Elana's Pantry

New York Times Bestselling author Elana Amsterdam founded Elana’s Pantry, the go-to website for easy, healthy, grain-free, Paleo recipes, in 2006

Chocolate Decadence Cookies

Chocolate Decadence Cookies

103 Comments Affiliate Links

This scrumptious Chocolate Decadence Cookies recipe is my gift to you, dear readers! I’ve been making these healthy cookies for family and friends for a couple of years now and everyone loves them. A base of rich dark chocolate, studded with pecans and MORE dark chocolate, they remind me of my Chocolate Pecan Pie in a cookie.

Every time I make this easy cookie recipe I think of my mother-in-law. Why? First, like me she has celiac disease. Second, she loves dark chocolate. Third, she likes cookies with tons of nuts in them, and these have a lot!

The batter for this recipe is very runny. It’s more like brownie batter than cookie dough, but don’t alter the recipe, follow it, and the cookies will bake up into chocolate perfection.

Print Recipe
Chocolate Decadence Cookies
Serves:40cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a medium pot, melt 6 ounces chocolate chips and shortening over very low heat
  2. Remove pan from heat
  3. Using a hand blender, mix in eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla
  4. Blend in almond flour, salt, and baking soda
  5. Stir in additional 6 ounces chocolate chips and pecans
  6. Scoop batter 1 tablespoon at a time onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
  7. Flatten dough with the palm of wet hands
  8. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes
  9. Cool for 1 hour
  10. Serve
  11. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator

Chocolate Decadence Cookies are fantastic all year round, and make especially fabulous Christmas cookies! Since these healthy cookies are made primarily of luscious dark chocolate they’re also perfect Valentine’s cookies.

My Chocolate Decadence Cookie recipe is based on one by Alice Medrich. That one had loads of gluten and white sugar in it. While it was fabulous inspiration in terms of an idea, there was much work to be done in “Elana-fy-ing” it. So this recipe was entirely different when I was done with it. Still, I think it’s nice to give credit to an author even when a recipe is merely referenced, don’t you?!

Cookies are my favorite thing to make because they’re easy. Because my grain-free cookie recipes are extra simple, I can make the batter made in less time than it takes the oven to pre-heat. While the cookies are baking, I clean up. The entire process takes around 10 minutes. Writing quick and easy recipes is now second nature. I’ve been doing it since 1998 when I was diagnosed with celiac disease.

Hanukkah

Lately, though I’ve been focusing on creating healthy meals. If you are too, you’ll want to take a look at my easy Paleo Meals recipe page. And since the boys are getting bigger than big (look at this year’s Hannukah photo!), I’m focusing on making as many healthy snack recipes as I can! Though to be honest their favorite category of food may be my cake recipes, with my Paleo Birthday Cake  and Cinnamon Coffee Cake topping that list!

I’m delighted that the boys bring so many of their friends home and that all of the guys are so great about taste testing for me. What an incredible tribe they have built, and I feel beyond lucky to be a part of it. So much to be grateful for this year!

Comments

  1. I’m trying to make these cookies using one of the almond flours you recommend in your book and the product is too loose to “flatten dough with the palm of wet hands”
    Is the amount of almond flour 1/2 cup or is it 1 1/2 cups?
    Would appreciate your help!

    Reply

    • Susie, thanks for your comment! I just made these again and they’re perfect, amount of almond flour is 1/2 cup :-)

      Reply

  3. These have been a family favorite for years but we recently changed it up a bit and it was even better, if that is even possible. Instead of cookies, we put all the batter into a parchment paper lined casserole dish. Then we swirled in some homemade caramel. We baked it until it cracked on the top ten spread a little more caramel on the top. So good! I did reduce the amount of chocolate to about 4oz so it’s not overly sweet

    Reply

  4. HIya E!
    Making these with my own homemade stevia sweetened chocolate melted with the shortening.
    Added all the ingredients.
    Looked a bit to loose so I added 1/3 cup more almond flour and then the chopped nuts ( I used S&D almonds)….ah…perfection!
    Baked then 15 min in my oven…and yes pillows of perfection!
    Serving them to guest for breakfast tomorrow, oh and coffee of course!
    P.S…I have this urge to drizzle sweetened almond butter or coconut butter on top but I will only if the quest likes the idea!!!!
    Thank you…you ARE the best!!!!

