Chocolate Chipless Cookies

These chewy chocolate chipless cookies capture the rich, buttery essence of traditional chocolate chip cookies but without chocolate chips. Perfect for those who enjoy the simplicity of a classic, chewy cookie.

The staple American cookies are the classic chocolate chip cookies with crisp edges, chewy center, and oozing chocolate – ideal for any chocolate lover. Plus, they can be gigantic in size.

But, what if we want to change a thing or two? Keep that perfectly soft, buttery texture, but…skip the amount of chocolate chips...It is not a crime, I promise. In fact, some people are allergic to chocolate!

This is how we get perfect chocolate chip-less cookies, that are just the same old cookies without chocolate chips.

By the way, they look just like their big brother, and have the same texture! But burst with light vanilla flavors instead of chocolate.

Why You Should Make This Recipe

• Quick & Easy. The whole prep and cooking time takes 20 minutes, you just need to wait a couple of hours for the dough to set. No stand mixer is involved, although you can use it, of course.
• Without browning the butter. Saves us time and we still get the softest cookies with crisp edges. No brown butter means less risk that cookies turn out dry or taste like burnt butter.
• Large batch – 24 chewy chocolate chipless cookies to gobble up
• Absolutely delicious even without chocolate chips, the brown sugar adds toffee-like goodness and you won’t be able to resist even if you love chocolate!
• Soft and chewy, but with a crispy edge. Adding butter, baking soda and brown sugar is what these cookies the best.
• It is a great base recipe that you can use for any add-ons or toppings.

Main Ingredients

To make a whole batch of these brown sugar cookies without chocolate chips we only need 9 basic baking ingredients.

• Unsalted butter. Use softened butter to make soft and chewy chocolate chipless cookies, and a little bit of melted butter for a fudgy center. If you only have salted butter on hand, add less regular salt to the dough!
• Granulated sugar. If you want to make brown butter, skip white sugar and only use brown sugar (the same amount of white sugar substituted by brown, dark, or light). However, if you simply follow my recipe, please use both white and brown sugar.
• Dark brown sugar or Light brown sugar add caramel notes and subtle sweetness, almost like butterscotch.
• Large eggs (room temperature) stabilize the dough and give it structure and softness. You can use 2 full eggs, or one egg and one egg yolk.
• Pure vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste or extract are our best friends in baking desserts. Easy to use flavor and aroma add-on. I add 2 teaspoons, but you are free to add the whole tablespoon (roughly 3 tsp) to make a really pronounced vanilla flavor. The artificial extract is ok to use too but natural gives the most of flavor.
• All-purpose flour. To make zero-gluten and allergen-free cookies, use gluten-free flour (almond or amaranth).
• Baking soda and powder help activate the flour to bake cookies until soft but still leave that crumbly texture we crave.
• Kosher salt to balance and open up flavors. Can also use flaky sea salt for topping, salt, and chocolate is a very elegant combination. The cookies will not taste salty.

Kitchen Equipment You’ll Need

• Baking sheets lined with parchment paper (the batch is 24 cookies so probably you need more than one cookie sheet). I don’t recommend non-stick sprays for baking cookies.
• Cookie scoop, optional to form the cookie dough balls before layering and baking them. Tablespoons will do the job.
• A stand mixer is optional to combine dry and wet ingredients.
• Wire rack for cooling

How To Make Chocolate Chipless Cookie Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; gradually blend into the creamed mixture.
5. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or overnight.
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared sheet pans, leaving about 3-4 inches between the cookies.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are firm and golden brown.
8. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
9. Serve warm, sprinkle with flaky salt if you want.

Storage

Cookies without chocolate chips store well at room temperature for 3 days but need to be in an airtight container.

Serve chilled or warm up in the microwave.

Freezing Cookies

Frozen baked cookies last in the freezer for 3 months.

To freeze the cookies properly, first freeze them on the baking sheet for 1 hour, to make them set in shape and keep them from sticking to each other, and then transfer them to a freezer bag or a safe container.

They are super easy to defrost – just let them sit at room temperature.

Make Ahead

To make chipless cookies ahead, prepare the dough balls and then you can freeze them for 2 weeks (or up to 3 months) or store them in the fridge for 2 days.

Perfect for the holiday season you can make double batches of the dough and make this recipe more than once.

