My mother-in-law (aka Grandma Marylyn) is obsessed with all things crispy, crunchy, and Paleo. Like me, she has celiac disease and has followed a strict gluten-free diet for years. I created this Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe just for her. Grandma Marylyn is a huge fan of my Cranberry Chocolate Biscotti, as well as my Chocolate Orange Scones, and presents me with freshly made batches of each of these every time we have a visit.
While Grandma loves everything I make and cooks from my latest book Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry religiously, she is passionate about making my Paleo desserts for our large Jewish family.
Grandma has been asking me for years to develop a thin and crispy cookie recipe. She has no idea that I’ve created these Paleo chocolate chip cookies for her!
Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup palm shortening
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine almond flour, salt, and baking soda in a food processor
- Pulse in shortening, coconut sugar, egg, and vanilla until dough forms
- Remove blade from processor and stir in chocolate chips by hand
- Scoop dough one level tablespoon at a time onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Press balls of dough down so they are very flat, wetting your hand if dough is sticky
- Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes
- Cool for 15 minutes (do not handle prior or cookies will break)
- Serve
When I made these Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies my husband and children devoured numerous batches. The boys’ friends also gobbled up my Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies so quickly that I couldn’t keep enough on the counter for them. I had one very busy week of baking gluten-free chocolate chip cookies for the hungry teenagers that fill my home. These cookies have the teenage seal of approval many times over.
In addition to inspiration from Grandma, I also enjoyed seeing that the adorable Kosher Cavegirl had come up with a Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. It was her post that gave me the idea to create this new recipe which differs only slightly from my Primal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe –the changes include using coconut sugar in place of honey, and doubling the amount of shortening and adding an egg. That’s how you get to crispy cookie heaven. So if you’re tired of complex gluten-free recipes with long lists of ingredients, this is another recipe of mine that solves this vexing problem!
I have other chocolate chip cookie recipes on my website in addition to the ones above:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies -an oldie but goodie that I still make for the boys and their dairy eating friends; I created this, my first chocolate chip cookie recipe back in 2007 –it uses butter as the fat and honey or agave for the sweetener; slightly crispy around the edges, and chewy in the middle.
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies -a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses grapeseed oil for the fat and agave as sweetener… for the vegans in my life.
- Primal Chocolate Chip Cookies -my most recent chocolate chip cookie recipe (prior to the one featured in this post for a crispy cookie) uses shortening and honey; a classic, moist, chewy chocolate chip cookie, and a great post workout snack for the CrossFit crowd.
What are your needs and desires for a classic chocolate chip cookie? Are they dietary, or flavor-based? Leave a comment and let me know which of the above recipes you plan on using and how you will customize them to your personal preferences.
Marloe Scott Wilson says
Shalom.
I am glad I happened on this site while I was looking for some paleo recipe info. Having just given up sugar for the last 3 months, I am now embarking on a wheat free three months to set the habit. Sugar is a permanent exile and my chocolate chips will be sugar free although I do use xylitol at times, and now that I am following paleo I am about to add honey back on my list of allowed foods. I am looking forward to trying out this recipe when I get back from my holiday, thank you.
Namaste
Marloe
Di says
Hi!! Love the recipe cannot wait to try it out! But just got one question I live in Chile and here we don’t have vegan shortening so can I use ghee instead? Or what other option I have for substitute this??
Ryan says
Read the FAQs
Liam says
What is “vegan shortening”? Can I just use palm or coconut oil? Thanks!
Ryan says
Her link to the vegan shortening goes to Spectrum Organic all vegetable shortening. – https://elanaspantry.com/ingredients/vegan-shortening/ .
Susan says
When I tried the vegan shortening link you provided it did not work at all. I also refer organic butter or virgin coconut oil. How do they differ from the shortening when used in the recipe?
Susan says
See Feb 21, 2014 comment from Cindy. She tried it with coconut oil and it worked!
Marylyn says
WOW! So how lucky am I to have Elana
in our family -sure shows what great taste
and good judgement my son has—I have the riches
of Elanas brilliant easy tasty healthy recipes
and joyful visits with multiple varieties lined up during
testing time – so glad she shares with all of us, Yum!
MamaCassi says
BRILLIANT! as a dedicated crispy cookie lover, this makes my heart sing and i’ll be making them soon!
my husband is of the dedicated chewy club, and i’ve catered to him for years, but my crispy loving tastebuds rejoice at this next adventure!
Lisa says
I love crispy cookies! I will be making these crispy chocolate chip cookies this weekend!
Clemma says
I am not fond of using vegan shortening. Have you tried this with butter?
Ryan says
Read the FAQs
SaharaViolet says
I’m always game for risk taking in the kitchen so I used a stick of cold butter cut into about 8 pieces and swapped Rapadura in for the coconut sugar. Worked perfectly! Crispy, thin, not overly sweet, a perfect cookie for with tea. I would say I was concerned my dough was too wet but trusted it would be okay and had no issues with the baking. (I also should have taken them out closer to the 10 min mark instead of 12.
Pascale says
Will try this weekend, thanks Elana!
Corrie says
So excited to try these after my Whole30! I love crispy cookies and haven’t had much luck with getting them using Paleo ingredients.
alison @ Ingredients Inc says
looks amazing!
kelly says
Do you have an alternate suggestion to Honeyville? I LOVE Honeyville, but their price HIKE, will not for me with 6 kids. It used to be $25 for 5 lbs, now its $40! I know you probably get amazing deals on it, but trying to fed 8 with it being that expensive, is not an option!
Thanks
Kelly Wright
Mary Fitzpatrick says
Honeyville usually has a sale on their website in August on their 5 lb blanched almond flour. However their shipping charge (per order/shipment) is $4.59. Amazon is free shipping for orders of $35 and
over. Have tried 3 less expensive brands of blanched almond flour, with significantly less quality results than when I use Honeyville.
Suzanne M says
I’m not sure where you live but I use Trader Joe’s almond flour and it works perfectly. It’s $4.99 for about a one pound bag
Molly says
It seems that in general, there’s been a price hike on almond flour. I always bought mine from nutsonline.com and it used to be right around $25 for the 5lb bag but now it’s over $8 a pound.
Marilyn says
You can buy Honeyville blanched almond flour non GMO at Costco!