These Vegan Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies are infused with fresh orange juice, chocolate chips and are also oil-free and gluten-free! They have wonderful crispy edges with soft and puffy centers. You only need 8 ingredients and 20 minutes to make them!
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VEGAN ORANGE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
There are lots of combos out there when it comes to chocolate. Chocolate and cherries, chocolate and peanut butter, chocolate and coffee (my personal fave), chocolate and mint, but too often people forget that chocolate and orange go together beautifully as well. After the crazy success and daily remakes of these Vegan Lemon Cookies, I really got a craving for some more citrus. So, I made an orange version. The recipe is slightly different, more orange juice than lemon, since it’s so sweet and not sour. This allowed me to use less syrup, too. You also do not need to chill the batter before baking!
I love, love orange desserts, but decided chocolate chips would take the orange to the next level. I was right. These have the wonderful flavor of orange and rich chocolate enveloped into soft, puffy cloud-like cookie texture. The edges are crispy and the centers are soft, moist and tender.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN ORANGE COOKIES
First, you will need to gather these 8 ingredients (+salt):
- superfine blanched almond flour
- fine oat flour
- tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
- coconut sugar
- baking powder
- maple syrup
- fresh orange juice and zest
- dairy-free chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
To a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flour, tapioca, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk very well to make sure no lumps remain. Add the chocolate chips.
To a small bowl, zest the orange and squeeze the fresh orange juice and add the syrup. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until it comes together into a thick, sticky batter. Try not to eat all the batter, it is so dang delicious.
Use the cookie scoop to place 9 mounds on the first pan, spaced 2 inches apart, as they will spread and puff up beautifully. Do not flatten them. Bake for 12 minutes, or until they are getting golden brown along the edges.
Puffy, golden, fluffy and gorgeous orange chocolate chip cookies!
OTHER VEGAN COOKIE RECIPES TO TRY:
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Best Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Thin Mints
- 5 Ingredient Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Grain-free Chocolate Coconut Cookies
If you make this recipe, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
Vegan Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (112g) superfine blanched almond flour (I used Bob's Red Mill labeled "superfine")
- 1/2 cup (64g superfine oat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
- 2 tablespoons (16g) tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
- 2 tablespoons (24g) coconut sugar (or white sugar)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 6 tablespoons (90g) dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons (45g) fresh orange juice (do not use bottled!) + zest of 1 orange
- 3 tablespoons (60g) pure maple syrup
NOTE
- Always use a scale for accuracy when baking, following MY gram weights listed. You never need cups, just the scale and bowl and make sure to zero out in between each ingredient.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- I love using this cookie scoop for the perfectly round cookies, since the dough is a bit too sticky to roll into balls.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. If you only have 1 sheet, just cook the first batch, let them cool and repeat. It is ok to let the batter sit.
- To a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flour, tapioca, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk very well to make sure no lumps remain. Add the chocolate chips.
- To a small bowl, zest the orange and squeeze the fresh orange juice and add the syrup. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until it comes together into a thick, sticky batter. Taste the batter, it's kind of amazing, right? I debated on not baking it.
- But I went ahead and baked them. Use the cookie scoop to place 9 mounds on the first pan, spaced 2 inches apart, as they will spread and puff up beautifully. I did not flatten them at all. Due to different brands of almond flour being more fine or not, this can affect how they spread. Also, in addition, I live in a warm, humid climate, which also helps them spread well. If you are in a drier climate or want yours spread out more, slightly flatten the cookies before baking, not too much, just a bit. Bake for 12 minutes, or until they are getting golden brown along the edges. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Cool 10 minutes on the pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Eat one and come back and leave feedback because they are so yummy, right?! These will stay crispy around the edges for a couple of hours and will then turn super soft. Still yummy and fabulous, but these aren't meant to be crispy cookies except when just freshly made. Store cooled cookies in a sealed container or on a plate covered with foil. The tighter the seal, the softer they will be.
My only disappointment in these cookies is that I waited so long to make them! They are so delicious. I love the orange chocolate combo and would never have thought to put it in a cookie. I also love how all Vegan 8 baked goods come out so moist, rich, and flavorful without using any oil. These are amazing just like all your recipes….I can’t stop eating them!
