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 (311 g) plus 3 tablespoons 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
104 Comments on “Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies {Egg-Free}”
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.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! My little guy has both egg and nut allergies, so finding a soft, delectable chocolate chip cookie for him and my dear hubby is like a treasure hunt. This is my second time making them and the dough provides a great base to make cookies with other stuff like cranberries and white chocolate chip cookies.
I’ve tried them…there are so delicious ! Thanks for the recipe !
These cookies were fabulous. I baked them for a Friday treat for work last week, and they were a hit!
I made the cookies for a second time yesterday and substituted half the melted butter for applesauce. I may or may not substitute all the butter in the future, but half applesauce worked out well. Tasty!
It’s too bad I don’t keep cream cheese as a staple usually, because they came together so quickly and baked up beautifully. They didn’t really spread at all (which was actually unfortunate for my first batch since I didn’t squish them down or make them look pretty). Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
My husband can’t keep his hands out of the cookie jar with this one!
Oops that was supposed to say “even better” not ” Ben better”
These cookies are delicious!!! I’ve made them a couple times now and this last time I made them with half chocolate chips and half white chocolate chips and they were Ben better!!
I loved these. My family loved these. We don’t have egg allergies here (only peanut) but this is definitely a recipe I’ll be making frequently. It’s so easy. I made mine with semi-sweet chocolate chips and I loved how ooey-gooey and chocolately the cookies were. Yum!
Thanks so much for linking up, Mel!
Oh wow, these look great, I wish I had found them earlier! I’m hosting an “Egg Free Party Recipes” link party and would love you to link this one up, and any more if you have them!
http://www.homegrownmama.com/2012/01/egg-free-birthday-party-link-up.html
Cheers,
Christie
My son has allergies, but luckily he can have eggs. He can’t have gluten or dairy though. These look delicious! I will have to try them!
This sounds like it would be an awesome raw cookie dough recipe if you want to make cookie dough ice cream… No raw eggs to worry about!
I’m personally so grateful for this post and the fact that people have friends in their life like you, who care!! Food allergies are a way of life and so is amazing food. These cookies were so delicious just as your egg-less sugar cookies were!! Loved everyones comments and tips…so helpful!!
I’m going up to help my daughter pack this weekend…she’s pregnant and they just bought a house. I think we will make these cookies and then if she slips up and tastes the dough we don’t have to worry. I’m also going to add a little cinnamon because my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe has some in it and it just gives it a little extra flavor.
I made these for over the weekend snacking and they were delicious!! Thanks for another great recipe!
Mel I made these last night for the first time and they were delicious…My husband and dtr are huge cookie monsters and they gobbled them up…Thanks so much this is a keeper
We’re lucky enough to be allergy free in our house, but like you, I do have plenty of friends with food allergies. I’ve had and made a couple sugar cookie recipes that have cream cheese (I don’t believe they’re egg free though) in them and the cream cheese adds a nice flavor. These look tasty, I’ll have to give them a try!
So…I’m making a bunch of sugar cookies for my friends’ daughter’s baptism tomorrow. This sweet little girl happens to be one of the girls I know allergic to eggs and peanuts. Anyhow, thanks to all of your wisdom, I used Cara’s (thank you!) substitution above of baking powder, water and vinegar in my White Velvet Sugar cookie recipe and I’m not kidding, they turned out amazing! Just as good as the originals…and egg-free now! Thanks for the help, everyone – I wasn’t sure I was going to pull off making an edible egg-free sugar cookie until you all chimed in with your knowledge.
Here’s the link to the White Velvet Sugar cookies, in case anyone wants the recipe:
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/03/white-velvet-sugar-cookies.html
Hi Mel,
I just came across your website and this receipe – so I wanted to confirm that you replaced the 2 egg yolks with = 2 tsp baking powder, 2 Tbsp water and 2 Tbsp Vinegar? Also any specific type of vinegar?
And the flour is just all purpose?
Thank you!
Yes, the flour is all-purpose. I usually use white vinegar for this substitution.
Thanks again Mel! Wonderful cookie recipe – thank you 🙂
So, I just looked through the comments now :>) I think the egg replacer works better than applesauce, never tried the flax seed thing. Also, it doesn’t affect taste at all! Good luck in all the cooking adventures! :>) For those with peanut allergies, try Sunbutter! Fabulous! I order it though amazon.com on my mom account and set it up on a subscribe & save, saves about 20% all together! Tastes great and is a fabulous peanut butter substitute in ALL recipes, my neighbors thought I made them actual peanut butter cookies! :>)
I LOVE eggless recipes because we have egg allergies in our home, and from reading the post with your recipe…I thought I might shed a bit of light on eggless baking. There is this wonderfully amazing product called Ener-G Egg Replacer – no egg protein, no egg anything, just a random assortment of ingredients that mimic what an egg does in baking, i.e. gets it to stick and to rise. Works great with cookies, breads, cupcakes (especially the Pillsberry box when using the high altitude instructions). Not so great with cakes, but otherwise great. No one can tell my cookies are eggless. You can buy it at Smith’s or most likely any natural foods store. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m always looking for a different chocolate chip cookie recipe and these look wonderful. I can’t wait to try them!
i dodged the (hail of) food allergy bullet(s) myself, and i count my blessings for that. these cookies look perfectly great, though–interesting texture!