Frozen cookie dough needs to thaw on the counter for a few minutes and be baked 1 minute longer than the recipe calls for.

You can bake the cookies up to 3 days ahead of the party.

Variations Of Chocolate Chip Cookies Without Chocolate

• Browning butter adds even more depth to the flavors, and colors cookie dough in deep golden brown color. Browned butter is easy to make, see the notes below. When using browned butter, the cookies have a darker color.
• Toast a little bit of flour in butter to give a more complex flavor to the cookies.
• Make dipped cookies. All the steps are the same but once cookies are baked and cooled you can dip the bottom, or half of each cookie in melted chocolate or caramel. An easy hack to mix up the batch if you know some guests will demand chocolate!
• To make these cookies vegan, use vegan butter, substitute egg with cornstarch and water, and plant-based milk.
• For stronger flavor add maple syrup to the mixture.

How To Make Brown Butter

1. Melt butter over medium heat in a small saucepan.
2. Stirring constantly, wait until the butter foams, usually 6 minutes. Use a heatproof rubber spatula to melt butter. To speed up the foaming, you can add flour.
3. Stir and watch the color, browned butter is done when it turns dark brown (chai latte color) and nutty aroma (usually takes only 2 minutes!). Beyond that point, the butter will start to burn and too much liquid will evaporate – the cookies will end up dry!
4. Pour into a medium bowl and let it cool before you add it to the flour mixture.

Tips To Make The Best Chocolate Chipless Cookies

• Measure the flour the right way. Spoon-and-level method plus fluffing and sifting the flour help to make sure you have the exact amount.
• You can technically add chocolate chips back and the recipe becomes a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.
• Cookie scoop sizes. Note sizes up to 10 make large cookies, sizes 16-30 will be making medium cookies, and anything beyond #30 makes small cookies. Of course, it may vary per brand, but you have a rough idea. It is easier to use the weight. Medium cookie dough balls are around 56 g, while large cookies need an 85 g dough ball. Larger cookies will take 1-2 minutes longer to bake.
• Wet hands handle cookie dough better.
• Do not skip baking soda in this recipe. It not only helps the dough to form properly but also gives the crunchy crisp edges and helps cookies spread better. But because we add baking powder too, the cookie dough won’t spread too much, and hold the shape.

Expert Tricks

• Do not overwork the dough. Otherwise, the cookies will be tough and dry. It is very easy to overwork the cookie dough with mixers, so I often do it by hand.
• Check the doneness of the cookies by the golden brown color of the edges. When the center is a touch underbaked it is softer and more chewy.
• For best results, let the baked cookies sit in the turned-off oven for 20 minutes before moving them to the wire rack to cool completely.
• While layering the cookie dough on the baking sheet, make sure the dough balls don’t touch each other. Same for chilling and freezing.
• Oven temperature is very important for cookies to become brown but not burnt. You can test your oven by measuring the actual temperature inside and/or by making a test cookie first. For some ovens, the top temperature I recommend is 350F to keep the cookies soft.
• If you are a perfectionist, you can shape the warm cookies into circles with a cookie cutter.

Popular Questions

What Can I Put In Cookies Instead Of Chocolate Chips?

You can add chopped nuts, toffee bits, M&M’s, peanut butter chips, marshmallows, Biscoff spread, and even dried fruit or berries to cookie dough to substitute chocolate chips.

If you still want chocolate flavor, you can use white chocolate chips.

How To Make Chewy Vs Crunchy Cookies?

Using softened butter, cornstarch, and brown sugar and going with the lowest suggested baking time helps to make chewy chocolate chipless cookies. while adding baking soda or baking at 400F can give crispiness and crunch to the edges.

Gluten-free flour also keeps the dough from drying out and keeps it soft and gooey.

Baking the cookies till they are completely done makes them tougher and crunchy.

What Is The Purpose Of Chocolate Chips In Cookies?

Chocolate chips add chocolate flavor to sugar cookies and a gooey texture since the chocolate melts during baking.

It is the ingredient that makes these cookies special and the most popular cookies in the US and around the world. 

If you love this cookie recipe, you’re going to love these other tasty cookies too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Great Cookie Recipes Without Chocolate Chips

sable Breton

Sour Cream Cookies

Buckeye Cookies

Homemade Biscoff Cookies

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