Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies {Egg-Free}
These egg-free chocolate chip cookies are wonderfully soft and chewy. Cream cheese makes up the base of the dough (acting as a substitution for the eggs).
Raise your virtual hand if you deal with food allergies – either for yourself or a family member. Anyone? Anyone?
I’m lucky enough to hibernate in my own home without having to give much thought to food allergies and I count my blessings every day because I have many, many friends who deal with everything from gluten allergies to egg allergies to nut allergies to dairy allergies (a few of them have the challenge of all of those at once!).
I am never more hyper-aware of food allergies than when I am taking dinner to a family with food allergies and then I’m, like, a total freak, wiping my counter a hundred times with clorox wipes while cooking to avoid any potential cross-contamination and scouring ingredient lists to determine if I’m making something “safe.”
To be honest, I actually like the challenge because it gives me a greater appreciation for what many of you probably do on a daily basis! And I have to say that my friends with allergies in their home cook extremely healthy, unprocessed recipes because they want to be doubly sure of everything that goes into their food.
Having said all of that, I made these egg-free chocolate chip cookies after spying them on Pinterest and I actually made them for my own family that are all safe and approved to eat eggs. I simply thought they looked delicious, egg-free or not!
Cream cheese makes up the base of the dough (acting as a substitution for the eggs) and the resulting cookie is wonderfully soft and chewy with just the slightest, slightest hint of tangy cream cheese – a flavor I happen to adore. I’ve made these cookies several times now just for our personal eating pleasure!
The bonus is that I can also safely bring them to several of my friends who have egg allergies…and how cool is it to see a child light up in happiness at finally having a “safe” cookie! Every kid needs to be able to eat cookies, in my opinion, allergies or not. I hereby applaud the egg-free cookie for all those who are allergic to eggs and can eat one of these babies!
So make these cookies! For you. For someone you know who is allergic to eggs. For whomever. They really are some of the yummiest chocolate chip cookies around, egg-free or not!
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Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies {Egg-Free}
Ingredients
- 6 ounces (170 g) cream cheese, softened
- 12 tablespoons (170 g) butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup (212 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (106 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons (311 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (255 g) semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment or silpat liners.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, cream together the cream cheese, melted butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until mostly incorporated by a few dry streaks remain. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined and no dry streaks remain.
- Roll the dough into 1 to 1 1/2-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand (just barely press, you don't need to flatten it all the way).
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes until the edges are just barely golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
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Recipe Source: adapted from here, found via Pinterest
I just made the recipe as you have indicated, in grams, and the cookie part turned out great, but I actually reduced your chocolate chips to 180gr and found it was still too much for a regular chocolate chip. I will say, this cookie is DELICIOUS, but I think there needs to be some clarification on the measurements for a few things.
For the flour, is the grams indicated for 2 cups flour + the 3 tbsp, or is it the weight for the 2 cups? You have the grams in front of the tablespoons, so it was a bit hard to decipher because 2 cups of flour is 240gr, but adding 3tbsp, which is approx 23.4gr, does not equal 311gr.
Same with the brown sugar and chocolate chips. You have 212gr for firmly packed brown sugar, but it is typically 200gr and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips is 180grams, not 255gr. Did you just provide the weights based off what you scooped and weighed, or used some sort of online conversion? Either way, I followed what you put, aside from the chocolate chips.
I edited the recipe to make it more clear about the flour weight (yes, it is 311 g for the 2 cups + 3 tablespoons flour). I don’t use online conversions for my weight measures, I test all the recipes with the weight measures given in the recipe. There are a lot of different sources online for what a cup of flour or sugar should weigh. I use 212 g of sugar per cup in my recipe testing.
can i use almond meal as a subsitute for the flour?
I haven’t tried that, but you could definitely experiment. 🙂
These are great right now with the egg shortage! I used a chopped up Terry’s chocolate orange from Christmas and a handful of mini chips. I will definitely have to buy an extra chocolate orange or two next Christmas!
Can you please add the weight in grams for the flour? The extra three tablespoons is throwing me off.
Sure, I just added it.
Made these tonight for my son who has an egg allergy. We all loved them! So happy to have found this recipe!
