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I’m sharing my new favorite cookie recipe with you today – these easy chocolate cookies without butter!

They are soft chocolate sugar cookies with a rich chocolatey taste and yummy sugar coating. So so good. 

AND they use oil instead of butter making them both delicious and frugal. Did you know that butter actually costs six times more than the same amount of vegetable oil? 

So if you are looking for an easy chocolate cookies without butter recipe, I’ve got you covered. 

You make these cookies in a similar way as my no butter Snickerdoodle cookies are made.

You mix up the soft dough, scoop out walnut-sized pieces of dough, roll the dough into a ball shape in the palm of your hand, then coat the dough in sugar. 

This gives them the lovely cracked top with a dusting of sugar. 

You make these cookies with cocoa powder so you don’t have to have any baking chocolate on hand. I add a bit of cinnamon to the dough for some depth of flavor, but you could certainly leave it out if you want. 

Chocolate Cookies Without Butter Tips

Here are some tips to make your cookies turn out the best possible:

• If the dough seems too wet, put it in the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes. This will help it firm up.
• Remove the cookies from the oven when they still seem a bit soft. They will harden as they cool.
• Do NOT over bake these cookies! They will get too hard and difficult to eat.
• If you want super chocolatey cookies you can substitute 1 packet of hot cocoa mix for 1/4 cup of the sugar.
• You can use rice bran oil, olive oil, or avocado oil in place of vegetable oil

I always bake my cookies on this non-stick silicone mat from Target. It makes an excellent gift for anyone who loves to bake cookies!

I hope you enjoy this easy no butter chocolate cookies recipe!

Yield: 2 dozen

Easy Chocolate Cookies Without Butter Recipe

Print

Soft sugar cookies made with cocoa powder and oil instead of butter.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 18 minutes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white sugar + 2 tablespoons for rolling
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup + 6 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix the oil, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix everything together to form a thick dough. 
5. Chill for 15 minutes if needed for the dough to set up.
6. Form the dough into walnut-sized balls and roll each ball in the sugar coating.
7. Place cookies a few inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until slightly brown on the bottom. Do not overbake or they will be hard as rocks!

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