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.
Hannah says
I am feeling like a baking failure, I have tried the bread and the cookies and neither came out as they should have. I followed the directions perfectly and even watched the video a million times. My dough never looked like yours and I am using the right brand of flour. I will try to add more flour and less oil as they just fell apart coming out of the oven. I loved how yours looked crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Do I need to be in CO to make a good cookie? :)
Any advise would be great. Thanks so much.
Pamela says
We have cookies!! Wow, mind blowing, ate only cookies for dinner and ignored the grilled Ahi Tuna kind of cookie craziness. These have got to be the best cookies I have ever eaten in my life. They were crisp on the edges and soft and chewy in the center. They didn’t melt into a uni-cookie all over my oven. The taste was sublime, melt in your mouth, old tollhouse recipe but ten times better than what I made when I was 16 type of cookie.
Changes I made this time around:
Finally ordered the Honeyville almond flour, then I realized I was out of sea salt and grapeseed oil. I went to Whole Foods market and purchased the celtic sea salt, surprise, it was bitingly flavorful. Then I bought Napa Valley Naturals Grapseed Oil. I was nervous; it was pale green and smelled somewhat strong.
The grapeseed oil and sea salt I previously used was a Trader Joe’s brand. The oil was colorless and odorless, the salt was well, salt. Because of this my first batches tasted good but gently greasy.
To combat the soupy batter from my first two attempts, this time I reduced the oil to 1/3 cup, and increased the almond flour by ¼ cup (firmly packed). Another difference this time around, my four-year-old twin girls weren’t in the kitchen “helping” mommy bake. Now I could concentrate and change the ingredients slowly until I had moldable dough.
I would strongly recommend using the exact brand of ingredients that Elana recommends in this recipe; otherwise you are simply making another type of cookie. Also, if your batter is runny, try the reduced oil and increased flour that I did. Thanks Elana, for combining inconceivable ingredients into a superb treat. I have to go back into the kitchen an eat another one right now.
elana says
Pamela -Thanks so much for reporting back and staying in touch!
Elizabeth -Yes, my boys do adhere to a gluten-free diet; I’m not sure what I would do though if they went to a nut free school. This would be a great question to post in my forums.
Ann -Thanks for stopping by; for more info on substitutions please see my faq’s. There is a chocolate chip cookie recipe that uses butter on my site, you can find it here.
ann miller says
Elana,
I am loving your recipes. My daughter can’t have gluten,wheat, soy, eggs,corn,grapes plus many other things. Can I substitute the eggs with the egg sub. mix ( that is egg free) and can I substitute the grape oil with something else? She can’t have grapes. Iwas looking at the bread recipe and the choc. chip cookie recipe/
Thanks,
Ann
Elizabeth says
Hi,
I was wondering if your kids adhere to a gluten free diet?
We are just starting the gc free diet with our son and I have little idea what to send him for lunch and snacks. His school is also nut free.
Thanks,
E.
Pamela says
Hi Elana,
It’s clear to me that the almond flour I used caused the receipes to fail. I used Bob’s Red Mill almond flour the first time, and ground my own flour in my blender the second time.
Thanks again following up with me. I’m excited to order the correct flour and try again.
Pamela
elana says
Kathy & Pandie,
What type of almond flour did you use?
Elana
Kathy says
Mine also came out more like batter than dough, and spread out everywhere. The cookie that came out of my oven looked nothing like your picture. I added 1/2 c. sweet potato to the second tray of cookies and that came out a little better but had to be cooked 14 minutes. What am I doing wrong?
Pandie says
The flavour of these cookies is amazing!! Thanks so much for the recipe, I tried it today, however I had similar results as Pamela. I’m wondering if the ‘balls’ it was rolled into were too big/close together or if they weren’t cooked enough? I put them in the oven for the full 10mins. Are they supposed to be kind of crunchy or chewy or what kind of texture when they are done? I hoped tey would harden up when they cooled but they didn’t really. I had no idea what to do with them (apart from craping 3 of them off the baking paper with a spoon and eating them ;) so I put them in the freezer for the moment, any advie would be amazing! xo
elana says
Pamela -Thanks for your comment; I am so very perplexed as I have now gotten this from several people. The thing that is tricky is that the recipes seems to work for the majority, though when it doesn’t, what happened in your case is the outcome. I am going to bake these (for the umpteenth time) tonight and do several control groups. I think what might be happening is that if the dough is hotter than room temp from over mixing with a beater that might heat it up and cause it to splay out? I will be working on this issue –can’t let it remain as such.
Eden -Thanks for the report, glad y’all liked ’em.