The BEST Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies – soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies made undetectably gluten and grain free with almond flour and simple, gluten free ingredients. These cookies are tried, tested and easy to make
I think I say this every time I share new chocolate chip cookie here recipe but really, these almond flour chocolate chip cookies are without a doubt my new favourite. They’re soft, chewy and studded with little morsels of semi-sweet chocolatey goodness made entirely gluten and grain free with the use of almond flour.
Let’s bake!
Ingredient Checklist
- butter: You can sub out the butter for a dairy free/ vegan friendly butter. Coconut oil can also be used but I don’t recommend it for best results. I haven’t tried this myself but I have heard from readers that palm shortening also works as a good butter sub.
- sugars: Use a combination of white and brown sugar. White sugar will help make for cookies that are a bit crisp around the edges while the brown sugar makes for soft and chewy centres. I used light brown sugar, but you can also opt for dark brown sugar. Just keep in mind that dark brown sugar has more molasses meaning the cookies will be sweeter and softer.
- egg: One egg provides moisture and binding in these cookies. If you’re in need of an egg-free option I have heard from readers that using 1 flax egg or chia egg also works well!
- vanilla extract & salt: What’s a chocolate chip cookie without a little vanilla? Both vanilla and salt work as out flavour enhancers in this recipe.
- almond flour: Fine almond flour makes for the most undetectably grain-free cookies, but almond meal works just as well! I recommend using a kitchen scale to measure out the flour for the most accurate weight and best results.
- chocolate chips: Semi-sweet chocolate chips are the usual cookie go-to but dark chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips are also good options. Use whatever you like!
How to Make: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Altogether this recipe requires only 8 ingredients to make and can be completed in easily under an hour. The steps are simple and similar to most regular cookies.
To begin, simply beat together your butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl until you have a light and fluffy mixture using an electric or stand mixer. Continue by adding in the egg and vanilla and beat once more to fully mix it all together.
In a separate, medium bowl whisk together your dry ingredients: almond flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to evenly distribute the baking soda and salt throughout the flour and remove any stubborn lumps. Once mixed, add the flour mixture in with in with the butter mixture and mix once again to combine until a soft dough forms.
At this point all that’s left to do is stir in your chocolate chips, roll and bake. Use a tablespoon to scoop out a heaping tablespoon of dough and roll into little cookie dough balls. Place the dough on a greased or lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. The cookies will spread slightly as they bake so it’s important to leave a little room in between.
When you’re ready to go simply pop the cookies in the oven and bake for 10-11 minutes and that’s it! I prefer taking my cookies out at the 10 minute mark for more chewy centres. They do look slightly under baked at this point but continue cooking as they cool on the cookie sheet. If you’d prefer more crispy edges leave them in the full 11 minutes.
Once done, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling and that’s it!
In Summary
- In a large bowl: Beat together butter and sugars.
- Add the egg and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl: combine almond flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk.
- Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix into a thick, soft dough.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheet.
- Bake and enjoy!
Final Tips, Substitutions and other Questions:
Storage Tips
These cookies keep better than most chocolate chip cookie recipes. They stay soft and chewy for at least a week. The only real thing to keep in mind when it comes to storage is to make sure the cookies have completely cooled before you pack them away in an airtight container or cookie jar.
You can keep these stored at room temperature or packed away in the fridge. I even like keeping some cookies in the freezer to satisfy sweet cravings in the warmer summer months.
Freeze for Later
Yes! Both the dough and the baked cookies can be frozen.
- To freeze the dough: roll cookie dough into balls and place in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Once the balls have chilled and hardened place in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready for cookies simply bake from frozen – just add an extra 2-3 minutes to the overall bake time. You may also want to write down the date frozen as well as the bake temperature and time.
- To freeze baked cookies: Once fully cooled place the cookies on a baking sheet you can fit in the freezer. Place in the freezer until solid and then transfer the cookies to a bag or Tupperware container – place a small sheet of baking parchment in between each cookie to prevent cookies from freezing together. Cookies will keep at least 3 months in the freezer. You can enjoy frozen cookies straight out of the freezer or allow them to thaw in the fridge overnight.
What’s The Difference Between Almond Flour And Almond Meal?
Though almond flour and almond meal are made from essentially the same thing (ground almonds) there are a couple of key differenced between the two.
- Almond flour is typically made with blanched (skinless) almonds into a more fine flour.
- Almond meal is usually made with un blanched (skin on) almond into a more coarse flour.
Can I use almond meal instead of almond flour?
Yes! In many cases you cannot swap out almond meal/almond flour interchangeably but with these cookies you can.
Can I use another type of flour?
No. I tested this recipe multiple times using almond flour/meal. I can’t guarantee the same results if you use any other types of flours.
If you’re interested in making cookies with different types of flours there are plenty of other recipes on this site you might prefer instead.
- Sunflower Seed Chocolate Chip Cookies (nut free, paleo, low fodmap and vegan)
- Chickpea Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (grain free/nut free)
- Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (used coconut, almond and tapioca flour)
- Chocolate Chip Zucchini Oat Cookies (vegan option and low FODMAP )
- Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (flourless, paleo)
Can I use coconut sugar?
