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These gluten-free chocolate chip cookies are made with coconut flour and ready in just 20 minutes. The cookies emerge from the oven SO gooey, thick, and delicious. A favorite vegan cookie, they’re also Paleo-friendly and nut-free, too.
I had planned on posting this recipe next week, but I just posted a teaser picture of these cookies on Instagram. You guys pretty much demanded that I share them ASAP. You and I both love vegan cookie recipes, so I knew I had to share soon.
I hear you, loud and clear! So, I moved the recipe on up in the docket. Chocolate chip cookies should be prioritized over pretty much all else, right? Especialllllyyy when they’re looking as good as these coconut flour cookies are 😍
So I guess that means another batch is in store. Luckily, these vegan coconut flour cookies are SO darn easy to make and even easier to eat. Let’s talk about these cookies because I’m honestly like a proud momma thinking about them.
I just reshared my favorite paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe last week (which is why I had these scheduled farther out). So many of you came out of the woodwork to tell me how much you adore them. I feel you on that – that recipe is a seriously delicious one. It’s sweetened with coconut sugar, just like this one is, because you know I love my refined sugar free cookie recipes!
P.S. these vegan miso chocolate chip cookies are another favorite if you’re looking for a twist on the classic!
But…it also uses 2¼ cups of almond flour, and that can get expensive. I buy mine in bulk so I don’t notice it as much, but my sister was simultaneously raving about the cookies and complaining about having to buy a $12 bag of almond flour to make them.
Is coconut flour or almond flour better for cookies? It depends on the recipe and what you have on hand – each works well when the recipe has been developed to use the specific one, but they have different properties, so they’re generally not interchangeable. Coconut flour is cheaper and can go further because it is so absorbent, which is a big pro for a lot of folks!
A recipe for coconut-flour chocolate chip cookies had been in my recipe queue for a while, and her complaints were just the inspiration I needed to get to work. I planned to make them with coconut flour and wanted to keep them nut-free, and I really love coconut-flour cookie recipes. I decided to try making them vegan as well… because why not make them totally allergy-friendly?!
Honestly, I expected this coconut flour cookie recipe to take a while to get right. Surprisingly, I got pretty close to nailing it on the first try. I tested one more time with some baby adjustments just to perfect them. The result? A batch of really good chocolate chip cookies.
Not just good for being nut-free, paleo, and vegan, but good by just about anyone’s standards. I brought them over to my very not-paleo or vegan aunt and uncle and they were loving them!
Is coconut flour a substitute for all-purpose flour? No, it’s not, primarily because it is SO absorbent. It’s about 3x more absorbent than all-purpose flour! A lot of coconut flour cookie recipes can get pretty crumbly because the coconut flour sucks up so much moisture. But, because these use just 1/3 cup in this recipe, we avoid that crumbly texture and instead get a rich, chewy, and wonderfully textured dough.
Which seed butter should I use?
This recipe also includes sunflower seed butter OR tahini. I tested the recipe with both! Here are the differences: sunflower seed butter had a more neutral, less noticeable taste, but if you’ve baked with sunflower seed butter before, you know it tends to turn baked goods green. It doesn’t affect anything about the flavor or texture, but some people might be turned off by the color.
The tahini version, which I show in the photos, has a slightly noticeable tahini flavor. It’s definitely not too prominent. I liked the little hint of nuttiness it added. While I noticed the difference in flavor, none of my taste testers commented on it.
You can also use your favorite nut butter if you’re not sensitive to nuts, or if you’re baking for someone with an allergy!
How many cookies does this recipe make?
This recipe does make a pretty small batch. It yields about 10 to 12 cookies (maybe more, depending on the size you make them). However, you could always easily double or triple it if you need more! Living alone, I can’t have too many cookies around for the sake of my waistline 🙊
These Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies come together sooo easily, too. You can make them in a stand mixer if you have one, which makes them EXTRA easy. I use a bowl and whisk, though, and the dough came together in less than 5 minutes. Always a win!
Can you freeze these cookies?
They also freeze well both in dough and cookie form, so you can always have a stash on hand. To freeze the dough, I like scooping the dough into cookie balls, placing them on a baking sheet, and freezing until firm, and then moving the frozen cookie dough balls to a freezer-safe zip bag for long-term storage.