Thanks for posting this…my son is allergic to eggs and peanuts (and until a while ago milk…hallelujah that the milk allergy is now GONE!!!). It’s so great to find recipes that he can eat without any “substitutions.” I’ll have to try this one soon!
Wow, I need to make these cookies ASAP! Cream cheese and chocolate? Done!
My daughter has multiple food allergies, including eggs. Its been so hard to find recipes that are safe for her but yummy enough for our whole family to eat. So thank you for posting this recipe and bringing awareness to the challenges families with food allergy’s face. And, as I type this, I am currently enjoying a plate of leftover braised brisket & mushrooms. WOW!
I am so lucky that my family doesn’t suffer from food allergies. Well, except for me and my life threatening shellfish allergies! 🙁 These cookies look delicious, puffy and chewy…just how I like my cookies!
What gorgeous photos! The cookies look perfect, I love how pinterest is connecting so many people! 🙂
Thank-you, thank-you! My daughter is allergic to eggs, and peanuts. I am always looking for different egg free recipes. I actually love your favorite Chocolate chip recipe. I substitute the egg, and egg yolk for 1/2 cup of applesauce, and love it! I take those cookies everywhere, and no one can tell they are egg free. Best part is you can eat the Dough with no worries. 🙂
My son has egg and peanut allergies, I spied your recipe on Pinterest and repinned it- I will DEFINITELY be giving it a try. Thank you for being so sensitive to the people with food allergies, it really means a lot to a mom like me! Thanks!
Kari – I found the same issue happened when I tried to save the cream cheese chocolate recipe from the home page. I’m not sure why it is happening, but I’ll look into it! In the meantime, if you click on the blog post title of the recipe so the blog post pulls up with a unique url: http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-chocolate-chip-cookies-egg-free.html, then the recipe will save just fine.
Why when I try to save this to my recipe box does it default to a mac-n-cheese recipe. It’s happened to me once before with another recipe too. It saves the mac-n-cheese recipe to my box instead of the cookies.
So wonderful of you to post this. People in the severe allergy community really appreciate the understanding of others. My daughter has severe peanut allergies but I am still posting this link to our UFAN website for those with egg allergies. They look delicious!
Luckily we don’t have any food allergies in our family, but I love cookie dough more than I should. Being pregnant I pretty much stop making cookies because I know I will have a hard time resisting the dough. I will be making these as soon as I get to the store to buy some cream cheese. 🙂
Thank you Mel! We happen to be one of those “allergic” families. Dairy was eliminated for a while, but it is back on our okay list. We still avoid eggs, nuts, and gluten. This looks like a recipe that I will be able to experiment with and make it gluten free as well!
Okay, I’m so excited to try these. We don’t have food allergies, either, but I like to play around with chocolate chip cookies whenever I get a chance. Thanks!
My sister has tons of allergies and I always felt lucky to not have any, my husband and I can eat anything, along came my daughter, well she seems to take after her aunt! Allergies or not though, these sound intriguing.
Yippee! I too have no allergies myself or in my family but this will be nice to have around when I run out of eggs and need to make cookies! Believe me it has happened before… on a Sunday afternoon, the worst.
Since my youngest has an egg allergy we’re always looking for great recipes. I make a similar sugar cookie recipe that uses cream cheese instead of eggs. I also use the 1 T flax seed and 3 T of water substitute mentioned especially for muffins. But one thing I LOVE about egg-free cookie dough is that all of us can eat the dough without worrying about salmonella.
http://www.bakingwithbigred.blogspot.com/2010/02/philadelphia-sugar-cookies.html
Love these! Can’t wait to make them!
I don’t have an egg allergy BUT these little guys look delicious!
xo
Jin
This sounds delicious, egg allergy or not! 🙂
Wow, thank you! It is often to find things that turn out this great and are egg free. You can also make it dairy free, too (Vegan). Simply replace the cream cheese with Tofutti, Better tahn Cream Cheese (completely dairy free, not soy free though) and the butter with Earth Balance sticks!
Thank you for sharing, Mel. Love your recipes, and spend hours on your blog, browsing!
Thanks very much for posting this! I have tons of food allergies, and I love to see other people experimenting with baking allergy-free!
You had me at “the dough is made of cream cheese base” because anything that has that to say about is alright with me! I saw these on your fb page and got veeerrrryyy excited. Delicious!
This is a recipe I adapted from the ATC cookie recipe for a friend with allergies. They are so good, glad others are enjoying them too!
My daughter has an egg allergy and I’ve found that I can use egg substitutes in my regular cookie recipes and they turn out wonderfully. Cookies and muffins do well with the substitutes, brownies, not so well. Here are two good substitutes that are the equivalent of 1 egg:
1 T ground flax seed, 3 T water (my fav)
1 t. baking powder, 1 T water, 1 T vinegar
Hope it helps someone
Thank you for posting this. My son is very allergic to eggs and I’ve been on the hunt for a good egg free cookie recipe.
Cooking for lactose intolerance, diabetes and extreme IBS makes for a challenging time. But it’s so worth it to see my loved ones’ faces light up when I try something new. : ) Any tips for milk substitutions (especially things like heavy cream or whipping cream or condensed milk) would be greatly appreciated!
They actually have coconut milk whipped cream. I’m pretty sure you can even make it youself. I recall seeing a recipe online.
I have made these cookies before for my son (well, really for the whole family) and they are delicious.