Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft, chewy inside with perfectly crisp edges, these flourless chocolate chip cookies are the perfect vegan and gluten-free treat. Just 8 main ingredients, no flour needed.
If you don’t know already…I love cookies. Cowboy Cookie or a simple Sugar Cookie…doesn’t matter, I’ll probably love it. One thing I’ve been striving for is to hopefully share more cookies that everyone can enjoy. And considering a lot of you ask me consistently how to make a gluten-free cookie, thought I’d share this indulgent, but easy recipe.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- They are made without flour, so these cookies are not just vegan, but also gluten-free!
- Soft and chewy inside, nice and crispy edges because of the natural and healthy fats found in the almond butter we use.
- Easy to customize. You can use a different nut or seed butter based on preference or try different mix-in ingredients outside of chocolate chips.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Almond Butter: This nut butter tends to be more neutral in flavor. You can try this with other nut butters or even sunflower butter. Just make sure it’s creamy and natural for best results.
- Coconut Sugar: This will make the cookies refined-sugar free. You can make these with regular sugar. If you make with brown sugar, note that your dough will likely spread more due to the moisture it provides the cookie.
- Cornstarch: Helps to provide some extra structure to our cookie. You can also substitute with arrowroot powder.
- Molasses: Since coconut sugar is drier, I like to add a little to help provide the cookies some extra moisture.
- Baking Soda: This provides our cookie some extra lift so it doesn’t stay super flat as it spreads.
- Flax Egg: Our egg replacement that helps hold our cookie together. Also provides us extra fiber and omega 3 fats.
- Chocolate Chips: Use your favorite dairy-free chocolate chips to make these vegan.
How to Make Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies
Place all the ingredients except the chocolate chips into a bowl and give a good mix to combine until a wet dough forms.
Fold in your chocolate chips and allow dough to set as you line a baking tray with parchment paper.
With a cookie scoop, grab a portion of dough and roll into a dough ball and place on the baking tray.
Tips for the Perfect Cookies
- How much your dough spreads will depend on the consistency of your almond butter. More runny almond butter will lead to more spreading while thicker almond butter will lead to more minimal spreading.
- I normally use a store branded almond butter that tends to be slightly thick like ShopRite’s Creamy Almond Butter or Whole Food’s 365 Creamy Almond Butter. Before cooking the whole batch, I test one dough ball out and see how much it spreads. If I want them to be flatter, I will flatten them slightly with my hand to help them spread more based on the test cookie.
- You can make these cookies with various kinds of nut or seed butters. Just make sure they are natural and runny to help keep the dough consistent.
- Add in more mix-in ingredients to customize. You can add a mix of dried fruit, coconut shreds or other nuts based on your preference.
- Allow cookies to completely cool. Because there is no flour in this recipe, the cookies will be much softer right out of the oven. They do need to be completely cooled to pick up without the cookies falling apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may have used nut butter that was too stiff and not naturally oily enough. I always like to do a cookie test before cooking a whole batch of the dough. Based on how the cookie flattens it will prompt me to either leave as a dough ball or lightly flatten the remaining cookie dough to help them spread better as they bake.
They will still cook fine. Instead of a cookie scoop, drop some dough using your spoon on to the cookie sheet. No need to flatten as they will spread really well.
Consider opting for a seed butter like sun butter in place of almond butter if there is a tree-nut allergy and ensuring that your chocolate chips are dairy-free.
Different sugars may impact the dough. Coconut sugar doesn’t truly melt into these cookies. You can use regular cane sugar or brown sugar. If using brown sugar, omit the molasses.
After they completely cool, place in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4 to 5 days. If you’d like to keep them longer, place the cookies in the freezer for up to 1 month. When ready to enjoy, just thaw completely and enjoy.
How to Serve
Wait until the cookies have completely cooled and set on the baking tray. I like to wait at least 15-30 minutes before picking up the cookies to eat. They are perfect with a glass of plant-based milk or some creamy hot chocolate if you like to indulge.
More Vegan Cookie Recipes
- Matcha Sugar Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Pumpkin S’mores Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
- Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 18 minutes
- Yield: 8– 10 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Soft, chewy inside with perfectly crisp edges, these flourless chocolate chip cookies are the perfect vegan and gluten-free treat. Just 8 main ingredients, no flour needed.
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg (combine 1 tbsp ground flaxseed with 2 tbsp of water)
- 1/2 cup natural almond butter, salted
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Combine ground flaxseed and water in your mixing bowl and allow to gel for 5 minutes.
- To the same bowl, mix almond butter, sugar, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and vanilla with the flax egg together in the bowl until well combined into a very soft dough.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and then with a cookie scoop or tablespoon measure, grab a chunk of dough and lightly roll in your hand into a dough ball.
- Place the dough balls on to a parchment lined baking tray and place in the oven.
- Bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes. After baking, remove from oven and carefully tap the pan against a counter top to help the cookies settle more.
- Allow the cookies to completely cool for at least 15 minutes, but I recommend 20-30 minutes for them to really set. If the cookies are too warm, they will be too soft to pick up.
Notes
How much your dough spreads will depend on the consistency of your almond butter. More runny almond butter will lead to more spreading while thicker almond butter will lead to more minimal spreading.
Before cooking a whole batch of cookies, I test one dough ball out and see how much it spreads. If I want them to be flatter based on the cookie test, I will flatten the dough balls slightly with my hand to help them spread more when baking the whole batch.
You can make these cookies with various kinds of nut or seed butters. Just make sure they are natural and runny to help keep the dough consistent.
Add in more mix-in ingredients to customize. You can add a mix of dried fruit, coconut shreds or other nuts based on your preference.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
Made these for my grandparents and uncle –– we all loved them! Even though there is no vegan butter, no coconut oil, or other oil, these cookies are moist and delicate. I think this is due to there being no flour, so the nut butter’s texture and fats become more pronounced, but don’t worry, these don’t taste like nut butter with chocolate chips, they taste like classic chocolate chip cookies! Will definitely be making again.