Your favorite chocolate chip cookies, but easier? We had to do it, friends! These vegan, gluten-free chocolate chip cookie BARS have all the flavor, but there’s no chilling, no scooping, and no hand mixer involved! Just stir, spread, and bake.
Plus, just 8 ingredients and 1 bowl required! They’re so easy it almost seems wrong…but they’re so right: perfectly sweet, chewy, buttery, and studded with melty chocolate chunks. Grab your favorite mixing bowl and let’s bake!
How to Make Vegan Gluten-Free Cookie Bars
These vegan + gluten-free cookie bars start with a flax egg for binding, brown sugar for its sweetness and ability to create crispy edges, and melted vegan butter and vanilla for classic cookie flavors!
After whisking them together, we transition to the dry ingredients! Our gluten-free flour blend is the gluten-free G.O.A.T. for mimicking the texture of all-purpose flour, while baking powder adds some lift and sea salt enhances all the flavors.
Then there’s just one more required ingredient — arguably the most important of them all: chocolate chips or chunks! We also like adding walnuts for a little crunch, but if you’re not a nuts-in-cookies person, just do you.
We hope you LOVE these cookie bars! They’re:
Chewy
Buttery
Tender
Perfectly sweet
Studded with chocolate
& Undetectably vegan + gluten-free!
Pair with a glass of dairy-free milk and you’ll be in cookie magic land. Or if the weather is chilly, try them with our 5-Minute Vegan Hot Cocoa or 5-Minute Caffeine-Free Chai.
More Recipes for Chocolate Chip Cookie Lovers
- Classic Vegan Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan + GF)
- Fluffy 1-Bowl Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo @minimalistbaker on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp flaxseed meal (to make flax egg)
- 2 ½ Tbsp water (to make flax egg)
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (or sub coconut sugar with different results — see notes)
- 1/2 cup melted vegan butter (we used Miyoko’s)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cup MB 1:1 GF Blend* (or another gluten-free blend)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks (ensure dairy-free as needed // we like Enjoy Life)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional but recommended)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (176 C) and line an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- To a medium mixing bowl, add flaxseed meal and water and let rest for 5 minutes to thicken. Next, add brown sugar, melted vegan butter, and vanilla. Whisk well to combine — the mixture should become cohesive.
- Next, fold in the GF flour blend, baking powder, and sea salt. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and optional walnuts until just combined.
- Pour the mixture into the lined baking pan and bake for 25-28 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the center is golden. Let cool at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before slicing into bars. The longer they sit, the better they will hold their shape…although we do love to enjoy them slightly warm!
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Video
Notes
*If not gluten-free, you can try all-purpose flour in place of the gluten-free flour blend. We recommend starting with 1 ¼ cups, adding more as needed to achieve the consistency of the batter in the video.
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated without optional ingredients.
angie says
Love the looks of this cookie bar, but can that nutrition data be correct?
1 bar = 148 Carbs? HOPE not!
Oh that’s definitely not correct! It looks like we input calories twice. We’ll get it updated. Thank you for mentioning it and sorry for any confusion!
angie says
TY ; ) That’s what I suspected.
Natalie says
These are AMAZING!!! I’ve been craving cookies and when this popped into my email I made it immediately. So easy and so delicious! I didn’t have walnuts but I had brazil nuts and they taste lovely in this. YUM YUM YUM!
YAY! We’re so glad you made and enjoyed them, Natalie! xoxo
Mrs E says
Can almond flour be substituted for the gluten-free flour
Hi! It would change the texture. If you wanted to try it, we would recommend using 1 1/2 – 2 times as much almond flour because it’s not as absorbent as a GF blend. Keep in mind they won’t be the same though!
Janice says
Do you think buckwheat flour (with no further adjustments) would work instead of the GF blend? Thanks.
We don’t think it would work, unfortunately! It would likely be dense and have a strong flavor. Maybe 1/3 cup though?
The Vegan Goddess says
Ooh, these look good! Have you tried brown coconut sugar? That might be similar to brown sugar.
Hi! Is there a difference between the two? We thought it was just the way it was marketed!
The Vegan Goddess says
One says “brown coconut sugar” and the other just says “brown sugar”. Maybe the process of browning the sugars yields a similar result.
Upon research, brown sugar is usually white sugar + molasses.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/coconut-sugar-8407729
Brown coconut sugar is usually coconut sugar + maple syrup.
https://larenascorner.com/homemade-coconut-brown-sugar/
I think the coconut version is worth a try if you can find it or make your own.
Interesting! We have used brands that say “brown coconut sugar” and didn’t find the result to be different compared to ones called “coconut sugar,” but it might be worth experimenting more closely. In our experience, coconut sugar has a stronger flavor than brown sugar and adds more moisture, so we’re not sure maple syrup would fix that. We’d love to hear if you play around with it!