    Reply

  5. Hi Elana I’m a big fan ! Thanks for these they are so yum! I subbed macadamia nuts for the pecans and they were great !

    Reply

    • Naomi, thanks for your comment. I’m so happy to hear you are enjoying my recipes and that these cookies are so yum!

      Reply

  6. Hi Elana
    This was the perfect cookie treat for Father’s Day! I love all your recipes.
    This one I had to sub coconut oil and walnuts. The batter was funny but still baked fine. Also, I can not have any sugar. So are there any sugarless chocolate chips out there or a substitute for chocolate chips??
    Thank you,
    Tiffany

    Reply

    • Tiffany, I haven’t used sugarless chocolate chips in this so not sure if they would work in this recipe. Thanks for letting me know this was the perfect cookie treat!

      Reply

  7. Thanks Elana for a great recipe!! After prepping all the ingredients, I realized I forgot the pecans that I worked hard at chopping!! My hubby was sweet & placed some on top of the second batch in the oven & it added great crunch!! I also placed the prepared mixed items in frig for 20 min which helped when I used 1 tab for each cookie. Also I did not press down & it made cookie perfect as well. Thanks again Elana. I have wanted to check with you about: my oven is a convection. So far with all your recipes, I have not used it because I wanted to check first if it would go along with your recipes & how you have tested them. Many blessings to you!!!

    Amy J

    Reply

    • Hi Amy, thanks for your comment! I haven’t cooked my recipes using convection so not sure how that would work. I’m so happy to hear this is a great recipe and that you and your husband enjoyed it! We love it too :-)

      Reply

  8. Hi my family can’t eat chocolate chips because we are on a pretty strict no sugar diet and I was wondering if I could add a little more honey/maple syrup and use cocoa powder instead… By the way I love your recipes!

    Reply

  9. Hi Elana, these look awesome, must try, have you ever substituted Ghee for salted butter? or coconut oil? I love the taste of organic Ghee, it’s magical….just curious if that works, I’m sure the butter is just fine, don’t know if the sub would change the chemistry of the recipe.
    Thank you!!

    Reply

    • Hi I was wondering if anybody can tell me if I can just substitute regular gluten-free flour for almond flour. Sorry I know this is probably a very basic question . I I see that almond flour is generally more moist so perhaps there is something I can add ?

      Reply

      • Stephanie, thanks for your comment and I wish I could help! I haven’t used or eaten regular gluten-free flours since 2001 when I went on the grain-free diet :-)

        Reply

  10. Just made a batch of these and they are terrific! Letting them sit an hour before serving is not to torture us , it’s because the flavors deepen!

    Reply

  11. Made these today for Valentine’s Day…..delicious! The name describes them perfectly! Thank you for all of your amazing, tried and true, recipes!!!

    Reply

    • Elizabeth, I’m so glad to hear these were delicious! They’re one of my family’s favorites and we make them at least once a week :-)

      Reply

  12. Hello Elana,

    thank you for your lovely recipes and Infos on your site..

    I have a questin about this (and other recipes) > what do you recommend to use instead of chocolate Chips? I cnt find them..

    Thanks a lot…

    best regards
    Vanessa

    Reply

    • Vanessa, thanks for your comment. If you click the green text in the ingredients portion of the recipe that says “chocolate chips” you will find that info :-)

      Reply

  13. Elana, thank you for sharing all these wonderful recipes. I can’t have any sugar at all, and if I make (and eat!) any of your chocolate cookies, I get inflammation from the sugar in the chips. I have looked everywhere for chips that use something besides either sugar or stevia (which I don’t like), but can’t find any. I am wondering if you or any of your followers have ever tried making your own chocolate chips with honey. Perhaps it isn’t possible, but I thought I would ask. If I left out the chips in the actual cookie, and just made chocolate cookies, I might be able to use unsweetened chocolate and add extra honey or maple sugar. Thank you.

    Reply

    • Hi Anne, I’ve been working on a homemade chocolate recipe for some time now and have not obtained results that I’m satisfied with yet. I’ll keep you posted :-)

      Reply

    • Anne, I always use a bar of 100% cacao, unsweetened baking chocolate by Guittard or Ghirardelli. I just take a sharp knife and cut the bar into narrow strips (about 1/4 inch wide) and cut across the strips. I get a whole plate full of unsweetened chocolate bits that work great as unsweetened chocolate chips. So much easier than melting chocolate and forming it into chips.

      Reply

  14. Laurel, no errors here. We’ve made this recipe with these ingredients dozens of times. If you follow the recipe you will love it!

    Reply

  15. I love these little pillows of chocolate!
    Wonderful easy recipe.
    I used Pascha chocolate 100% and 85% and made them plain.
    I can’t wait to have tea with a friend to serve these and watch their face upon first bite.

    Reply

  16. Hi Elana,
    Do you have any idea how many carbs are in these cookies. I am diabetic, but trying to stay away from artificial sweeteners so would like to try them. Your book Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook was the first book I ever bought and I love it.
    Thank you for your diligence in helping us.
    Donna

    Reply

  17. Is there anyway that I can substitute eggs for something else? I am not really on any strict diet nor have any food allergies, but I really want to make this for my friends, who are combinations of gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free diets. I would so appreciate a response!

    Reply

  18. Hi we made this recipe to a tea and it was a bit too runny, so after referring to your other recipes, we added an extra cup of almond flour. It turned out great! Really? You use just 1/2 cup almond flour? Delicious and not crumbly! Easy to store and my non-
    G.F.husband loved them!

    Reply

    • Hi Missy, yes the batter for this recipe is supposed to be quite runny. Don’t fear though, bake the wet batter and you’ll have incredible cookies that are very different from my other cookie recipes. We have made these cookies several dozen times with the 1/2 cup of almond flour and they’re absolutely amazing. I’m glad you enjoyed!

      Reply

  19. I’m excited to try this recipe. I am not a good baker or cook, especially when it comes to portion sizes. What will measurements be for a serving size for 1?

    Reply

  20. I just made this for an afternoon snack and turned out fantastic! I added chopped walnuts too because just like your mother in law, I do love me my nuts. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  21. yummmmmm! Ive made these cookies about 4 times now and they are officially a staple in my house. So soft, chewy and delicious. I just love them! I have experimented by adding chai spice blend and it really added something special to the cookie.

    thanks for sharing this!

    Reply

  22. Just made these for work and wow I’m in love. They were delicious and I cant want to share them even though i don’t want to :) we are doing a bake off at work of healthier options and everyone got recipes of your site and I can’t wait to try the rest!! Thank you!!! I am so glad I found you

    Reply

    • Hi Julie, so glad that you are enjoying the cookies! I would love to see what everyone brings to your healthy bake off at work. I hope you’ll all share photos of your Elana’s Pantry creations on Instagram and tag me in the photos so that I can participate from afar! Here’s a link to my Instagram page:

      https://www.instagram.com/elanaspantry/

      xoxox
      Elana

      Reply

  23. Hi Elana ! This is one more I got a delicious recipe in two days which I have tried at home. Great recipe it was. Everyone at home enjoys it very much. I am very much eager to try more from your site. I also save this as one of my most very important recipe for my family. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  24. 40 serves? I Got a total of 13 cookies, maybe mine are really big compared to yours? So yum though, truly decadent :)

    Reply

    • Hi Beck, thanks for your comment. As indicated in the recipe instructions I make these cookies using a 1 tablespoon scoop which is fairly small. But big cookies sound good too! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!

      Reply

  25. I am wondering where on your page i can find the total carb,fat,sugar and protein counts in your recipes. I keep my net carbs below 60 per day so I need to calculate. I appreciate your paleo desserts and would like to use them in my diet but it would help so much if i knew the break down of mostly net carbs. Thank you! Also, in this recioe i didnt have any chocolate chips or chunks so i put cocoa powder and coconut sugar in the butter instead and they came out wonderful.

    Reply

  26. I am egg intolerant. What can I use as a substitute? I want to bake cookies and cakes but don’t know what to use, I can’t use the retail- egg substitute. What about flaxseed? Tofu?

    Reply

  27. Hi Paul, make sure you are using the recommended brands of almond flour and chocolate (click the green words in the ingredient portion of the recipe) in order to get the consistency just right for this mixture :-)

    Reply

  29. Wow! These are amazing! I used a double boiler for melting the chocolate (then mixed the batter in my stand mixer) and used walnuts instead of pecans. Fabulous!

    Reply

  30. Thanks, Elana! These cookies are so good, they disappeared on Christmas Day and I made a second banch by request of my gluten intolerant, diabetic, FODMAPs diet following husband. Tonight, for New Year’s Eve Dinner, the cookies, at last a double batch, will permit a daughter to take some with her. Happiness all around.

    Continue to take the time you need to heal. We are blessed to have your great recipes.

    Reply

  31. YUM! I just made these and can’t stop nibbling at them. I substituted honey for the maple syrup and almonds and macadamia nuts for the pecans. I also only had one 6 oz bag of chocolate, so I ended up using half the chocolate the recipe calls for, and it was still delicious. What a great recipe and so, so easy.

    Reply

  33. Just made this this afternoon for the first time. Oh my goodness, they are FABULOUS!! Perfectly chewy, deeply chocolatey, loaded with nuts–the perfect cookie! I’m serving them for dessert this Christmas. I can imagine vanilla ice-cream sandwiched between two of these! Incredible! Thank you for this recipe Elana :-)

    Reply

  34. What a twist of fate! Last week for a holiday party, I decided, with grave misgivings, to go ahead and make a batch of Chocolate Decadence Cookies from an old, gluten/sugar-laden recipe a friend had given me years ago (source unknown). Having jumped on the paleo train only a few months ago, but with wild abandon and delight, I felt so guilty using wheat flour (I did go ahead and substitute palm sugar rather than white), but the cookies were, of course, yummy as always and everyone else gobbled them up. I kept thinking, surely coconut flour would work and assuage my guilt, but I didn’t have the confidence to try it for the party. Next morning, I’m doodling around on my paleo sites to research it, and featured front and center on your homepage are…Chocolate Decadence Cookies, paleo!! I am delighted.

    I also want to tell you how much fun I’m having cooking with your recipes and using your suggestions and with this way of eating. I love to cook anyway, but now I feel like I’ve opened my very own version of America’s test kitchen. My friends drop by WAY more frequently, knowing my house will smell heavenly and there will be some new tasty treasures to munch on. I do wish sometimes, however, that I shared a neighboring fence with you for answers to my rampant curiosity; i. e., “I wonder if this would this work?!” Thank you, Elana, for your generous contributions to creative solution cooking and healthier fine dining. Happy holidays.

    Reply

  35. SUCCESS! Made these last night – and I loved them – and so did my partner and our friend, neither of whom require a gluten/dairy-free diet like I do. They were a hit, hands down, as well as easy :) I made one change to reduce sugar: I melted down 6 oz. of 100% baker’s chocolate for the batter and added 6 drops of stevia to help compensate a bit. I still used semi-sweet (65% cacao) chips. Loved it. Next time, I may even reduce the maple syrup and add a touch more stevia. Thank you!!! This is my first holiday with awareness of my gluten-intolerance, so learning some satisfying and easy recipes is very helpful!