Yes! If you wanted to make these with all coconut sugar your cookies will be more crispy and less chewy but it will still work. I prefer using a blend of brown and white sugar for the soft and chewy texture but you can swap those out and sub coconut sugar if you’d prefer!
Can I make these with coconut oil?
Yes, but it’s not recommend for best results. I’ve found that the times I’ve made these cookies or other almond flour cookies using coconut oil (like these almond flour snickerdoodles), the cookies come out less soft and chewy and are more likely to spread and make for overly flat cookies. You can combat the spread by chilling the dough for about 20 minutes before baking, but then if the dough has been chilled too long, they don’t spread at all and can come out a little dense.
If you want to make them dairy free I recommend a good vegan butter substitute like Earth Balance Butter Spread.
The end result? The BEST almond flour cookie made entirely gluten and grain free! Make sure to check out the recipe notes on how to adapt this recipe to be dairy free, egg free and low carb friendly!
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we have these past few weeks! If you have any more questions just let me know in the comments below!
More Almond Cookies and Baked Goods You Might Enjoy:
- Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies with Almond Flour
- Chocolate Chip Almond Zucchini Cookies
- Almond Flour Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Almond Flour Sugar Cookies
- Golden Almond Cookies
- Almond Flour Cookie Bars
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies - soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies made undetectably gluten and grain freeÂ
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup | 150 g butter, salted or unsalted, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup | 165 g brown sugar
- 1/4 cup | 50 g white sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons | 10 ml vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups | 265 g almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup |1 25 g chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C. Line a couple of large cookie sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl with an electric or stand mixer. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- In another small bowl whisk together the almond flour, baking soda and salt until combine. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix in on a low speed until a dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spoon or rubber spatula.
- Scoop out heaping tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Place on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart leaving room for spreading.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes until the edges have goldened slightly. At the 10 minute mark the cookies will still look a little under baked but will continue bake as they cool on the cookie sheet. If you prefer chewier cookies 10 minutes should be enough. If you want crispier edges bake 11 minutes
- Allow the cookies to cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before carefully moving them to a wire cooling rack. The cookies will come out of the oven puffed up but deflate as the cool. Fresh out of the oven they will be fragile, but as they cool they will be easy to handle.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- To freeze the dough: roll cookie dough into balls and place in the refrigerator for an hour or so. Once the balls have chilled and hardened place in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you're ready for cookies simply bake from frozen - just add an extra 2-3 minutes to the overall bake time. You may also want to write down the date frozen as well as the bake temperature and time.
- To freeze baked cookies: Once fully cooled place the cookies on a baking sheet you can fit in the freezer. Place in the freezer until solid and then transfer the cookies to a bag or Tupperware container - place a small sheet of baking parchment in between each cookie to prevent cookies from freezing together. Cookies will keep up to 3 months in the freezer. You can enjoy frozen cookies straight out of the freezer or allow them to thaw in the fridge overnight.
- If you wanted to make these with all coconut sugar your cookies will be more crispy and less chewy but it will still work. I prefer using a blend of brown and white sugar for the soft/chewy texture but you can swap those out of you'd prefer!Â
- You can use almond meal instead of almond flour
- You can use a granulated sugar substitute like monk fruit sugar or erythritol (I've used swerve & monk fruit) in place of the white and brown sugar here for a low carb twist. The cookies won't spread as much though so make sure you flatten them out before baking.
- I have heard positive feedback from readers saying that flax and chia eggs work well in place of the egg.
Jordan McDonald says
I made these today and the taste is amazing but the appearance wasn’t as great. They flattened out a lot, I used a scale to measure out the butter and the flour. I used the Great Value super fined blanched almond flour. Is there a different brand I could use or another reason why it could be like this?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Jordan! Unfortunately different flour brands can lead to different results (I find this often true with grain free flours). I recommend you increase the amount of flour (maybe add another 1/4 cup | 24 grams) and see how that goes.
You could also try chilling the dough for a hour before baking. Butter that is too warm/soft can often lead to cookies that spread too much in the oven.
Hope that helps!
Lucinda says
Way too many ads on this page i can’t find the ingredients, measurements and directions how to bake these things! I looked and looked but seems like the ads just keep covering the most important part, i like a simple recipe not an entire novel.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Lucinda! If you’re viewing this recipe on desktop there should be a clickable button at the very top of the page with a yellow button (on the right-hand side next to the title) that says ‘Jump to Recipe’. If you’re on a phone that button is surrounded by a big yellow bar just under the title. You shouldn’t have to scroll to find either button. If you click on those it will bring you right to the recipe.
While I understand that it’s quite a popular sentiment on the internet to complain about food blogs and their ‘novels’, if you actually read through the post you might have seen that most of the text is extra info on how to make these cookies.
Since not everyone is confident in the kitchen (especially when it comes to gluten free cooking) many people find the additional step-by-step breakdown, ingredient explanation and tips helpful.
