Easy No Butter Cookie Dough – Yummy Recipe Even Without Butter!

Making a no butter cookie dough may seem next to impossible, but honestly, there are several ways you can make it happen. With just a few substitutes and considerations, you could be one step closer to making edible cookie dough without butter. If you’re ready to learn what those substitutes are, stay tuned. In this post, I’ll uncover some of the best ways to substitute butter in cookie dough. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• Easy Butter Substitutes
• No Butter Cookie Dough Recipe
  • Edible Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (No Butter!)
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • Important Notes
• What Does Butter Do in Cookie Dough?
• Can I Leave Butter Out of Cookie Dough Balls?
• No Butter Cookie Dough: It’s Tricky, But Can Be Done!
• FAQs

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Easy Butter Substitutes

If you are making a traditional butter cookie recipe, it is important that you don’t substitute things like vegetable oil for butter. Doing so can yield a greasy mess and may affect the texture of both your cookie dough and baked cookies.

If you wish to substitute the butter in a butter cookie recipe, your best bet is almost always to use a plant-based butter.

 Plant-based butters are typically dairy free and have better health benefits than traditional butter. The best part is that many of the vegan butters out there have very similar tastes and textures to real butter, making it the perfect substitute for butter in a normal cookie recipe.

Still, if you would rather use oil instead of vegan butter, know that you’ve got options. Unlike other types of oil, melted coconut oil yields a surprising butter taste which makes it a great substitute when attempting no butter cookies. And while coconut oil is often regarded as a healthier butter flavor option than actual butter, you should also note that it also packs a fair share of saturated fat. Thus, coconut oil isn’t always healthier in terms of fat intake as most people assume.

In addition to coconut oil, try any of the following butter substitutes in cookie dough, knowing that some subs may work better than other depending on the recipe:

• Vegan butter
• Sunflower oil
• Neutral flavored vegetable oil
• Olive oil
• Rice bran oil

No Butter Cookie Dough Recipe

When replacing butter with oil in cookie dough, it is possible that you’ll end up with a mess on your hands. However, with the right ratio of ingredients, you can easily use virtually any type of oil and end up with deliciously stellar results.

In the following recipe, I’ve opted to use coconut oil to get the job done. Though high in saturated fat, coconut oil offers a buttery flavor that works perfectly for a chocolate chip cookie or homemade edible cookie dough. So, without further delay, let’s get into the process of how to make edible cookie dough with coconut oil.

Note: This cookie dough is edible and is not intended for baking. Still, it is totally possible to make bakeable cookies with oil; you just have to do so carefully to avoid a greasy mess!

Edible Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (No Butter!)

Ingredients

• 3 Cups Almond Flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (optional)
• 6 tablespoons coconut oil, softened
• 6 tablespoons coconut milk (can substitute for almond milk for less coconut flavor)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Using a mixing bowl, combine your coconut oil with your brown sugar and granulated sugar.
2. Once combined, mix in your almond flour along with the salt.
3. To this, add your pure vanilla extract and stir until well incorporated.
4. Add your coconut milk one tablespoon at a time until your cookie dough reaches the desired consistency. You may or may not need to use the entire 6 tablespoons. If your dough remains too thick after adding 6 tablespoons, consider adding 1-2 tablespoons more.
5. Once your cookie dough comes together, add your chocolate chips along with your shredded coconut, if using.
6. Using a cookie scoop (or a cookie scoop substitute), carefully scoop your cookie dough into balls and place on a lined baking sheet.
7. Chill the dough at least 30 minutes or until firm before eating.
8. Alternatively, you can chill the chocolate chip cookie dough without portioning it and use an ice cream scoop to serve it up in bowls once chilled.
9. Enjoy!

Important Notes

While this edible cookie dough recipe utilizes almond flour, you may run across several recipes that use all purpose flour instead. While using all purpose flour helps you to achieve a very realistic cookie dough texture, it can prove dangerous if you don’t heat treat the flour first.

Understand that certain flours, such as almond flour, don’t require heat treating. Using all purpose flour, however, does. To heat treat flour, you’ll need to bring the temperature of the flour up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. This can be done in the oven or microwave.

Also, be sure to avoid eating any cookie dough recipe that calls for egg or egg yolk.

What Does Butter Do in Cookie Dough?

Let’s figure out what role butter plays in cookie dough in the first place.

Butter adds fat to cookie dough which is essential for a variety of reasons. When making a typical bakeable cookie dough recipe, fat is essential for the proper texture of the cookie. It supplies the moisture and fluffiness needed to make the cookies or cookie dough enjoyable. Moreover, butter provides a rich buttery flavor that cookies without butter may lack if you opt to skip it.

Outside of texture and flavor, butter helps with the consistency of the cookie dough itself. The consistency of cookie dough that is eaten as is (without baking) is very important. Butter is often needed to make cookie dough actually taste, look, and feel like cookie dough. This means that if you try substituting butter in a recipe with something like vegetable oil, you may not get the results you desire.

But never fear! In this post, I’ll reveal a recipe that utilizes oil in a way that won’t ruin your edible cookie dough.

Can I Leave Butter Out of Cookie Dough Balls?

Now that you know the importance of fat in a cookie dough recipe, you likely know that it isn’t a good idea to leave fat out of cookie dough balls. Your cookie dough will become grainy, dry, and likely won’t pull together. This is because fat in the form of butter and/or oil works as a liquid to help everything meld and become the consistency you need.

And while it is possible to make chocolate chip cookies without butter, you’ll need to use a specific ratio of dry ingredients to liquid and fat in order to get the consistency you want. Despite the fact that both butter and oil are both classified as fat, exchanging one for the other isn’t always feasible, especially when subbing oil for butter in cookie dough.

No Butter Cookie Dough: It’s Tricky, But Can Be Done!

While it is totally possible to make cookies without butter, you’ll need to be careful when substituting oil for cookie dough in a traditional recipe. Instead, you should always look for a recipe, like the one embedded in my post, that already utilizes oil instead of butter. This will ensure that the dry to wet ingredients are the right ratio in order to avoid a greasy mess.

I hope you try my edible cookie dough recipe with no butter. Be sure to come back and let me know what you think!

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