip cookies? Here are some other great recipes for you to try!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies | Liv for Cake
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies | Savory Nothings
Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies | I am a Honey Bee
Love sweet treats and desserts? We have a great selection that you need to try! Dessert from your Air Fryer? You'll love these easy to make Air Fryer Cherry Pies. A simple to make dessert your family will love.More Delicious Desserts to Try!
Air Fryer Cherry Pies
No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Need cookies, and you find out you have no butter? No problem! Makes these No Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and you'll get your cookie fix!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking pans with parchment paper or silcone baking sheets.
In bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Whisk together both types of sugar, oil, egg and vanilla.
Add flour mixture to oil mixture and stir just until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Using a cookie scoop place dough on prepared baking sheets. Space them about 2 inches apart.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Find this recipe and more at the Weekend Potluck!
Why ungreased cookie sheets.
Because there’s enough oil in the cookies that they don’t stick 🙂
I wasn’t a fan of these, the dough came out extremely dry. But kudos for trying!
something may have gone wrong, then. most of the time this dough comes out the exact opposite of dry, I make these cookies at least 2x a week
I added a 2nd egg and I put in a little baking powder and these came out to be soft bake cookies. I did not flatten mine. I just plopped them on with a spoon.
I agree I added about 1 1/2 tsp of water and it helped extremely!
I’ve always been looking for a butter-free cookie recipe–thanks! Do these spread much when you bake them?
Not at all, sometimes it doesn’t spread so much I had to flatten it a bit.
I actually had butter, but I was saving it for brownes on christmas; these cookies, though, were DELICIOUS! I didn’t follow the measurements exactly; I used a nonstick pan and only about two, three teaspoons of oil. I used a bit more vanilla, and less chocolate chips (1/2 cup is enough for me). Even though I only mixed it by hand (too lazy but the batter wasn’t lumpy), they turned out soo great. I loved the texture, which was soft, but not too soft. The cookie itself didn’t spread too much, only about 2 cm in diameter, and the rest of the way it rose up to give a fluffy, round-ish look that was very appealing. When I tried it, it was slightly crunchy on the edges, which was my dream cookie! I really love these and am definitely going to use this recipe again! It may even be my favorite out of all recipes — THANK YOU 🙂
I would just like to say that these cookies are surprisingly good. My 12 year old daughter found this recipe because we were out of butter and she proceeded to bake them. She has baked three batches in less than two weeks and they never last. I am happy to say that she can bake these for us anytime.
I love that your 12 year old is baking!!! 🙂
I baked these for a Valentines treat and for my sons birthday, which falls on Valentines. These cookies are not bad for having no butter, a little bit dry and I think I could have done with just 1/2 cup of chocolate chips instead of a whole cup because there wasn’t enough dough to keep the chips from falling out. I molded them in heart shaped cookie cutters and baked for 10 minutes. But overall a pretty good cookie when you are missing the butter! I would use this recipe again!
Made these and loved them! My husband and brother-in-law loved them too….and THAT is a good taste test!
Thanks for a great recipie I will keep on hand.
I made these once n never again the taste wasn’t there for me or any one for that matter but good looking out
Sorry they didn’t work for you. I think it really just depends on the person. We’ve had rave reviews as well about these cookies.
I’ve baked these cookies about ten times since I saw this recipie, and they turn out perfect for me every time. These are my go-to cookies and everyone loves them. For me, they only make up to like 20 cookies but that’s okay. Also, I only put 1/2 cup of chocolate chips instead of 1 cup. I also omit the salt as well because I don’t like salt, but that’s just my taste. My boyfriend and his roommate don’t seem to mind the lack of salt, I have also replaced the salt and added cinnamon to one batch for my parents and they love it. Overall, great cookies with no butter!!
Glad you like them!
My 2 year LOVED these cookies, I just used the cookie and didn’t add chocolate chips but put raisins instead. Definitely will be making these again. 🙂 -Thank you
I was really excited to try these non-butter cookies, they truly looked amazing. The only problem was that they tasted nothing but of vegetable oil, besides the chocolate chips. I love the idea, but just wish that they had cookie flavors.
These are PERFECT! I never comment on recipes, so you can tell just how much I liked them. 🙂 Went looking for a butterless recipe after a cookie disaster I had yesterday. Never going back to butter!
I love these cookies. I used to bake them because I’m cheap and butter is not (500g of butter costs about the same as 2litres of vegetable oil). I now bake them because I’m dairy free due to allergy. I use dark chocolate that doesn’t have milk solids added and cut it into chunks. I use a lot less than 1 cup though- more like 1/2 cup or there’s just too much chocolate to dough and they don’t hold together
The first bite I took of these, I wasn’t so sure. They’re not quite as sweet as your usual chocolate chip cookies, but after the first one I can’t eating them!
Same thing with the sugar cookie recipe.
Unbaked cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Loved these cookies because they’re the first recipe that I found that worked out that had dairy free. I was wondering if they would be safe to consume unbaked?
I found out that if you add more water, the hater will get to the normal consistency of cookie dough. I think I added about 1 – 2 cups of water, but I would add little by little to make sure it’s not to dry or wet.
I was out of butter and decided to try this recipe. I only had dark brown sugar but baked them up anyway. The batter consistency kind of threw me off as I had to roll into balls and then flatten because I mixed them by hand – BUT OMG! My husband loved these and so did I. Mfgrs are putting too much water in butter and margarine so I got tired of failed choc chip cookies. These are awesome! Crispy on outside and chewy on the inside. Will use this recipe again and again! Thank you for the alternative recipe.
