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Chocolate and olive oil are a match made in heaven: both nuanced and fruity with a touch of bitter complexity. When combined into a cookie, the pairing shines, only heightened by the sweetness of sugar. Here olive oil is used in place of butter to create a quick, mixer-free cookie dough that turns your standard butter-based recipe on its head. It’s a classic chocolate chip cookie dough, but all grown-up, with an alluring fruitiness and slightly savory edge. The dough is made by toasting a portion of the flour directly in the olive oil, not unlike making a roux, until the flour is tanned and takes on notes of caramel. This cooked flour mixture is whisked with sugar to create a rich brown-butter-like base without relying on any actual dairy. In fact, the cookie is entirely vegan—but only incidentally so. We found that without eggs, the cookies came out delightfully chewy in the center with a contrasting crisp exterior. So for those looking for a great vegan cookie option, look no further. But for those simply looking for a fun new pantry-friendly chocolate chip cookie recipe to take for a spin, this is also for you. It has won over even the most die-hard of butter lovers.
Baker’s tip: When picking out a bottle of olive oil to use, I like to opt for something nice but not an entire splurge. A readily available bottle like California Olive Ranch is a great option, lending the cookie a fruity, ever-so-slightly floral quality. More expensive bottles, often labeled “drizzling” or “finishing,” tend to overwhelm the cookie with spicy, grassy notes. And a word of caution to anyone diving into this recipe: Don’t skip the water in the dough. Without eggs or butter, the dough needs some moisture from the added water to properly hydrate and activate the leaveners.
Recipe information
Total Time
1 hour (plus cooling)
Yield
Makes 12 large
Ingredients
2⅓
⅔
¾
½
1
1½
1
1
6
Need to make a substitution?
Preparation
Step 1
Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Cook ⅓ cup (42 g) all-purpose flour and ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula, until mixture darkens ever so slightly (think the color of desert sand) and smells slightly nutty, about 5 minutes. Immediately transfer to a large heatproof bowl and let cool 20 minutes.
Step 2
Add ¾ cup (packed; 150 g) dark brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract, remaining ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil, and ⅓ cup water to flour mixture and vigorously whisk until sugar dissolves slightly, 30–60 seconds. Add 1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¾ tsp. Morton kosher salt, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, and remaining 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour and stir with clean rubber spatula until no pockets of dry flour remain. Add 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, and stir to evenly distribute.
Step 3
Using a #16 cookie scoop or ¼-cup measuring cup and working one at a time, scoop out dough and divide between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2" apart. (You should have 6 cookies per sheet; dough will be soft.) Sprinkle tops with a little flaky sea salt.
Step 4
Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until tops of cookies are puffed and cracked, 11–13 minutes. Firmly tap baking sheets on counter once or twice to deflate cookies. Let cookies cool on baking sheets at least 1 hour before serving. (Cookies will be very soft when hot.)
Do Ahead: Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.