The perfect almond flour vegan chocolate chip cookies – lightly crisp edges with a soft, chewy, a little bit gooey, middle. Oh yeah- and they’re gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo too!
These are the best vegan almond flour chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. Scratch that. These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had, period! These cookies taste so good you’ll swear they’re bad for you. But they are so not.
These cookies stand up against their grain, egg, and butter containing rivals, as a truly delicious chocolate chip cookie. They’re even better though because you’ll avoid the negative effects of those ingredients on your body.
This recipe is a little bit more intricate than some other paleo and or vegan chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve seen out there (i.e. creaming coconut oil and sugar with a hand mixer), but this cookie is well worth it. Think you can handle it?
Ingredients:
Coconut Sugar: Brown in color and derived from a coconut. This is one of my favorite unrefined and wholesome sweeteners. I’ve found it works seamlessly as a refined sugar substitute and gives baked goods a deep
Grain-free flour blend: (Almond flour, arrowroot, tapioca flour, coconut flour) Unlike gluten-containing all-purpose flour and grain-containing gluten-free flours this blend produces very similar effects without aggravating allergies or causing stomach issues for some. Also, as a bonus, coconut flour has ridiculous amounts of fiber and protein!
Coconut Oil: The perfect consistency of coconut oil for these vegan and paleo cookies is melted and cooled. This ensures a cohesive creaming with the sugar and the rest of the ingredients.
Coconut oil is anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral, as well as having a higher denaturing temperature than other fats (making it healthier to cook with).
Flax eggs: Flax eggs are my favorite vegan egg substitute. They don’t work in every type of recipe, but cookies are one of the baked goods I’ve had great success with! If you’ve never made one, it’s easy. Per egg, simply mix together 1 tablespoon of GROUND (not whole) flax seeds with 2.5 tablespoons of water and let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes until it forms a gelatinous texture similar to that of an egg. In this
Flax seeds are a great source of protein, fiber and omega 3s!
Paleo “Baking Powder”: Here we’ll use a mix of baking soda and cream of tarter as a substitute for traditional baking powder’s role in cookies as a binding and leavening agent. This paleo-friendly and gut-friendly substitute
Pure Vanilla Extract: When I’m being super picky about what I put into my body, I like to use alcohol-free vanilla extract, but it’s up to you! (the bourbon vanilla extract adds a super yummy flavor if you wanna go for it)
Salt: You can use sea salt, pink Himalayan or whichever kind you prefer. I like to use pink Himalayan salt because it preserves the most minerals and is less processed compared to table salt. To top the cookies, sea salt is super yummy, and if you want to splurge, I love to top my vegan chocolate chip cookies with Maldon salt. If you’ve never tried it, Maldon is cut in such a way that produces thin crunchy flakes that punch up the taste of everything they touch.
Chocolate Chips: I like to use a dairy-free and stevia or coconut sugar-sweetened brands to keep these vegan cookies truly guilt-free. Or, you can make your own if you’d like with equal parts cacao butter and cacao powder and sweetener of choice.
Substitutions / Additions:
I love these cookies as they are but you’re welcome to spice them up a bit. Here are some things to try:
Walnuts: My all-time favorite but oh so unhealthy cookies are from Levain Bakery in NYC. They have a few different flavors but their walnut chocolate chip cookies are divine. With them in mind, I’m pretty confident adding walnuts would be a great addition to these cookies too.
Dried fruit: You can try whatever kind of dried fruit you’d like! Dried cherries would taste delicious with the chocolate chips!
Gluten-free flour/paleo flour: If you don’t have or want to use all of the flours (almond flour,
Almond butter: Instead of oil you could experiment with substituting almond butter. Almond butter has roughly half the fat of coconut oil so to get the same flavor it wouldn’t be an even substitute. But, if you’re watching your fats feel free to experiment with this! I haven’t tried it but if you do I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Cream of tartar: If you don’t have cream of tartar, feel free to use store bought paleo baking powder. If you don’t have a corn sensitivity you can use regular baking powder. In either of those cases just omit the cream of tartar and reduce the baking soda by ⅛ teaspoon.
