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.
Great recipe! I have made it yesterday and everyone in my sweet home totally loved it! Thanks for sharing.
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.
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 followed the recipe and they were delicious! The bottoms of 3/4 of them burnt. Not sure
why as I used the parchment paper and have never had my oven not perform before.
Anyway I will be making them again!
Hi Linda, so glad they were delicious! Did you use a dark metal pan? Those will cause cookies to burn quicker. Or did you use cornstarch by chance? It is certainly a good option, but it does cause bottoms to brown a bit more on the bottoms.
I’ve made these twice so far. The first time I used the chocolate chips and they were very yummy. The second time I used a half cup of raisins instead of the chocolate chips and they were excellent too. I’m getting ready to make them again today. It’s a hard choice between the chips or raisins. Definitely 5 stars!!
That is so wonderful to hear Donna, thank you so much for sharing!
Ohhh these are delicious. I made them exactly as the recipe is written and they turned out perfectly. Thank you.
Yay Darlene! I’m so happy you loved them and thank you for following as written!
Hi, these sound really good but I wonder if orange juice is the only liquid ingredient here (no oil or mylk)!?
Don’t forget the syrup. The almond flour and syrup provides a lot of moisture once combined with the juice.
Hi Brandi,
This is my first see ever. This seems too delicious!! I could not greed handle to apply this method. What can I use instead of the tapioca starch? Thanks You Brandi for great recipe sharing.
Hi Rita, you can try cornstarch!
DELICIOUS!!
I’m so glad!
Hi Brandi! I have been dying to make these. I finally got out everything to make them this morning and realized I had no oranges. BUT I had limes and white chocolate chips! I replaced the orange juice and orange zest with lime juice and lime zest. I also replaced the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips. They are amazing! Like a key lime pie in a healthy cookie :). I do want to make them true to your recipe though so I will have to get an orange!
These were delicious. I used ground chia seed to replace the tapioca since I didn’t have any on hand. They turned out fabulous, although they stayed puffy which wasn’t an issue. I did half of the batter with chopped bittersweet dark chocolate (for me) and the other half without for my husband. I, of course, tried both and loved each one. Thank you.
I’m also a fan of your lemon, almond flour cookies….
Brandi posts a new cookie recipe and we need to make them right away 😂 Ok, these almost didn’t make it to the baking sheet because the batter was heavenly!!! So full of flavor, sweet, and no skimping on the chocolate chips. But we did bake them and I gotta say….AMAZING!!!!!! Love the crispy edges and pillowy soft centers AND obviously the wonderful flavor burst of orange ❤️ Don’t get me wrong, I love using nut butters in cookies, but it gets expensive so I also appreciated that these were fantastic without!! Definitely making these again very soon…there’s only a couple left! XO
Ya, I agree. They are fantastic!
Thank you so much Marion!
Is there a cookie you can’t do?! My god woman. These sound like the perfect summer treat!
Haha, aww thanks girl! I guess there is some truth to the titles I have of cookie queen and cookie monster, Lmao! I honestly wish I could just post cookies here on this blog and nothing else, ha!
Hi Brandi,
wow, I never have seen anything like this! Can’t wait to try this vegan orange chocolate chip, I know my family will love it! What happens if I leave out the tapioca starch?
Thank you so much! Every ingredient I put in my recipes have a purpose to the final result, so you don’t want to leave it out! The tapioca is what helps the cookies bind together and make them fluffy and balance out the moisture from the almond flour. But as I’ve noted, you can sub cornstarch if needed. It works just as well and is easy to find at any store.
OMG, Brandi! These are my new favourite cookie!! LOVE them! Could hardly wait for them to cool to try one. Well, I’ve just eaten four… But I did use a smaller scoop – 1 Tablespoon – which made exactly 24 cookies. Hope I can make them last beyond today!
I made these last night, and between my husband and I, they’re almost gone already! They have the perfect amount of sweetness and orange flavor–another amazing recipe (and one I didn’t know I needed in my life until you posted it lol.) I’ll have to get a cookie scoop for next time because mine weren’t as pretty as yours, but I needed to make them ASAP. 🙂
Haha, thank you so much Penny! Really thrilled to hear that and I know what you mean, recipes enter our lives and turn out to be meant to be, LOL! Thank you so much for the awesome review!
Aaah!! I hit 5 stars but it posted as 4! =( Sorry Brandi!!
No problem Colleen, I fixed the rating for you, thank you! I’m so happy you loved these!! I’m guessing it’s a difference in climate or the almond flour brand because mine spread exactly as in the photos, but it’s really humid where I live, so things always spread really nicely. I added a note on the recipe to flatten if needed, thank you Colleen!
Thank you, Brandi! PS- The ones I left a bit puffier are like biscuits this morning and BOY are they delicious with coffee and tea! I just can’t get enough of that orange & chocolate combo going on in these gems!
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be unfaithful to my FAVORITE grain-free chocolate chip cookies w/ fresh orange juice of yours but I’m glad I did! 😜 These are very different from the others and I really love the addition of orange peel. They’re both tart and sweet and very enjoyable! I will say these didn’t flatten out for me but stayed in a puff, so I flattened them with the spatula as soon as they came out of the oven, and flattened my second tray with my hand before they went in. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Brandi! Happy Easter!
Can this recipe be made non-vegan? I want to make it, but want to use conventional ingredients? What would the substitutes be?
Hi Ronald, I write all my recipes vegan and to work as they are written, so if you want to use regular ingredients, then I would just find a recipe online that uses orange and chocolate by just searching google. That would make more sense than trying to completely change this one, which would not have the same result.
I can not wait to maje these. Going to tty to make today for easter.
Hi Karen! Wonderful! Just note that I listed in the directions that these are best the day made, they are still good the next day, but since they only take 20 minutes to make, I would wait to make them tomorrow if serving to guests. The texture is best the first day 🙂
!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.
Wonderful to hear that Patty, thank you so much for making them!!
I cannot wait to make these! And with all the ingredients on hand, TODAY is the day. 🙂
OK, I made these cookies today and as expected, they are DEE-licious. (I used a mandarin instead of an orange because it was on hand,and it still turned out yummy!)
Yay, really thrilled to hear that Cyd, thank you so much for making them and the lovely review!
Forgot to mention, these cookies will be featured on my upcoming blog! (but it should be noted that ALL of Brandi’s recipes are worthy of recognition! :))
Can arrowroot powder be used instead of the tapioca starch?
Hi Michele, I’ve not tried it, so I can’t say. But I do know of a couple of readers who did arrowroot with the lemon cookie version. I just don’t typically like how arrowroot tastes in baked goods, so I can’t say for certain without having tested it. Let me know if you try them!
Delicious!! I always try to used the specified ingredients, but didn’t have tapioca or corn starch and so wanted to try this recipe, so I used potato starch and the cookies are still fabuous. I will use tapioca or corn starch in the next batch. Thanks again Brandi for another great recipe!!
So happy you loved these Donna! Thank you so much for making them!
I made them!! Soooooo good!! Smell amazing!!
I cannot eat almonds. Can you use a different flour than almond for these?
Hi Janie, the almond flour is crucial to the texture and moisture of the cookies since there is no oil. My only suggestion would be to try grinding up raw sunflower seeds into a flour in a processor as fine as you can get it without it turning into paste. This will obviously change the flavor and texture somewhat, but I think it could work. Just weigh after you grind up the flour.