🍪 Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft, chewy, loaded with chocolate, and have a unique flavor from the olive oil, but it’s not overpowering! If you’re looking for a twist on classic chocolate chip cookies, try these!
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Olive Oil
The popularity of desserts made with olive oil rather than butter is catching on! If you’re wanting to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe that produces soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies that are loaded with chocolate, look no rather than this recipe.
You won’t even need to set out any butter beforehand to come up to room temperature! One nice perk of baking with olive oil rather than butter.
Two of my very favorite cakes, including my hands-down favorite lemon dessert, are cakes that are made with olive oil. Namely, this Lemon Olive Oil Cake, which was inspired by this Olive Oil Orange Cake.
This cookie recipe is actually a spinoff of these Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I use olive oil instead. It adds a unique, rich taste and makes the dough extra soft and chewy. Truly, these cookies are incredible and SO decadent!
Ingredients and Notes
For these seriously good olive oil chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need:
- Olive oil – I used Trader Joe’s Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I’m sure the flavor of the cookies will change slightly depending on whether you use extra virgin versus virgin olive oil, the region the olives were grown in, such as Italy or Spain, and so forth. I recommend using your favorite or the everyday olive oil that you have in your pantry, and not buying anything special for this recipe.
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Whole egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Instant vanilla pudding mix – The instant vanilla pudding mix is a must in this recipe! You want to get the instant mix, not the cook-and-serve kind (and also don’t get sugar-free). You don’t actually make the pudding according to package instructions; you just add it to the cookie dough and treat it like a dry ingredient
- Baking soda – Do NOT confuse it with baking powder. The two leaveners are not the same
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips – I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use dark chocolate chips, or opt for chocolate chunks. Using good quality chocolate is a rule of thumb for the best baked good of any kind. Look for dairy-free chocolate, if needed
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Beat the wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and add the dry ingredients. The dough will look shaggy, and it’s both oily and dry. You’ll think something is horribly wrong, but it’s fine.
- Whisk or stir in the chocolate chips.
- Using a cookie scoop or your hands, form approximately 21 equal-sized balls. You need to compress and compact the dough by squeezing it, and it’ll come together. Don’t be afraid to really squeeze it. As a bonus, your hands will be wonderfully moisturized from the olive oil. If your dough is absolutely not coming together, and is fluffy, crumbly, or too dry, drizzle in one tablespoon of olive oil at a time until it comes together. Do this as a last resort because it can make the dough oily, adding too much moisture, in a hurry.
- Chill the dough. It’s absolutely crucial for a thick, puffy, full baked cookie. If you bake with warm dough, your cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter, and the olive oil will render them oil puddles rather than cookies.
- Arrange the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the cookies, if desired. Then, bake until the edges are set and the tops are lightly golden brown. I baked the cookies for 9 minutes, but if you choose to make smaller or larger cookies, you’ll need to adjust the baking time accordingly. The secret to these cookies is keeping them a touch underbaked, which I think is the secret to most good cookies. Let the baked cookies cool on the pan.
Recipe FAQs
In the cakes I’ve made with olive oil, I wouldn’t have specifically guessed it was olive oil, although it’s discernible that they’re oil-based versus butter-based cakes.
With respect to these cookies, the raw dough tastes strongly of olive oil, but upon baking, it mellows dramatically. You can taste it, but in an unexpected and interesting way.
If you’re up for being adventurous and baking a unique batch of chocolate chip cookies, I’d say go for it.
And if you’re not, I have at least 30 different chocolate chip cookie recipes, many featured below in the related recipes section that follow this recipe.
However, no hard feelings if olive oil cookies don’t sound like your jam!
Without having tried it myself, I can’t say for sure with regard to vegetable oil.
But since this recipe is closely adapted from these Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they turn out amazing, feel free to use coconut oil.
Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer Fitted with a Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- one 3.5-ounce packet instant vanilla pudding mix, not sugar-free and not ‘cook & serve’, no substitutions
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for adding to the tops if desired
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the oil, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined, about 2 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chocolate chips, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Mixture will look shaggy and be both oily yet dry and crumbly; this is okay.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, form approximately 21 equal-sized mounds of dough by compressing, compacting, and squeezing until the dough comes together; don’t be afraid to really squeeze it. (See Notes 1 and 2 below)
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, flatten slightly (when properly chilled, cookies don’t flatten much while baking so flatten them now), cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. Alternatively, chill in the freezer for about 1 hour. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading. Make sure the cookies are in the exact shape you want them before chilling, because it’s exceedingly difficult to re-shape them after chilling – they will just fall apart. Before chilling, if desired, add a few additional chips to the top of each mound of dough.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet) and bake for about 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don’t overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don’t use a rack.
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Adapted from Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies— You won’t miss the butter at all in these coconut oil chocolate chip cookies! They’re so soft and ever so slightly chewy. Dangerously good!
The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies — One of my absolute favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies thanks to a special ingredient! Just one bite and I think you’ll agree!!
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies— These soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are studded with chocolate chips and are the perfect texture. My secret ingredient? Cornstarch! It produces the most incredible cookies, trust me!
One-Bowl, No-Mixer, No-Chill Oatmeal Cookies — An incredibly FAST and EASY recipe that produces perfectly thick cookies with chewy edges and soft centers!! One bowl to wash, no mixer to drag out, and no waiting around!
So good!