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
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.