Vegan Chocolate Chip, Pecan, and Cranberry Cookies

These vegan chocolate chip, pecan, and cranberry cookies are soft, chewy, and have ingredients everyone loves: Rich chocolate. Buttery pecans. Chewy cranberries. The perfect trifecta!

When life hands you these three ingredients, there is only one thing to do: You make cookies.

I think that there is a lot of unnecessary guilt and shame wrapped up in people’s dietary choices, and it doesn’t have to be so. My food philosophy continues to evolve as I move away from years of restriction and obsession with a particular way of eating, but for now, Michael Pollan’s adage, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” continues to resonate quite strongly with me.

I enjoy a wide variety of foods. I eat vegan 95% of the time, with the odd organic egg or goat/sheep dairy thrown in when I’m craving it. I believe that ethics, the environment, and macronutrient balance are important considerations to make in our food choices, but I believe just as strongly that eating socially and for pleasure are important variables of the equation– variables that are often left out of the discussion about nutrition. You can eat what on paper appears to be the healthiest food in the world, but if you’re not enjoying it–if your soul isn’t being nourished by your food and the people you are eating with–you probably won’t enjoy radiant health.

If you are already eating a diet based on plants and whole foods to begin with, you definitely have plenty of wiggle room to enjoy something sweet at the end of the day, if that is what makes you feel good- no guilt required!

And on that note, let’s bake cookies!

These cookies have a lot going for them. They’re:

Vegan
Crisp on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside
Buttery-tasting
Made with spelt flour
Perfect for dunking into a tall glass of almond milk!

And, if you love sweet treats as much as I do, check out these recipes:

Cranberry Swirl Loaf
No-Churn Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream
Chocolate Chunk Cashew Butter Blondies
Fabulous Fudge Pie

I hope that you love these cookies as much as I do! 

As always, if you make these vegan chocolate chip, pecan, and cranberry cookies, tag your Instagram photos @upbeet.kitchen and #upbeetkitchen!

Vegan Chocolate Chip, Pecan, and Cranberry Cookies

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• Author: Allison
• Total Time: 27 minutes
• Yield: 16 cookies 1x
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

Chocolate chips, pecans, and cranberries combine into one drool-worthy cookie! Tender on the inside, crisp around the outside, and buttery-tasting, these are sure to become your new favourite treat. Best enjoyed with a glass of almond milk or coffee. 

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 2.5 tbsp water)
• ¼ cup virgin coconut oil
• ¼ cup almond butter or sunflower seed butter
• ½ cup coconut sugar 
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup light/white spelt flour*
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
• ½ cup dried cranberries or raisins
• ½ cup pecan halves

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Whisk together the flax and water in a small dish and set aside for a couple of minutes to allow it to thicken. 
3. In a large bowl, cream together the coconut oil and almond butter with an electric mixer. Alternatively, you can whisk it by hand. 
4. Add the flax egg, coconut sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla extract to the coconut oil/almond butter mixture and mix to incorporate. 
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and rolled oats. 
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix, either with an electric mixer or a spoon. 
7. Chop the pecan halves. Add the chocolate, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries to the cookie dough and stir to incorporate. If the dough seems too wet, add a couple more tablespoons of flour. If it seems too dry, add almond milk or water, a tablespoon at a time, until the proper consistency is achieved. (I usually end up adding two tablespoons of almond milk to my dough.)
8. With lightly wet hands, roll dough into 16 equal balls and place 8 on each baking sheet, with space in between for them to spread out. Wet your hands again and flatten the balls slightly. They do spread out quite a bit during baking. 
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Baking time will vary depending on whether you like your cookies soft and chewy or crispy, and the type of baking sheet that you use (I use a stone pan from Pampered Chef, so my cookies take a bit longer to bake). 

 

Notes

*I prefer light spelt flour to whole spelt flour in dessert recipes because it is lighter and more closely resembles all purpose flour. I purchase it in the bulk bin at my local health food store. If you are unable to find it, you can use whole spelt flour in a pinch! The cookies won’t be quite as chewy, however. 

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 12 minutes
• Category: Dessert

Keywords: vegan chocolate chip pecan cranberry cookies

Note: This recipe was originally published in 2019, and was updated with new photos and instructions in February 2021. 

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