Update: I’ve created a video to show you how to make these gluten free and vegan chocolate chip cookies.
The other day I received a call from Kelly about a potluck at my children’s school. This superwoman who doubles as first grade room parent and I spoke about taking the “luck” out of potluck.
During our chat, we touched on the significance of children breaking bread together and sharing in the most important part of the meal – dessert! To accommodate the different dietary needs of the first graders in my son’s class, I developed a dairy-free, gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Kelly and I enlisted five moms to bake these tasty cookies for the potluck and I’ve posted the recipe here for them.
Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dairy Free/Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup grapeseed oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup agave nectar
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Stir together wet ingredients in a small bowl
- Mix wet ingredients into dry
- Form 1 inch balls and press onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Bake at 350°F for 7-10 minutes
- Cool and serve
* Please note: Bob’s Red Mill almond flour does not yield successful results when used in this recipe. For more information regarding this matter please see my FAQs.
Lydia S says
I have a son with special dietary needs who comes home frequently from school upset that the other children were able to share a treat and he was not. How kind, thoughtful and wise of you to work with the mom’s in your child’s class to create recipe’s that are healthy and appropriate for all!
Lydia
Megan @ Gluten-Free or Bust! says
I have been working on gluten-free and dairy-free cookie recipes and noticed that in your chocolate chip recipe, you use dark chocolate. Is dark chocolate dairy-free? Or do you buy a certain type? Also, I do not use oils in my cookies. Can I substitute equally with Crisco shortening? Also, I was wondering what type of flour would work best. I see you’ve experimented a lot with almond flour. I’ve never tried it. The blend I’m using is white rice flour, tapioca flour and potato starch, as well as xanthan gum. In the chocolate chip cookies, I used just Crisco shortening. My cookies spread out quite a bit and got carmelly, chewy around the edges. They also had a grainy type of texture. I was wondering if you had a solution to that? Does the almond flour produce a smoother cookie, less grainy? And I thought shortening was supposed to keep cookies from spreading. Sorry to ramble on but I’m very intrigued by your recipes and delighted to find someone on the same type of health journey my husband and I are on :)
Aqueelah says
I make these for the first time night before last and they turned out great. I used homemade almond meal with great results. Will make this again. Also after mixing my batter, I put it in the freezer for ten to 15the minutes so it would firm up like your batter. I was concerned that the cookie wouldn’t turn out like yours when the batter wasn’t as thick but the freezer did the trick. Thank you for the recipe.
Jenn says
How exactly do you blanch almond flour?
Sal says
My niece is on a gluten free diet so I think I’ll make her some of these for her birthday. Your photos are gorgeous by the way – my stomach’s rumbling!
Nikki @ Active Vegetarian says
Great recipe! I usually add coconut and it
tastes great!
Susan says
Since yesterday, I’ve made 3 batches of these–and all three were different, although I did make a couple of minor changes with each batch. The batch this morning though, looks the prettiest and taste fantastic. What I like about these cookies is that they still taste really good even after they’ve cooled for 6-8 hours or the next day. Many times, even my conventional cookies tasted different and not as good after they cooled or days later. The texture of them is kind of like a store bought cookie–it’s pleasantly crunchy, but not crumbly–mine held together very nicely and survived being put in a bag and transported. I’m very pleased with them and since I used butter and the coconut palm sugar, they have a wonderful flavor and after taste.
So, since I just took these out of the oven a little while ago, I want to wait until they are cool, but the ones I tasted while still warm and soft are absolutely fantastic. I did weigh things, so I used 10oz of almond flour (Nuts on Line blanched) and I used 4oz (1/2 cup) of pastured butter and I did increase the coconut palm sugar to 3/4 cup (3.5 oz) and added 2 TBSP of water and I melted all of that in a small pot, then added it to the dry mixture. I only used 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. Oh, and I still added in the 2 TBSP of arrow root. The dough was a little greasy, but I didn’t add any more flour and just baked them and they even seemed to rise a tad and spread just a bit. I also used a cookie scoop and just pressed them down a little bit–I didn’t make them that flat. Anyway, they are very pretty cookies and I’ll see if I can take a picture of them.
Susan says
I just finally made these today and they are very good! This is my first almond flour cookie and I was quite hesitant because some things I’ve tried have come out really good and others, like the breads, have not. I used the measurements for the above recipe, but I used 1/2 C of pastured butter and 1/2 of palm sugar instead. I did what someone else did and I put the butter and sugar in a pan, added 2 TBS of water and melted it. I then added the vanilla to that and then added all of it to the dry ingredients. When I mixed it, it seemed to be very greasy and I did weigh my almond flour (Nuts on Line blanched almond flour), but I found I had to add yet another 1/2 cup of flour. These cookies don’t move at all, so you really need to flatten them to the size you want the finished cookie to be. I had to bake mine for 12 minutes. I also felt like there were too many chips, but I used Ghiradelli and the chips seemed to be quite a bit larger than normal, so I may try chopping the chips up somewhat.
I will certainly make them again, but I may try 1/3 cup of butter instead. Oh, the other thing I did was accidentally add in 2 TBSP of arrow root–not sure if that made any difference or not.
Susan says
I meant I used a 1/2 CUP of palm sugar!
Susan D says
After all of my experimenting with Elana’s chocolate chip cookie recipes, I found that the measurements in this recipe are really good, but I only use pasture butter in my cookies and I don’t use agave and have been using coconut palm sugar with great success (melted in a pot with the butter and 2 TBSP of water). I also decrease the chips to about 1/2 – 3/4 cup. They are the best!! What I like is that they in fact do taste great a day or so later and keep their delicately crunchy consistency, which is what I like. I’m not a fan of soft cookies unless they are right out of the oven, but these are good days later.
I do weigh my ingredients, so 2 1/2 cups of almond flour = 10 oz.
Elizabeth says
These cookies are wonderful. In addition to substituting olive oil for the grapeseed oil, I also substitute honey for the agave. I also try to limit my sugar intake and I use half the amount of honey (about 1/4 c.) and just add a little water to the mix at the end of mixing the dough. The cookies turn out very well!
By the way, I love your Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook! I made the pear crisp (and added some fresh cranberries and a dash of honey to the filling) for Thanksgiving this year for the first time and everyone loved it! Hats off to you!
Noelle says
This is not the same choc chip cookie recipe I have made before. My cookies are much more soggy. What did you change? I prefer the other recipe. The recipe I used had the pictures of the young girl baking as well as pics of her cat. I am so upset!
elana says
Noelle,
The recipes are the same. Here’s the link to the page you are referring to: https://elanaspantry.com/chocolate-chip-cookies-again/
Thanks,
Elana