This looks really good! I think I need to make these for myself and the kids. Love this idea!
My batter doesn’t even resemble what your pictures look like as I stated before in my first comment but I’m not disappointed because these cookies come out great everytime! I just made my 4th batch and the batter always makes between 24 and 26 cookies. What a great recipe!
This was super good. The cookie dough was amazing
Eek! I baked them but my dough was far too big! They’ve spread super wide and have been cooking almost 20 minutes now! Regardless they look good, thanks for the recipe, although i messed it up at the end!
Do these cookies spread wide
No. When I made the cookies, they didn’t spread very much at all and seemed to stay in the same shape
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I do have some comments. My batter didn’t look like yours, it was thicker. I used a small cookie scoop, as in the picture. However, it took 16 minutes for these to be baked, and they never spread out as in the picture. I use an oven thermometer so the oven was at 350. I followed your instructions, but my cookies don’t look like your, they are not flat, but more domed-liked. They aren’t overly sweet, which is fine, and I can taste the chocolate chips. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
I made these for a family member’s birthday and they were amazing! I didn’t have vanilla extract or chocolate chips. I did add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder but forgot to add more vegetable oil so they turned out a little dry but tasted amazing.
Made a few changes: substituted1/2 c of whole wheat flour, added 1 tbl. spoon of Teff, used 1/2 c less sugar, added ginger, cinnamon, mixture of raisins with raw almonds and sunflower seeds; and used 3 squares of dark chocolate. Yummy. Cookies didn’t spread, but came out like nuggets after I rolled and sliced the dough. Delicious. Oh, I didn’t have a cookie sheet so I used an upside down disposable foil pan.
My dough did not look wet, balled up first batch, they cooked in a puff ball. Added more oil to the next batch. Something is wrong with recipe or is it the elevation?
Tried these.
Used coconut oil as my vegetable oil and only added 1/4 cup light brown sugar (my family does not like very sweet cookies).
Came out perfectly, although the dough was alot firmer than in the pictures.
I left the cookies in the oven for an extra 2 mins because the colour was too light.
Will definitely make these again. yum
Thanks for this recipe! Cookies turned out great. I added a little but more vegetable oil, can always adjust the recipe to your needs, and this is a great start.
Much appreciated, just put my second batch in the oven!
– Push
Followed the recipe almost exactly. Added a dash more oil and only used half the chocolate chips but came out delicious. Will definitely be making these again!
Super good cookies. With certain groceries in short supply at my house I welcomed a recipe for food cookies with no butter! Thanks
5 out of 6 from my 6 yr old. 6 out of 6 from my 3 yr old and 6 from me. Thank you for a great recipe
When i made the cookies, they did spread but the weren’t so thin, they came out with a dome on the top and they didn’t come out with a beautiful brown colour.. could you help me understand why that happened
These worked out just great!! – A very forgiving recipe – forgiving of my lack of skills (I mixed the sugars in with the flower, leavening etc), the incredible age of the ingredients in the back of my cupboard, and of my leaving out the choc chips and heaping in a load of cinnamon instead – they are DELICIOUS. Thank you SO MUCH for this, now I will experiment with different flours, spices, … might start with chunks of candied ginger… mm
How many cookies does this ingredient make? And how much of everything would i need if i were to make 8 cookies?
I made about eighteen two-inch. I suggest you cut the recipe in half for eight.
The cookies turned out really well, and look amazing! I baked mine for around 10-11 minutes. They ended up chewy in the middle but crispy and firm on the sides. Though I’d probably add a bit more sugar and vanilla the next time I use this recipe, since it didn’t seem sweet enough and the taste of oil was quite overpowering. But this is a great recipe. Thank you for sharing this!
I’ve made these three times. The first two, just as the recipe states, and they turned out really well. I baked them for 9 minutes, and they were flat and not too crunchy. Yesterday I wanted to experiment with minimizing the oil, so I used 1/4 cup oil and substituted 1/3 cup nonfat Greek yogurt for the other 1/4 cup of oil. I also, by mistake, used Baking Powder instead of baking soda, and reversed the ratio of sugar (1/2 cup white, with 1/4 cup brown). The cookies came out really tasty. The Baking Powder made them rise more than the soda. My husband said he thought they were “missing” something, maybe the butter, but said they were good. Of course, my grandson loved them–anything with chocolate, and my son-in-law liked them too. Thank you!!
They came out so good! I double the recipe and did 1/3 whole wheat flour (I’m trying to bake healthier…)
For my first batch, I left the dough as balls and they didn’t really spread, so they were raw outside. The next batch I flattened them first – a lot – and they puffed up a little and came out picture perfect, and tasting delicious. Definitely a keeper!
Very oily when I was putting them on the baking sheet. I used avocado oil and saw a comment that said they added an extra egg and a pinch of baking powder so I did that as well. The process was very simple. My cookies ended up spreading a good amount which resulted in them touching but that’s ok. I cooked for 8 minutes and they were not done so I did about 3-5 minutes more and they were ready to come out. I ended up having about 2 and a half trays of cookies by the way. SOOOO GOOOOOD.
Made these and they turned out great. I used butterscotch chips since I was trying to use them up and added a splash off almond milk since the dough was a bit dry. Used a cookie scoop and didn’t flatten. Very tasty and do not miss the butter. Thanks for this recipe!