Mel, do you think these would work as bars?
Yes, I think so!
Were we live it is high altitude (5,500 ft.) and these cookies are PERFECT! I make so many cookies where it doesn’t turn out ride because of high altitude, but these are amazing set up and they taste amazing! I have made them about 6 times and each time I am always impressed.
So I made these cookies with white chocolate chips since that’s all I had and threw in some pumpkin spice. They were delicious.
Love love love this receipe . But how do I make these more thick ?
Try increasing your oven by 25 degrees or adding another 1/4 cup flour or so.
These cookies are great! I tried this variation for Christmas – sub 3/4 cup flour with cocoa powder and sub chocolate chip cookies with Andes Mint Baking Chips – they are AMAZING!!!!!
Just made these and used toffuti cream cheese because my son is also dairy free and they were a hit!! Thanks for the recipe!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, AMAZING! Found this recipe because I was in the middle of making cookies and didn’t have eggs! So glad I ran out of eggs! Best cookies ever! I used 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips and 3/4 cup Reese’s peanut butter chips, but other then that followed the recipe to a T!
My family loves these cookies! I looked up eggless recipes last year when I ran out of eggs and my hubby and kids actually prefer this recipe. So yummy!
These are so, so good. I halved the recipe and still got 18 cookies out of it (and you can bet I ate a few cookies’ worth of unbaked dough beforehand). Thank you so much for posting this. I wish I had discovered the recipe sooner!
This recipe was super easy and the cookies came out thick, chewy, and delicious!
Instead of using chocolate chips, I put whole oreos into the dough and used my hand-mixer to crush them and disperse them into the mixture. They were a huge hit, would definitely make them again, and the cream cheese addition is delicious and easy to execute.
I made these tonight for a friend with an egg allergy-they turned out perfectly!
Can you tell me total amount of flour you put in this recipe.or how much is one cup of flour in grams plus 3 tbspn
I don’t use grams as a weight measure, but generally, I use 5 ounces for each cup of flour.
Can you tell me flour quantity in grams measure.Or how much is one cup of flour in grams and you said plus 3tbspn.What is the total quantity of flour you used.
Delicious cookies! You can’t even tell that they don’t have any eggs. I used 8oz of cream cheese by accident but they turned out great. I used half cup of ghiradelli milk chocolate chips, half cup ghiradelli bittersweet chips, and one cup of mini chips. The dough was very soft, so I had to refrigerate it for a few hours before shaping and baking. My family loves these cookies! I am now trying your egg free double chocolate chip cookies. They are in oven right now and we can’t wait to try them!
This is a silly question probably but do these cookies need to be kept in the fridge after baking since they have cream cheese as an ingredient?
No, I just keep them well-covered at room temperature OR freeze them (but I will say they do taste quite delicious chilled, but it isn’t necessary).
Can I freeze the dough?
Yes!
What changes would I need to make for high altitude? I am always having to make adjustments to recipes for higher altitudes.
I’m not sure – I don’t live at high altitude, but I’ve heard adding a few more tablespoons flour to the dough can help.
These were amazing. I made these when I was searching for an eggless cookies because I ran out of eggs. My hubby and I said they were the best choc chip cookies we’ver ever had. The consistency is great!
So so good! I’m so happy we found this recipe! We make it all the time! Thanks, Mel!
These cookies are so fantastic!!
Would there be any way to make these into double chocolate chip cookies by adding cocoa powder?
Take a look at these: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/egg-free-double-chocolate-cookies/
So I’ve made these countless times and wanted to share my standard changes in case someone is considering trying these: 1)I use white whole wheat and reduce the flour amount to 2 cups, and 2)I use mini chips and reduce to 1 cup. These always come out beautifully and are a favorite with the whole family!
These are the best cookies I have ever had. My sister-in-law found the recipe so my nephew who has an egg allergy could enjoy chocolate chip cookies. They are actually better than the ones with egg!