    Reply

  36. Dear Elana,

    We have been enjoying your recipes for years! Thanks so much. I especially appreciate the sweetner-free ones, or those sweetened with dates.

    Thanks also for including the photo of the boys lighting the menora for Chanuka! That was a special treat! Have loads of naches.

    Reply

  37. Elana, Well done! These cookies are AMAZING! I just made them and I cannot tell you what a gift they were to me. Thank you! You could not have given us a greater gift. :)

    Reply

  38. Thank you Elana for this Christmas gift and all you do. These cookies were very yummy with chopped chocolate organic mint bar for the whole chocolate chips and chopped macadamias for the pecans. Gratefully, Kari in Texas

    Reply

  39. Hi. I’m wondering if the 1/2 cup amount of almond flour might be a typo? When I made these as stated in the recipe, the dough was the consistency of a thin cake batter. I feel like I had to add at least 1 1/2 cups more of the almond flour to get it to be of scooping consistency. I’m not really sure how much I added altogether because I just kept dumping more in to get the right consistency. They did turn out delicious, even with the extra almond flour.

    Reply

      • The recipe is perfect as written….yield, cooking time, temperature….all of it. I think those who think they need to add more almond meal are not letting their chocolate cool a bit after melting. I used Nestle’s dark chocolate chips and they made a luscious cookie. Thanks for the post. I plan to share on my site with full credit given.

        Reply

  40. Have you ever tried to use other nut flours? We have been lovers of your books and recipes for years, but just found out that my daughter should not eat almonds either (as well as: Gluten, soy, pine nut, peanut, pistachios, rice, oats & milk? Can I make hazelnut or pecan flour?

    Reply

    • Hi Yvonne, thanks for your comment. Because I’ve had such great results cooking and baking with almond flour, and because I don’t like to keep tons of different ingredients in the house, I’ve really just stuck to this one nut flour. If you do experiment, please let us know how it goes!

      Reply

  42. I made these this afternoon and they are fabulously satisfying. I think they’d be wonderful for a potluck or larger gathering where a small amount of something deeply chocolatey is often called for (in my opinion). Thanks a million Elana!

    Reply

  43. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us, Elana. I made them last night; they are so yummy! My daughter says they even have the texture of a “real cookie!”. As we say here in the South: “Bless you!”

    Reply

  44. OK, this might be a silly question, but is “6oz choc chips” listed twice in ingredients on purpose, or is it a typo? Do I need 6 or 12oz choc chips? Thanks! Love your recipes! :)

    Reply

    • Hi Courtney, when I make these cookies my batter is thin like a brownie batter but the cookies turn out perfectly after they are baked and cooled. When you baked this batter what was the result? Hope your holidays are fantastic.

      Reply

  46. These look delicious Elana! And after a year on SCD with no chocolate, I’ve been adding it back into my diet and plan to eat this with much pleasure – Thank You!!

    Reply

  47. Ohhhhhhh. These are going to be made soon!!! They are easy and I’m sure delicious! It’s what I love best about your recipes – they are almost all incredibly simple and we have loved everything I’ve made from your page or cookbooks. It’s gotten to a point where I do 90% of my baking from your recipes! They are just that good! And I bake a lot. Ha ha! Thanks!

    Reply

  48. Thank you for this lovely cookie recipe/gift! You weren’t kidding when you said there were lots of nuts crammed in here. I love nutty cookies. And dark chocolate. Because it’s good for you!! I have all this leftover Valentines Day chocolate in my fridge and I’m honestly thinking about chopping it up and using it in these cookies?!? My husband says we have to clean out the freezer and my mom (bless her heart) gets me at least 10 pounds of chocolate for both Easter and V-day. I mean, I’m too old to eat that much chocolate.

    Reply

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