Cookies, Desserts, Featured · November 5, 2017

Caramel-Stuffed Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Name: Caramel-Stuffed Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 10 dates (pitted); 3/4 cup non-dairy milk; 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/2 cup coconut oil (or if it’s hot outside, your coconut oil is probably pre-melted for you, melted); 3/4 cup packed brown sugar; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional); 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk; 1 flax ‘egg’ (1 tbs. ground flax seed combined with 3 tablespoons water); 1/2 cup whole wheat flour; 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Jump to Recipe

Vegan chocolate chip cookies get stuffed with a date vegan caramel center and plenty of chocolate. Ready in under an hour and easy as pie!

The base for these caramel-stuffed vegan chocolate chip cookies recipe was adapted from Tara O’Brady’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. I first heard about it when Tara was on the Pure Green Magazine Podcast and talked about the recipe being 30 minutes from start to finish, and one that she had obviously labored over with love. After using her version of chocolate chip cookies several times and deeming them the best/easiest I’ve made so far, I knew it was time to change it up just a little bit (aka stuff things inside of it). Dare I say these might be a good alternative to pie for Thanksgiving? I think so!

The beauty of Tara’s recipe is that almost every ingredient is probably something you have hanging out in your kitchen at home, especially if you are prone, like myself, to keeping cookie ingredients on hand at all times. I’ve sung the praises of vegan date caramel in the past (especially in ice cream!) and with good reason. It’s easy, fast, and shies away from the usual ingredient list of caramel that includes lots of sugar and corn syrup.

Even though I was pretty confident, as I was stuffing the date caramel into the chocolate chip cookie dough I got a little nervous that this was just too good to be true, there was no way this was going to work, right? Wrong, and I’m so happy about it. The chocolate chip cookie base becomes perfectly crispy around the edges and melted in the center, while still giving that extra surprise from the date caramel center.

If you want to start out with just making straight-up vegan chocolate chip cookies with the dough, by all means, go right ahead. I fully expect and support you in starting out with straight up chocolate chip cookies, you do you!

How to make vegan caramel

If making homemade caramel scares you, hear me out. The vegan date caramel in this chocolate chip cookie recipe is one of the easiest things you’ll ever make, pinky promise. To make the vegan caramel, you simply have to blend pitted dates, non-dairy milk, vanilla extract, and the tiniest amount of maple syrup in a blender until fully combined.

Seriously, that’s it! Once you’ve blended together the date caramel you’ll need to let the mixture rest in the fridge or freezer until the cookies are ready to be stuffed. The vegan caramel you’re making for this recipe is quite soft and tastes incredible on top of pretty much any treat.

Making these vegan chocolate chip cookies

These vegan chocolate chip cookies are as easy to make as your average cookie (not that these babies are average in taste—far from it!). However, if you don’t plan your cookie assembly right you might have a tricky time stuffing the caramel into the cookie dough.

Once you’ve made the cookie dough, you’ll need to scoop out two or three tablespoons of dough per cookie (you’ll need a little extra than normal to accommodate the gooey caramel filling). Flatten the dough out slightly and dollop on the vegan caramel. Then, wrap the edges of the vegan cookie dough around the caramel and seal it in as best you can. You want to make sure there are no gaps in the cookie dough when you place each ball onto the baking tray.

If you have extra time on your hands, I suggest freezing the caramel for a few hours and cutting it into chunks before adding it to the cookie dough. This will make it easier to wrap the cookie dough around the caramel and will prevent leakage in the oven.

Previous vegan cookie recipes on Heart of a Baker: