These Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies totally nail the taste and texture of your favorite classic treat – the taste testers who tried these had no idea they were Paleo! These gluten-free, dairy free, refined sugar-free chocolate chip cookies give you all the comfort without the guilt.
I’m less than six weeks from graduating from college. How in the world did that happen? It feels like last year that I was writing a post about brioche and my college decision (throwback alert) and whipping up treats in my freshman year dorm room microwave for my (short) series on Dorm Life Eats.
I’ve somehow managed to keep baking, and blogging, and photographing, and writing, through every year and step of college. In some ways, I think my college career would have been different if I hadn’t been committed to Bakerita. Bakerita is my totally my creative outlet, and without this outlet, and without being able to chat and connect with all of you…the past few years would’ve been pretty different.
Also, let’s be honest: I’d also probably have less friends, because always having baked goods around makes people want to hang out with you.
My past four years have been some of the best of my life, and I’ve learned more, grown more, and evolved more from my experiences since stepping foot on the University of Puget Sound campus in 2011 than I have in any other time in my life. I’m not going to get sappy, because let’s be real, I’m sure the closer I get, the more I’ll write about how crazy it feels to be done with this chapter of my life.
But, best of all, college gave me a group of people to feed my baked goods to, to give me honest feedback and constructive criticism, and to give me descriptive quotes of cookies to share with you all, in hopes you don’t get tired of my same-old, same-old descriptive words. There’s only so many ways you can say a variation on delicious, okay?!
So – these cookies. We’ll start with a description from Mariah, who lived in the room next door to me freshman year and hasn’t lived far from me since (even in London!). She’s one of my best friends, and let me note, she does not seek out desserts that are healthy or gluten-free or Paleo or any of the other things that these cookies are. She just cares that they’re delicious.
Once you get past the crispy exterior, it’s so chewy and moist and wonderful. And OMG the chocolate chunks…they’re like fudge put in cookie form. I want these always and forever. They’re little pillows of happiness.
This was the common reaction to these cookies. These are based off my favorite Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’ve made these a few times over the past two weeks, first tweaking them to be dairy free by using coconut oil. I loved how much puffier the coconut oil cookies were than the ones using butter! Coconut oil was a definite success. A picture of the dairy-free, gluten-free but not quite yet Paleo version of these went up on my Instagram and tons of people requested the recipe.
I was in the process of making these again, this time to photograph, and decided to use coconut sugar instead and see if the difference was significant. If I’m honest…I couldn’t even tell the difference, and based on everyone’s reaction to these, neither could they. These cookies may be free of dairy, gluten, and refined sugar, but they are also most definitely still awesome. However, if you don’t have coconut sugar on hand, substitute an equal amount of light brown sugar and your cookies will be just as good!
The real key to these, as I say in just about every recipe where I call for chocolate, is that chopped is always better than chips. It melts better because the wax in chocolate chips prevents them from saying melted and gooey, and chocolate chip cookies need to be melty and gooey. You can also control the percentage of cocoa in your chocolate by buying it in bars! These cookies had sort of giant chocolate chunks in them because I got lazy while chocolate chopping, but it totally made them better. No one complains that there were too many giant melty chocolate pockets in their cookie.
If soft, thick, just-a-little-doughy-in-the-middle, chocolate chunk loaded chocolate chip cookies are your thing, you’ll love these. You won’t even notice there a little better for you, but you can rest easy knowing these are way more guilt free. Enjoy!
Save Print Author: Rachel Conners Serves: 15 cookies Ingredients - ½ cup coconut oil, room temperature
- ¾ cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2¼ cups (9 oz.) almond flour
- 1 cup (6 oz.) chopped dark chocolate
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Beat together the coconut oil and coconut sugar until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Add the almond flour, salt, and baking soda to the wet ingredients. Mix until well incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour (can prepare up to 48 hours ahead of time).
- After refrigerating, use a cookie scoop to form cookies and press down slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges.
Hungry for more? Check out some of my similar recipes!
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Paleo Chocolate Chip Blondies
Flourless Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Coconut Sugar Cookies (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Refined Sugar…
Paleo Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread
Caramel Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
