Vegan Chocolate Chip Brownie Swirl Cookies

I bake chocolate chip cookies almost every week and have for well over 10 years. I love variety, but I love chocolate chip cookies more. They are a staple item in my home. I was skeptical of this recipe with its vegan title right up until the moment I tasted the cookies. They’re amazing. I expected the brownie portion of the recipe to bake faster and result in a too crunchy texture, and was proven wrong. They were consistent throughout.

All my baking at home is done with vegan butter, and often the result is a flatter, wider, not so picturesque product. I’m not sure if the flaxmeal gel made all the difference in consistency here, but these cookies turned out exactly as the photo showed.

These cookies were soft and chocolatey, a fun half-and-half treat for when you just can’t choose. I’m always looking for vegan baked goods for friends who are vegan, but I’m not always satisfied with the outcome. Sometimes I find that vegan cookies seem less baked and more…dried out and cakey. But this recipe resulted in a nice soft cookie texture with crispy edges, a dense, toothsome interior, and no crumbling. I forgot the flaky salt the first round, but my boyfriend and I agreed that they were much better when I remembered it for our seconds.

I headed the author’s warning to not overbake and removed them at 10 minutes, just when I noticed the cookies were becoming matte on top and no longer shiny. I only baked 6 of my dough balls and froze the rest. I will probably thaw them briefly and bake them for an extra minute or two if necessary.

Skepticism is my default setting, especially when it comes to baked goods with a high possibility for disappointment. The more qualifiers or claims involved (whole-grain, clean, vegan, anything-free), the more skeptical I become. Plainly, the more I want to eat the thing, the more time I spend on it, the less I care how redeeming it is—the more IT BETTER BE GOOD. This message is for those readers still with me (all others have probably already started baking!): IT’S REAL! THESE COOKIES ARE BROWNIES AND CHOC CHIP COOKIES TOGETHER and they’re vegan. Set your skepticism aside, and start baking, cause they’re DANG GOOD.

For cookies, this is a fast recipe, especially if you use a scale. Even though it seems like you have to make 2 separate doughs, bleh so hard!, they repeat the same ingredients, and if you proceed in the recipe’s order, you can reuse the same bowl/beaters without so much as a rinse. And, instead of first rolling balls of 1 dough type, then the other to put together, I kinda cheated. I dropped one dough type from a spoon into 25 blobs, then moved to the other dough, adding to the blobs, then used my hands to roll them into rustic yin-yangs (which really look almost exactly like the photo, with flair!). I sprinkled with a pinch of salt before baking, since there’s none in the batter and I really wanted it to stick.

Cookies were puffed initially, then fell to flat in the 5 minute rest on the baking sheets. Out of the oven (12 minutes till edges looked crisped), the cookies were slightly crisp, delicate, yet a little oily—good, but wait! Cooled, then stored airtight on the counter, the next day, these become Chips-Ahoy chewy-soft, totally addictive—definitely not health food (WORTH IT!).

Honestly, they were not at their best freshly baked. They were good, but not soft; more on the crisp-yet-delicate side. The next day, stored in a resealable plastic bag at room temp, they became chewy-soft, still slightly delicate, reminiscent (in the best way) of that addictive packaged-cookie texture from lunchboxes everywhere.

By now, no one should be surprised when a vegan recipe is utterly delicious. I’ve made plenty of great-tasting vegan desserts, but there is still usually some quality of the final product that makes you say “yep, that’s vegan.” That’s not at all the case with these cookies.

They are so crisp on the outside and buttery soft in the middle that they will be indistinguishable from your favorite classic chocolate chip cookie. The brownie side is super decadent, and the larger size of these make them quite the indulgent treat.

I made most as instructed, with the yin- and yang-like swirl, but I was curious to see how they would turn out with the brownie part entirely on the bottom, and cookie on top, and vice versa. All versions have something to offer, with the brownie as a base becoming like a crisp biscuit, and the cookie as a base being extra soft throughout. Be sure to try one straight out of the oven for maximum melty chocolate chip goodness. These were so good I’m tempted to skip pie baking this Thanksgiving and just make these instead!