Hi Brandi,
I just made the cookies and here are my observations: I made half the recipe which I always do when I try something new. I followed your recipe and measurements (weights) to a T and was surprised that HALF the recipe yielded 8-1/2 cookies (you get 9 cookies from the WHOLE recipe). My cookie scoop is 1-1/2 Tblsp like yours. After 9 minutes of baking the mounds, I flattened them slightly for the remaining 3 minutes because they didn’t spread at all. They were 2″ in diameter after baking. All that said, they taste great! Thanks Brandi!
Hi Mimi! So glad you enjoyed these! Yes, I address this specifically in step 5 about spreading. I’ve found due to the huge variance in brands of almond flour, this greatly will affect how thick or loose batters are, as well as climates/weather as noted, so this will affect how much or how little cookies spread. Some brands of almond flour are finer than others, which will make the batter more thick/stiff and not spread much. After baking something the first time, knowing how your batter turns out, you can know for the next time to slightly flatten them before baking. But, also, as noted, these are tall fluffy cookies, so they wont’ spread a whole lot regardless, as opposed to traditional chocolate chip cookies. They are meanut to be a more puffy/muffin like cookie. Hope that helps, thanks for making them! As far as how many cookies you got, when I scoop the batter, it’s a heaping amount with my scoop, so mine were just scooped larger than yours it sounds like.
Great recipe! I have made it yesterday and everyone in my sweet home totally loved it! Thanks for sharing.
Delicious recipe as always Brandi.
Can I make the dough a few days in advance and refrigerate?
I have actually never tried that, but I would think it would start to dry out since it has potato starch in it. But I can’t say for sure since I always bake it the same day. It only takes 10 minutes to throw together though, so it’s very quick! It might be okay a day in advance, but a few days I really don’t think it would.
oh my godddd every recipe i make from this blog is amazing!!! before this one, i tried the coocnut chocolate cookies recipe and after that, this became my go to vegan blog for everything! I absolutely love love love the simple, wholesome ingredients and that there are gram measurements!
The cookies were delicious! So light yet full of flavour. They hold their shape very very well even though they’re made with almonds and oats. I just milled blanched almonds and oats i had at home, and they worked perfectly! Mine spread exactly like the picture, with that little dome in the center. We dont have maple syrup here, so i used honey, and i used a little less than the listed amount because i used milk chocolate and was afraid the cookies would turn out too sweet. this worked perfectly! Next time, i’ll make sure to have dark chocolate on hand cuz that would ge amazingly well with the orange flavour. i also added a splash of vanilla cuz i love vanilla and orange.
Also, something odd, when i tried them, they had a subtle coconuty texture and flavour. I thought it was just me, but then my mom tried them and said the same thing!! Idk what it is about this cookie, but it really is greater than the sum of its parts.
My brother who never likes the orange and chocolate combo LOVED these. He literally said this is the best cookie I’ve ever made. I think these cookies can be enjoyed by anyone.
Fantastic recipe.
Layan, you are the sweetest!! Thank you! So flattered to hear all of this, thank you for the lovely feedback!
I made them a few times,and my son love it.Chokolate and oranges are perfect together. Recepi is really exelent,and tasty 😋
The flavor of these cookies is delicious. However, mine did not spread at all and pretty much maintained the shape they were when I scooped them onto the cookie sheet. Any thoughts on why? I did use super fine almond flour.
Hi! Glad you liked them! See step 5, I go over that exact thing.
I am a cookie lover and after reading your recipe, I feel like I have been makin wrong. Will try you recipe and let you know how it turns out. Thanks for sharing though!
Delicious! I make a lot of different cookies… my teenage daughter said these are the best! So excited that there are only whole food ingredients. The orange flavor makes me smile! Thank you!
Awww, so glad to hear that Elizabeth!
!I tried the lemon cookies and loved the and liked using almond flour.! They were gone in two days! I will be making these chocolate orange ones for sure. thanks for sharing this
So happy to hear that!!
Would LOVE these!! But allergic to almonds. All other nuts are fine! Is there a sub for the almond flour? Please say there is one. So salivating!!
Hmmm, the almond flour is what makes the cookies so moist and fluffy since there is no oil used. You could try grinding up cashews into a fine flour and try that. Not sure how it will compare. They have less oil in them than almonds though, so may be more dry and cakey.
Yum I just made them. I didn’t have almond flour so I grinded cashews to make flour and they turned out lovely. Great flavour with the orange 🍊
Awesome, so happy you enjoyed them!