Our New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies Happen to Be Vegan

Like most of my ideas worth sharing, these vegan chocolate chip cookies were born from a dessert craving at 7 a.m. on a weekday. A better-adjusted, more disciplined person might've assuaged it with a scone (and arrived at work on time).

But I got out my mixing bowls.

Cookies for breakfast, I reasoned, should make a few ingredient concessions to appear moderately virtuous. I started with Ovenly's Genius recipe for vegan salted chocolate chip cookies, and tweaked it, trading neutral oil for olive oil (one of my favorite baking tricks for sweet-savory flavor), and swapping out white and brown sugar for maple syrup and coconut sugar to mirror my typical breakfast choices. I added a tiny bit of molasses to replace the brown sugar–flavor I missed from traditional chocolate chip cookies, and switched out chips for chunks, for bigger pools of melted chocolate.

The result was a chubbier, somewhat softer cookie than Ovenly's version, but delicious in its own right, with mellow notes of caramelly maple and savory, mild olive oil, perfectly balanced by the pinch of salt on top. In short, the ideal chocolate chip cookie for breakfast.

On my way out the door, I grabbed a few for my work bag—and they were great for lunch, too.

What's your favorite way to riff on chocolate chip cookies? Let us know in the comments.