Wondering how we make our infamous Cookies ‘n’ Cream and Cookie Bites?

Well this is not the exact recipe for our GÂTO dairy free cookies (that’s top secret! 😉) BUT we are going to share all our handy hints and top tips for making the BEST ever home-made chocolate chip cookies!

Of course, we had to put a cheeky GÂTO plant-based spin on the recipe so as well as being dairy free, these chocolate chip cookies are also vegan, gluten free and 100% natural! They are so tasty we bet you won’t miss the dairy #gamechanger

The day we were developing this dairy free recipe, we ate the WHOLE tray of cookies in a blink of an eye. We munched them so quickly they barely had the chance to cool down… guys these are SO delish

This dairy free cookies recipe is super quick, simple and a great way to treat yourself from the comfort of your home. We’re obsessed- hope you will be too. Tuck in!

About These Dairy Free Choc Chip Cookies

We’ve created the ultimate dairy free chocolate chip cookie recipe… you simply must try!

Unlike conventional chocolate chip cookies, these beauties don’t contain any butter or eggs so are perfect for people with dairy allergies plus those on plant-based, vegan diets

We use gluten-free flour instead of all - purpose flour and coconut oil instead of butter- making these tasty treats completely dairy and gluten free. More delicious chocolate chip cookies for everyone woohoo!

But WAIT! Is egg dairy?

Common misconception but egg is NOT dairy. Don’t worry because we don’t use eggs to make this recipe either! Instead we use aquafaba, this magical liquid- only joking it's actually super basic. All you do is drain the water from a can of chickpeas and whip, whip, whip until you have a lovely, smooth, thick foam- just like meringue!

Here’s a fun fact for you, ‘aquafaba’ comes from the word’s ‘water’ and ‘bean’ in Latin. It was a French man who discovered that chickpea brine has egg white properties when whipped- what a genius. This is what we use in our cookies to bind them together, who knew chickpea water would be such an egg-cellent addition to vegan baking

LIFE HACK ALERT! Our (not so secret) top tip is to create your own dairy free chocolate chips- don’t worry this is SO easy! All you need to do is smash up a big bar of dairy free chocolate. We love 65 -70% dark cocoa solids (don't use cocoa powder) to make the cookie super rich and delicious. The secret to this recipe is to leave the chunks BIG, so you get gooey, melty chocolate oozing out your cookie

Why Dairy Free?

As with all our cookies *cough if you haven’t tried our delish GÂTO cookies yet you need to! 😉*, we are going to use coconut oil instead of butter in this chocolate chip cookie recipe.

These ingredients give the cookies an incredibly crumbly and moreish texture- who needs butter hey?

Charlotte discovered this combo when she was looking for an alternative while baking cookies at home and voila- perfection

Being dairy free these delicious chocolate chip cookies are not only better for you but better for the planet! By reducing the use of animal products, we can all do our part in the fight to save our planet (you can read more about GÂTO x Our planet here), whilst making the tastiest NOMS ever!

At GÂTO we never compromise on taste and these beauties most certainly don’t!

The ULTIMATE Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

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Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Total time: 25 mins (plus cooling time)

Makes: 8

Ingredients:

• 60g gluten- free oat flour (replaces all-purpose flour)
• 50g ground almonds
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 50g coconut oil
• 37g smooth almond butter (vegan butter)
• 100g light brown sugar (you can also use cane sugar)
• 40g aquafaba (chickpea water from a tin of chickpeas: drain it from the tin!)
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 125g dark chocolate (for the chocolate chips / chunks)

For extra yumminess:
Melt 50g dairy free chocolate with 1 tbsp water
Utensils:
Oven tray
Hand mixer (to beat the aquafaba)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan)
2. In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil & smooth almond butter with brown sugar until nice and smooth
3. Drain the aquafaba from a tin of chickpeas, add the baking powder and whip until white and fluffy (like whipped egg whites, but softer!)
4. Scoop the wet ingredients (whipped aquafaba & vanilla extract) into the mixing bowl with the brown sugar, coconut oil & almond butter mixture
5. Stir in the dry ingredients then add the dairy free chocolate chips
6. Using your hands, make small balls with the cookie dough mixture > place onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper
7. Bake in the oven for about 10-11 minutes, make sure they are nice and golden
8. Remove from the oven and let them cool down on a cooling rack (The cookies are still quite soft but will get sturdier when cooling down, until nice and crispy!)
9. For extra yumminess, drizzle the cookies with or dunk into the chocolate sauce (see above)!!

Top Tips for Perfect Cookies:

• We use our kitchen aid + paddle, but you can do it with a fork. If the coconut oil is too hard, just soften it in the microwave
• Aquafaba takes longer to whip than egg whites and the cream of tartar is here to help, but don’t worry if you can’t get too soft or hard peaks: As long as it’s well whipped and foamy, it’ll do the job
• If you like your cookies chunkier / less flat, wrap your cookie dough in cling film & refrigerate for 15 min before baking: it prevents the cookies from spreading during baking

Hope you enjoy our dairy free chocolate chip cookie recipe and please let us know if you manage to re-create the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookies!

Drop us an email team@gatoandco.co.uk or slide into our Instagram DM’s @gatoandco if you have any questions, want to send us snaps of your bakes, or just want to have a little chat! We absolutely love hearing from you 😊. Good luck and enjoy!

Bookmark our blog for more delicious cookie recipes!

Tuck in! 

Recipe Nutritional Information