Soft, chewy, made in one bowl, and undetectably grain and gluten free, these vegan chocolate cookies are the ultimate way to satisfy your late night sweet tooth. Plus, they come together in under 30 minutes and are paleo friendly.
Super chocolatey desserts aren’t usually my thing (I know, I’m crazy), but these almond flour vegan chocolate cookies are quite possibly one of my favorite cookie recipes on the blog.
No offense to my chocolate chunk cookies which never fail to disappoint, but these are just soft and chewy and SO GOOD. And they’re gluten free, paleo friendly, vegan, dairy free, rich, fudgy… I could go on.
It all starts with a chewy chocolate cookie base made with almond flour and the perfect balance of sugar, chocolate and vanilla with gooey chocolate chips that melt into silky perfection. There’s no butter, no eggs, no dairy but still so rich and fudgy.
Hopefully at this point I’ve convinced you to absolutely positively make these cookies, so let’s get baking. And if you like these, you have to try my vegan brownies or vegan chocolate cupcakes next!
How to make vegan chocolate cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients.
Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flour and cocoa powder into the measuring cups, don’t scoop from the bag.
Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix together. Fold in the chocolate chips and mix to combine.
Place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to set. Use a medium cookie scoop to measure scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
They might not hold their shape very well, but that’s ok, I have a trick for perfect circles after they bake!
Bake for 10-14 minutes. 12 minutes is perfect in my oven. When you take the cookies out, they should still be very soft but will continue to harden and flatten slightly as they cool.
The cookies can sometimes spread into a more oval shape, if you want perfect circles, take a large circle cookie cutter and as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, put the cookie cutter over the cookie so it’s just around the edges and wiggle it around a bit to get it to form a perfect circle.
You can also sprinkle on more chocolate chips at this stage too, they will soften right on top if they’re still warm.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes, then sprinkle with salt flakes and enjoy!
Why did they turn out dry?
While there are a variety of reasons your cookies turn out dry, I’ve narrowed it down to three key reasons. But before we get into it, these cookies should absolutely not be dry. The almond flour keeps them nice and moist, even if you accidentally add too much!
Too little fat (butter or oil): Not adding enough butter or oil will cause your cookies to be crumbly and dry. This is less true with almond flour cookies because the flour itself is a fat, but still a possibility. Try to measure your ingredients (wet and dry) as accurately as possible for the best results.
Too much flour: If you add too much flour, or more commonly if you measure the flour incorrectly, the cookies can turn out very dry. Even though almond flour contains more moisture than other flours because of its fat content, it’s still possible to over do it!
Be sure to spoon the flour from the bag into a dry measuring cup and level off the top without packing it in.
As a side note, if you are not concerned about keeping these cookies paleo, you can try subbing the almond flour for oat flour, but I cannot guarantee the result.
Baked for too long: The longer cookies (or anything for that matter) stay in the oven, the drier they’ll get. You want to take cookies out when the center still looks slightly doughy and they’re still soft to the touch.
They’ll continue to harden as they cool, so avoid leaving them in for too long if you don’t want them to dry out.
How to properly measure flour
You’re probably sick of hearing me say this, but it is so important to spoon and level your flour and cocoa powder and not scoop right from the bag or container.
If you scoop from the bag, you end up with way more flour than you really need which will lead to dry cookies. Almond flour can sometimes be clumpy, so break it up a bit if you can before measuring for best results.
How to store
Once prepared, these vegan chocolate cookies store for about 3-5 days in an air tight container at room temperature. You can pop them in the microwave for about 10 seconds to soften so they’re good as new!
Love this recipe? Try these!
Lastly, if you want more recipes straight to your inbox, be sure to subscribe to my email list. As always, if you make this recipe, be sure to tag me on instagram and leave a comment below so I can see your creation!
Vegan Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Dry:
- 1 ¼ cup fine almond flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips plus more for topping
Wet:
- ½ cup runny almond butter I like Trader Joe's Raw almond butter
- ⅔ cup light brown or coconut sugar
- ¼ cup apple sauce
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil or avocado oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional: salt flakes for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients.
- Add in the dry ingredients, making sure to spoon and level the flour and cocoa powder into the measuring cups, don't scoop from the bag.
- Use a wooden spoon to mix together.
- Fold in the chocolate chips mix to combine.
- Place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to set. Use a medium cookie scoop to measure scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. They might not hold their shape very well, but that's ok, I have a trick for perfect circles after they bake!
- Bake for 10-14 minutes. 12 minutes is perfect in my oven. When you take the cookies out, they should still be very soft but will continue to harden and flatten slightly as they cool.
- The cookies can sometimes spread into a more oval shape, if you want perfect circles, take a large circle cookie cutter and as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, put the cookie cutter over the cookie so it's just around the edges and wiggle it around a bit to get it to form a perfect circle. You can also sprinkle on more chocolate chips at this stage too, they will soften right on top if they're still warm. If you don't have a cookie cutter like that, take a fork and gently press the edges and smoosh them into a more perfect circle.
- Let cool for 15 minutes, then sprinkle with salt flakes and enjoy!
Courtney says
I had to make a vegan treat for my kiddo’s soccer team, and these were a huge hit! I ended up using some almond butter in my cupboard that had solidified a bit, but just stuck the batter in my stand mixer and they whipped up easily. I didn’t find they spread too much, either. Not too sweet and super chocolatey, we’ll definitely be making these again!
candice says
WOW! I have made so many of your desserts and they never disappoint. These came out perfect. I did 15 min in my oven. I have made these 3 times already in two weeks. Absolutely delicious! Thank you for making desserts with almond flour that I can eat and enjoy!
Claire Cary says
Aww thank you Candice! So happy you enjoyed.
Jordan says
I just made these, and they are one of my favorite cookies ever! What a great, perfect, easy cookie recipe. My whole family freaked out. I may cook 14 instead of 12 minutes next time, only because my husband would prefer a tiny less gooey middles, but they are super great and delicious. Question: I know peanutbutter isn’t paleo, but is it usually okay to sub for almond butter when there IS flour involved? I know some flourless recipes use almond butter instead of almond flour and peanutbutter wouldn’t work, I assume. Sometimes i crave peanutbutter, and I would love to try it sometime with this recipe if it wouldn’t end in disaster. =)
Claire Cary says
I totally feel you, I love gooey middles, but some family members disagree, so I always do two batches with different bake times so everyone’s happy! As for the peanut butter, I’d suggest just swapping the almond butter for peanut butter and keeping everything else the same. I wouldn’t omit the almond flour, just keep everything the same and use peanut butter instead, it should work well! I’d suggest one that has just peanuts and salt or just peanuts as the ingredients. let me know how they turn out! So glad you enjoyed these 🙂
Jordan says
They are amazing with only peanutbutter instead of almond if you’re having a craving or if you’re out of almond! I also made them with an egg, maple sugar, and peanutbutter when I ran out of applesauce and coconut sugar. I was worried with the batter being really dry, but they turned out amazing also! Like a brownie cookie. Thanks for such a great cookie! My new fave! – Jordan
Claire Cary says
Oh good! So glad that worked. I’ll have to try that because a brownie cookie sounds amazing right about now!
Anna says
My favorite almond flour recipe by far! These cookies are truly moist, chocolatey, and delicious! It’s hard to tell that these are a “healthy” cookie; I would definitely make them again.
Claire Cary says
Thank you Anna! That’s always my goal with my healthier dessert recipes 🙂
Ariane says
I really loved making these. So perfectly chewy and chocolatey! Super easy to prepare with stuff I already had in my kitchen.