I also totally appreciate that ads can be annoying, but it might be good to remember that it’s how we keep the internet free. Websites like this are not cheap and need to make money somehow. Without the ads, most websites would require some sort of subscription service to access or just not exist at all.
Fortunately, the ‘jump to recipe’ button is becoming more and more popular across many food blogs. I recommend you look out for them going forward as I’m sure it will make your internet experience more bearable.
Laura says
I made these cookies and they were awesome! I like a bit chewier cookie so I added 1/2 cup of mochiko (finely ground rice flour not to be confused with regular rice flour) and 1/2 cup of PB2 for a peanut butter flavor. They turned out great!
Sarah Nevins says
Oooh – love the idea of adding mochiko to these! So glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Brittney says
Made these choc chip cookies, was my first time making cookies with Almond Flour! They were actually pretty good! I added more chocolate chips and a little bit of mini m&mS.
Sarah Nevins says
Oooh I love the way you think with the m&m’s! So glad you enjoyed them!
Kathy Dixey says
Help! I don’t know what went wrong but my cookies ended up looking like pancakes – taste was delicious but they looked terrible
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kathy!
It sounds like you might have needed more almond flour. Usually when cookies spread too much it’s because there is either too much fat/moisture or not enough flour. Butter is usually pretty easy to measure correctly, but flour can be tricky unless you’re using a scale to get exact amounts. If you were to make this again (and you’re not using a kitchen scale) I recommend that you pack your almond flour into the measuring cups when measuring so that you ensure you get a good amount of flour.
Hope that helps!
Lan says
Hi Sarah,
I’m excited to try your recipe but I love nuts in my chocolate chip cookies! Can you recommend the amount of nuts to add if you recommend it at all?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Lan! That’s easily done! I recommend adding 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup nuts and you should be good to go!
Lan says
Thanks Sarah! Your recipe was loved by ALL! I tried another recipe before with coconut oil that did not work for me.
Thanks again!
Sarah Nevins says
SO thrilled to hear you enjoy these! 🙂
Evelyn says
Hi Sarah! I made this cookies twice and they tasted great but the dough was very grainy even after baking. What should i do to make it smooth like yours?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Evelyn! So glad you enjoyed them! I think I know what you’re talking about with the grainy dough – I’ve had this happen to my almond flour cookies when I use and almond flour or almond meal that’s not as finely ground. Some almond flour brands don’t process the nuts quite as much which will lead to cookies with a bit more texture.
A couple of things you could try next time. The first: look for an almond flour brand that’s more finely ground. I most often like using Costco’s Kirkland brand of almond flour or Honeyville almond flour. I think Bob’s red mill almond flour is quite fine. Depending on how strong your blender is you could also try blending your almond flour again yourself. I used to do that when I was only able to buy almond meal. The trick is to not blend the flour too long or else it will turn into almond butter.
Hope that helps!
Kimberly says
Oven temp is way too hot, I cooked for 7 minutes and bottoms were burned black and cookies were not cooked,
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kimberly! I think it might be worth check how your oven temperature is calibrated. This recipe has over 500 reviews and I don’t think I’ve gotten one complaint about oven temperature. It might be that your oven is running a bit too hot.
Kate says
I used cup measurements one time but i used grams/ metriske measures another time … figured out now thst 2& 3/4s cups of flour is much more than 265g … just to let you know… not sure which one is correct – will have to experiment today.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kate! I think you might be packing too much almond flour into your measuring cup. As a general rule of thumb, the best way to measure flour with cups is to gently spoon the flour into your measuring cup (as opposed to scooping the flour directly into the cup). Scooping the flour will pack in more than needed. Depending on the type of recipe you’re making, that can make for dry baked goods.
I have double checked my almond flour amounts with other sites and 96 grams per cup does seem to be the consensus. There are some sites that list higher amounts of almond flour per cup, but the sites I trust the most also use 96 grams. This site here is my number one go to double check my weights: https://www.traditionaloven.com/tutorials/conversion.html
At any rate, I still recommend using 265g of almond flour when making these cookies. I always check with a scale so you can skip the cups if that’s easier for you.
Hope that helps!
Kate says
Ok. I used ml not weight. Got me. Sorry sbout confusion. Recipe works great with cup measurements. I get RAVE reviews from fussy eaters. Thanks.
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh good! So glad it worked out and you enjoyed them! Thanks Kate 🙂
Deanna says
OMG THESE ARE AMAZING. Here’s what I did different: I used 1 tsp almond extract, but only because I’m out of vanilla. I also used Stevia in place of the white sugar, and substituted half of the butter for Crisco baking sticks. Lastly, I baked for only 8 minutes because my oven tends to run hot. The result was a beautiful looking cookie that is chewy inside and crisp on the outside and FANTASTIC!
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh – I love the sound of making these with almond extract!
That’s really helpful to know about using stevia as well – I get a lot of question about sugar subs so that’s always good to know!
SO happy to hear you enjoyed these so much 🙂 Thank you so much for coming back to let me know what you thought!