Vegan Levain Chocolate Chip Cookies

November 16, 2025

Due to popular demand by friends and family, I am posting my go-to recipe for delicious vegan chocolate chip cookies. They have a delicious crunch on the outside but stay gooey-soft on the inside. This recipe is based on the recipe by Joshua Weissman and essentially just replaces the eggs with a soy flour and water mixture. I also include weight measurements for all ingredients since I prefer to use a scale instead of measuring cups. In addition, I also include Germany specific ingredient hints.

Levain Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups (230g) cake flour (Typ 405)
  • 2 cups (275g) all purpose flour (Typ 550)
  • 1.5 tsp (5g) kosher salt
  • 2 tsp (8g) corn starch (Speisestärke)
  • 1/2 tsp (6g) baking soda (Natron)
  • 1.25 cups (280g) vegan butter (z.B. Alsan margarine, Vioblock, etc. I strongly prefer Alsan)
  • 1.25 cups (285g) sticky brown sugar (z.B. Vollrohrzucker)
  • 1/2 cup (115g) white granulated sugar
  • vegan egg replacement (mix flour and water before adding to dough):
    • 50g soy flour (~5 tbsp) (z.B. Sojamehl)
    • 100g water
  • 2 cups (165g) walnuts
  • 450g chopped chocolate

Instructions

  1. In a small pot or medium saucepan, gently melt vegan butter alternative and set to the side to cool.
  2. Roughly chop the dark chocolate and walnuts, set aside.
  3. In a medium size bowl combine the dry ingredients, cake flour, all-purpose flour, kosher salt, cornstarch, and baking soda. Whisk together.
  4. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar. Using a handheld mixer, whisk together on medium speed then slowly stream in the butter.
  5. Once combined add in the soy-flour and water mixture.
  6. Mix until everything is incorporated evenly. The texture should be smooth, but the dough should be a bit crumbly.
  7. Add in rough chopped walnuts and chopped chocolate. Briefly mix until combined.
  8. Place in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. DO NOT SKIP, this ensures that your cookies don't become too flat.
    • Note: Also works when refrigerating overnight, although this increases baking times by a couple of minutes and makes balling the dough A LOT more difficult
  9. Weigh each dough ball out to ~170g and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Should make roughly 12 cookies, with 6 cookies per baking sheet.
    • Note: use large ice cream scooper to get a good first amount of cookie balls
    • You can also make smaller cookies ~50g. Reduce the baking time to ~7-9 minutes.
  10. Bake at 220°C for 10-13 minutes (Ober- Unterhitze)
  11. Set on a wire rack to cool before serving.
    • They will be very soft immediately out of the oven and should cool at least 5-10 minutes before eating one.

© 2025 Stefan Rhys Jeske