Make a batch of these chewy and moist gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and they'll be gone in no time. One of our favorite treats!
I’ll be honest, most things I bake don’t make it to the blog. For starters, I don’t bake very often. Our household (not including the dogs), is just 2 of us. And if 12 cookies are made one day, 12 cookies will be gone the next day.
When I do bake, I’d call it experimental more than anything else. I can’t bring myself to follow a recipe all the way through without changing at least a few things, sometimes as an attempt to healthify things. Other times, I’m just too lazy to go out and get the exact ingredients. You know how I like to work with what I’ve got.
But every now and then one of my “trial by error” baking projects works out. These gluten-free chocolate chip cookies were one I was especially pleased with. These didn’t flatten out like I thought they might, but I really enjoyed the thicker texture of these gluten-free cookies. They’re not too dense, nicely chewy, and moist, and, of course, filled with walnuts and chocolate.
Tips for baking gluten-free chocolate chip cookies
In these cookies, I use part gluten-free flour blend and part coconut flour, which I’ve been experimenting with since it’s so healthy. It has tons of fiber, but be careful – it can make your baked goods very dry if you use too much and if you over-bake.
I’m by no means an expert on gluten-free baking, but I’ve learned 2 things so far:
- Add lots of nuts and chocolate. That’s not the area to skimp.
- Different flour blends work differently. I’ve started liking Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free blend lately because I find it the most similar to all-purpose flour. In addition, it doesn’t have dairy in it like some other blends do.
- With many flour blends, the raw dough tastes terrible. (Maybe the saddest part.) Fortunately, the dough’s funky taste goes away once it’s baked, but if you’re having one of those days where you need to consume a bowl of dough, you need to use another kind of flour. I’d recommend an oat/almond flour combination.
Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ¾ cup gluten free all purpose flour blend (such as Bob's Red Mill)
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup raw cane sugar or white sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup non-dairy milk (soy, almond, coconut)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg, lightly beaten*
- ½ - ¾ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup (or more) coarsely chopped walnuts
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour blend and coconut flour and mix in the baking soda and salt. To the same bowl, add the cane sugar, brown sugar, coconut oil, milk, vanilla, and beaten egg. Using a wooden spoon or a hand mixer, mix ingredients together until well combined. Dough will be on the thick side. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Drop dough balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they’re slightly golden on top, but still very doughy inside. Take them out while they’re still pretty underdone in the middle: they will continue cooking as they cool. Let them sit on the pan for one or two minutes and move them to a wire rack to cool.
adapted from this Martha Stewart Whole living recipe which was posted by Jennifer, of the blog Cinnamon Quill, a blog I really enjoyed reading. Ironically, her recipe is for flat cookies, so if you want flat cookies, make hers. I tend to not keep all of those gluten free ingredients on hand so I used the flours I had already in my kitchen.
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I follow an AIP diet- which is strict! These cookies were the best I’ve tried to make myself! I eliminated nuts and used flax seed as egg, cake out great!!
These cookies hit the spot on a dreary winter day when i was stuck home with my sick 2-year-old. I used Arrowhead Mills Organic Spelt flour, which has been my go-to for gluten free cooking. I’m also trying to avoid processed sugar, so i used coconut sugar instead of cane sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup instead of brown sugar and they came out AMAZING. I am a horrible baker because i have such a hard time following recipes to the letter, but this time it worked. I want to eat them all and my 2-year-old loved them too!
Hi Ali, I’m so glad you and your 2-year old enjoyed these! I also love spelt flour, but while it’s wheat free it’s not gluten free. Just fyi, in case you’re baking for someone with allergies!
Oh my god, really? How embarrassing is that! I guess i need to read up on my flour alternatives. Thank you for letting me know. In the meantime, I did buy some Pamela’s gluten free flour, though I’m not so sure about all those starches (potato, arrowroot, tapioca). Having lived through the fat free craze, and Atkins, this feels very much like another diet fad, though I understand some people do have serious gluten allergies and I’m glad I will not be feeding them spelt!
I totally hear you, I’m not gluten free so I enjoy all the flours :). But I understand that people have food sensitivities so I try to offer options here on the blog when I can. I don’t think the starches are particularly harmful and without them GF baked goods don’t rise as well (especially muffins, cakes, etc). I’m working on a cookie recipe that uses almond flour that’s pretty delicious.
These are so delicious, thank you! I subbed the coconut oil for butter and had to cook quite a bit longer than 8-10 minutes (maybe twice that), but other than that, followed the recipe exactly, and they came out so perfectly! Your description of how to tell when they were ready was spot on, and I was glad to know beforehand that the dough would be gross. I’d have been pretty disappointed (and worried) about my first taste if I’d not been warned, hehe. Thanks!
Hi Sarah, I’m glad you liked them!
Delicious. Made these this morning en route from the west of Ireland to Dublin for a family Thanksgiving. As the gluten/dairy free guest I was asked to bring cookies. (Confess I used a pinch of xanthum.) They came out fantastic! Thanks…. Happy thanksgiving …
I noticed that you didn’t use xanthan gum, which I’ve read is always required when baking gluten-free. When is it really needed?
Hi Sue,
I’ve never used it… these are a little bit on the crumbly side (xanthan gum is supposed to help with cohesion). It honestly scares me a little, no one really knows it’s long term effects because it’s so new. So I’m alright if a cookie is a tiny bit crumbly as long as it still tastes good.
I also try to keep the strange ingredients to a minimum so that my recipes are approchable to everyone, gluten free or not.
(but I’m by no means a professional gluten free baker, so others may have different knowledge and/or opinions).