Chilling vegan chocolate chip cookie dough:
You don’t need to chill the dough before baking but for best results, I’d recommend popping them in the fridge for about 30 minutes or less. Because of the chilled structure of the coconut oil, the dough can become very stiff and hard to work with if over-chilled. Therefore, if you do chill them for longer than 30
Storage after baking:
My favorite way to store these is covered at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can then transfer them to the fridge but they will harden up quite a bit. You can eat them as is for a crispier cookie or let thaw to room temperature before enjoying.
How to make almond flour vegan chocolate chip cookies
First, start off by creaming together the coconut oil and coconut sugar. Here’s how:
How to cream coconut oil and coconut sugar:
Creaming these together helps give these vegan / paleo cookies their structure. In complex terms, you are beating air into the coconut oil and the coconut sugar helps to hold that air. This helps these cookies rise and gives them an optimal texture.
Using a hand mixer, beat together coconut sugar and coconut oil until light and fluffy, scraping the sides as you go. This should take 1-2 minutes on medium speed. Be careful not to overmix – which is indicated by a runny rather than fluffy consistency.
Next, you’ll mix all of your dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl and then add it to your wet mixture. Mix until a dough starts to form (it’s easiest to use your hands at a certain point).
Then last but certainly not least, add in the chocolate chips. I like Enjoy Life’s brand because they’re
Roll the dough into balls, size depending on how big you want your cookies to be. A good starting point is 2-3 tablespoon sized balls. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 Degrees F for 10-12 minutes. The key to soft, gooey cookies is to NOT over-bake them. They may look a little doughy when you first take them out of the oven, but they’ll continue to set as they cool.
If you loved these and are craving some more fresh baked yumminess check out these vegan superfood brownies that are fudgy, rich, and paleo friendly.
I’d love to hear what you think of these cookies! Leave a comment below and/ or connect with me on Instagram @wholesomehedonista!
The Best Almond Flour Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- cookie sheet
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 3/4 cup arrowroot flour
- 6 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 6 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled
- 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons flax seeds see notes below
- 5 tablespoons water see notes below
- 1 1/2 cups dairy-free/ naturally sweetned chocolate chips or chunks I use these ones!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix almond flour, arrowroot flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil and coconut sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. *do not overmix (see notes below)
- Mix in vanilla until just incorporated.
- Fold in flax eggs* with a wooden spoon until well incorporated
- Add in dry ingredients to wet until a dough forms (You may want to use your hands)
- Add in chocolate chocolate chips or chunks
- Roll dough into balls depending on how big or small you like your cookies (I make mine about 3 tablespoons large) or use a cookie scoop (I use this one!) and place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for about 10-14 minutes until edges turn slightly golden. When you take them out, they will still look doughy. Don’t worry, they'll continue to cook a bit as they cool (and this is the secret to a perfectly soft middled cookie) Don’t overbake!
- Let them rest on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then move to a cooling rack.
- Top with favorite salt of choice (I love maldon!) if you like a sweet and salty combo.
Notes
- Creaming together coconut oil and sugar: You can do this by hand or with a hand mixer: Start with melted and cooled coconut oil. Mix with a wooden spoon or mixer until the mixture has expanded and is light and fluffy. Overmixing is evidenced when the coconut oil starts to separate and / or the mixture starts to get runny rather than fluffy.
- To make flax eggs: mix 2 tablespoons of flax seeds with 5 tablespoons of water. Let sit to congeal for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Cookies may appear slightly doughy when you take them out. This is the key to a deliciously gooey and soft middled cookie. They’ll continue to set as they cool.
- Feel free to omit topping them with salt. The cookies are perfectly salted without adding extra on top- I just love the extra flavor pop and sweet contrast it gives these cookies.
Nutrition
Nutrition Notes: Serving size 1 cookie. Total Servings: 24. Calories per serving: 217. Fat: 12.2g. Carbs: 26.2g Fiber: 3.3g Sugars: 14.2g Protein: 2.8g
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