I tried a variation of this recipe with gluten-free King Arthur all-purpose flour. I doubled the vanilla (I always do when baking with gluten-free flours), used dark brown sugar because it was all I had, and let the dough sit in the fridge for a few days to absorb all the flavors (again, due to the gluten free flour). These cookies were absolutely AMAZING. You could not tell they were gluten free, and they were so chewy and moist. This will be my go-to cookie recipe from now on. Next time, I may experiment with using gluten-free oat flour made out of quick cooking oats. Thanks for this amazing recipe!!!
(Note: I tried baking a batch of them the same night I made the dough. The cookies were not that great at first right out of the oven w/ the King Arthur flour. But, after I let the dough sit for a few days in the fridge and then baked them, the cookies were absolutely delicious!! I am so thankful I can enjoy amazing chocolate chip cookies again!)
I was out of eggs and didn’t want to go to the store. As I had a block of cream cheese to use up, I searched for “Can I substitute cream cheese for eggs?” and this page was close to the top. I had to force myself to stop eating the dough–the fact that there are no eggs made me think it’s okay to eat a ton because there’s no risk of salmonella (as if that fear ever stopped me–hehe!). The dough is delicious! (The cookies are still baking.)
No known allergies here, but these little beauties are scrumptious!
I didn’t sample the dough, but once out of the oven these tasted heavenly~
Thank you for labeling your posts that are allergy friendly. I so appreciate it! I love that you are aware of others allergies and are accommodating despite the fact no one in your family suffers from allergies. Very thoughtful!
Has anyone had success freezing these? Would love to make a bunch a head of time and freeze them … or I guess … I could freeze the dough?
I’ve frozen the baked cookies before in freezer ziploc bags or a large tupperware and they freeze and defrost great.
No allergies in this household but these cookies are delicious! So good with that cream cheese. Thanks for another amazing recipe, Mel!
My nephew has egg allergies and I made these yummy cookies. I don’t know what I did but I had to add more flour because it was very sticky. They came out very pale but they were yummylicious!
Thank you for this recipe.
No allergies here but I wanted a quick cookie to have to for dessert tonight so we tried these. The kids were thrilled they got to try the batter since it was egg free. They just finished eating a couple of cookies and youngest DD said she thinks cookies are better without eggs. Think that means they are a hit.
These cooked up in a light almost delicate cookie texture, they are really good and a nice change from the typical chewy cookie. I used left Christmas chocolate chips that have red and green baking chips mixed in. Made a very pretty gift worthy cookie.
I’m not sure how many others are getting from a batch. Think I got 31 cookies out of it.
I have developed an anaphylactic allergy to eggs and never thought I would get to have a good homemade chocolate chip cookie again. This recipe is wonderful, needs no adjustments and the cookies are excellent! We have even experiemented with white chocolate and macadamias, milk chocololate ghiradelli chips (quite delicious), and peanut butter chips.
Could I use 1 cup chocolate chips?
Victoriya – sure, they won’t be as chocolatey but you could definitely experiment.
I have 3 boys who have food allergies (milk and egg are just the tip of the iceberg on our list of allergens). I have made this recipe several times and they are AMAZING! Finally, we are able to have homemade chocolate chip cookies-worry free. I substitute the cream cheese with Tofutti’s Better Than Cream Cheese (soy-based and delicious) and I use Enjoy Life’s chocolate chips, and these cookies come out perfect every time. Thank you so much for posting this. When you find foods that are allergen friendly AND delicious life is that much easier.
I love that I can eat the dough!!! These cookies are pregnant-friendly, too! No guilt of possibly endangering my unborn child with salmonella! 🙂 Yippeeee for eating cookie dough. 🙂
I’ve made many a chocolate chip cookie, but never with cream cheese! I’m likin the result. It almost cuts the sweetness a bit with the slight tang…but danger, you will want to eat more than one. Was fun to bless a friend with these for her egg allergy kiddos to bring on summer! Also made with GF flour
Am I the first to say that it’s strange that you say “12 Tablespoons butter” instead of just a cup and a half??
It’s not a cup and a half. It’s 3/4 of a cup. Tablespoons are used because that’s how sticks of butter are marked. Another option would be to say “1 1/2 sticks”. Though that is iffy because I’ve seen butter sold in 4 Tablespoon sticks instead of 8.