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Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free, Paleo Friendly)

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Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies – A gluten free, dairy free cookie that tastes just like the “real” thing. Crispy around the edges, tender in the middle, and loaded with chocolate chips! (Gluten free, paleo friendly) 

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - Paleo & Gluten Free! These are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. SO GOOD!

We hit our 5 year gluten and dairy free “anniversary” on Monday! 5 years ago on the 15th, we gave Sophie her 2 year old birthday cake, and the next day went cold turkey at the recommendation of her developmental pediatrician. Some things were easier to adapt to than others (5 years ago the gluten free bread situation was ROUGH. Also: CHEESE.). One thing I really missed was a really, REALLY good chocolate chip cookie.

I’ve had some very good ones over the years, so it was disappointing that so many of the gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipes I tried were…lackluster. As a newbie to GFDF baking (when paleo and gluten free blogs were scarce), I had a LOT of trial and error to figure things out. Emphasis on error.

Finally, we landed on this amazing gluten free, dairy free chocolate chip cookie that hits all my favorite things–lightly crispy and caramelized around the edges with a soft, chewy center and PLENTY of chocolate chips. These almond flour chocolate chip cookies are the REAL deal.

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - Paleo & Gluten Free! These are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. SO GOOD! Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - These gluten free paleo friendly cookies are the REAL DEAL! Crispy edges, soft chewy centers and LOTS of chocolate chips! (gluten free, dairy free, paleo friendly)

I love them. With all my heart and soul. The dough is delicious, the warm cookies are decadent, and the leftovers straight from the freezer are divine. (Honestly, we freeze most of them because they’re so yummy frozen!)

The combination of almond flour and brown rice flour (or tapioca flour) makes the texture the perfect combination of chewy and light. They aren’t crumbly or dry, and bake up like a dream. Enjoy them on their own, make ice cream sandwiches with a little dairy free ice cream in between two cookies, or dunk them in a little almond milk. They’ll make all your (gluten and dairy free) cookie dreams come true!

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - Paleo & Gluten Free! These are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. SO GOOD!

Notes for Perfect Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Almond Flour Matters – We’ve tested this with MANY kinds of almond flour over the years. I recommend looking for blanched almond flour. It’s finer ground and doesn’t have the almond skins like almond meal does. A few brands we like are: Honeyville, Hughson, Wellbee’s, and Blue Diamond, . I always recommend looking at Costco. At my Costco, I can get a 3-lb, bag of almond flour for $10-11, where at Target, Kroger, and even Sprouts, it’s about $9 for a 1-lb. bag. (Woof) Amazon is another great place to look.

Please Don’t Substitute Coconut Flour – Every time I post an almond flour recipe, someone asks me if they can substitute coconut flour. PLEASE don’t do that in this (or any) recipe. Coconut flour absorbs several times its own volume in liquid, which means you need many more eggs/much more liquid ingredients in a coconut flour cookie. If you try to substitute coconut flour in this recipe, your cookies will be dry as a bone and probably won’t even stick together.

Paleo Notes – You can easily make this cookie paleo friendly by using tapioca flour in place of the brown rice flour. I’ve used both flours with great results. I prefer the brown rice flour, but if you’re grain free, tapioca is the way to go!

Need Dairy Free Chocolate Chips? Enjoy Life makes good ones that are more and more widely available. The ingredient list is short and sweet, and no one can tell the difference. Pinky promise.

A Little Something Extra – It’s optional, but I *highly* recommend adding a little coarse flaked sea salt on top right after they’re done baking. I love Maldon salt, and use it for finishing veggies, mixing into my Everything Bagel Seasoning mix and sprinkling over brownies, cookies, etc. SO GOOD!

Don’t Overbake. I usually pull mine out at 8 or 8 1/2 minutes. They’ll be just set around the edges and the centers may not look quite done. Pull them out and let them sit on your baking sheet for a few minutes. The residual heat will finish setting the centers, giving you the perfect “chewy on the outside, soft on the inside” texture you’re looking for.

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Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - Paleo & Gluten Free! These are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. SO GOOD!

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Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - Paleo & Gluten Free! These are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. SO GOOD!

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

4.7 from 9 reviews

  • Author: Emily
  • Yield: about 24 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil
  • 3/4 cup coconut sugar*
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup blanched almond flour
  • 1/4 cup brown rice flour (or tapioca starch)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
  • Flaked sea salt, to finish (optional)

Instructions

In large bowl (or in the bowl of a food processor), combine coconut oil and coconut sugar. Mix well to combine. Stir in egg and vanilla. Mix until very smooth.
Add almond flour, brown rice (or tapioca) flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine well. (If using food processor, add dry ingredients and pulse to combine).
Fold in chocolate chips.
Refrigerate dough 20-30 minutes, or until slightly firmed.
While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Scoop 1-inch balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake 12 cookies at a time for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are set and middle is still slightly unset. (the middle will set as cookies cool).
Allow to cool on baking sheet slightly before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy warm or frozen!

Notes

*If you can’t find coconut sugar or don’t like it, you can use brown sugar or half white sugar/half brown sugar. (This will no longer be paleo approved).

Nutrition

  • Calories: 120kcal
  • Sugar: 10g
  • Sodium: 57mg
  • Fat: 8g
  • Saturated Fat: 4g
  • Trans Fat: 0g
  • Carbohydrates: 13g
  • Fiber: 1g
  • Protein: 2g
  • Cholesterol: 7mg

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - These gluten free paleo friendly cookies are the REAL DEAL! Crispy edges, soft chewy centers and LOTS of chocolate chips! (gluten free, dairy free, paleo friendly)

Recipe, photos, and post updated Apr. 2018. Originally posted June 2014.

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42 Comments

  1. Whipped these up because they looked so quick, and i had everything on hand….. and they came out SO FLAT :””'( I don’t know what i did wrong!!

    1. Oh man! I’m sorry that happened. Can I ask what kind of almond flour did you use? Sometimes that can make a difference. In the future, if you bake a test cookie and it comes out flat, you can add 1-2 additional Tbsp of flour to the dough to help give them more structure. Sometimes almond flour can measure differently depending on how finely it’s ground or how tightly it’s packed. I hope that won’t happen again!

    1. You may have to play with the amounts if you do, as fine-ground almond flour will behave differently than coarser almond meal. You may want to bake a test cookie, then add more almond meal, if needed.)

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