I hope you love these cookies, and that everyone you share them with does as well – regardless of their dietary restrictions. Enjoy :)
Want more delicious cookie recipes?
- Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
- Vegan Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten-Free Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan + Nut-Free)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup virgin coconut oil, solid and slightly softened, similar to softened butter
- ⅓ cup sunflower seed butter, or tahini, see Notes
- ⅔ cup coconut sugar
- 2 flax eggs, 2 tablespoons flax meal + 5 tablespoons water – whisk them together and let sit for 5 minutes to gel – see Notes for info about using real eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda, use ¼ teaspoon if using sunflower seed butter – helps prevent the cookies from turning green when they cool!
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup (43g) coconut flour
- ⅔ cup (4 oz) dark chocolate, chopped or chips
- Flaky sea salt, to sprinkle on top, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl or stand mixer, beat together the coconut oil, sunflower seed butter or tahini, and coconut sugar until smooth. Add the flax eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.¼ cup virgin coconut oil, ⅓ cup sunflower seed butter, ⅔ cup coconut sugar, 2 flax eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add the baking soda, salt, and coconut flour to the wet ingredients. Mix until well incorporated. Fold in the chopped dark chocolate.½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, ⅓ cup (43g) coconut flour, ⅔ cup (4 oz) dark chocolate
- Use a cookie scoop to form cookies and place 2” apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with a bit of flaky sea salt if desired. Bake for 10 minutes or just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges.Flaky sea salt
- Let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you’re not nut-free, you can use any nut butter you like here (like peanut butter or almond butter). For the nut-free folks, I found that the sunflower seed butter had a milder, less noticeable flavor than the tahini, but sunflower seed butter also has the tendency to turn baked goods green! It doesn’t affect taste, just appearances, but something to keep in mind. The cookies pictured are made with tahini – I didn’t find the flavor to be too noticeable, but it does add a bit of nuttiness! That being said, taste your tahini before using to make sure you enjoy the flavor. Certain brands of tahini can be more bitter, and that flavor will translate, so make sure you like the tahini plain before adding it to your cookies!
- If you don’t want/need to use flax eggs, replace the two flax eggs with 1 egg + 1 egg yolk.
I have a bag of coconut flour that I’ve been waiting to use for the perfect recipe – BINGO! These cookies look amazing.
I made these cookies yesterday and they were easy and delicious! The recipe calls for 2/3 cup coconut sugar and I cut it down to 1/2 cup and thought they were still extremely sweet. I’m going to make them again and cut down the sugar even more, I hope that doesn’t change the consistency. Thanks!
So glad that you enjoyed them Lisa! Thanks for your feedback :) it should be fine with the sugar cut down.
Hello, Rachel!
I’m such a huge fan and have been making your Paleo, GF, RSF almond flour-based cookies, skillets and blondies for months now. I’m so happy you introduced this coconut flour option though, because almond flour is rather expensive! I’ve been on the prowl for delicious coconut flour cookie recipes but to no avail, so suffice it to say, I’m excited to try this recipe out tonight.
Just a quick question since I have failed at baking cookies with coconut flour before – always too crumbly and not delish at all – how does the texture and consistency of the almond flour cookies compare with these coconut flour ones? Just want to manage my own expectations hahaha :) And would it be possible to compare the taste perhaps with your Paleo almond-flour chocolate chip cookies? Will still try both, but I’m just curious as to how the flour changes the texture and taste, if at all.
Lastly, I always swap coconut oil with low-cholesterol margarine because my cholesterol is high, and I’ve to avoid saturated fat as much as possible. The results are always great for the almond flour-based recipes. Do you reckon this substitution will affect this recipe in any way?
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Please keep your amazing recipes coming… easy to make GF, SF, Paleo coconut flour / almond flour cakes, please!!!! xx
Haha I totally understand, the texture of coconut flour cookies can be super weird! I didn’t find these to be cakey or crumbly at all, but they aren’t quick as thin and chewy as the other paleo cookies. I’d say they’re thicker and a little doughier :) but still so delicious! I don’t even work with margarine, so I’m not sure if that would make any difference, sorry! I’ve got some cakes in the works, but cakes are always harder for me, so they’re requiring a lot of testing. It’s in the pipeline though! I’d love to hear how you end up liking these cookies in comparison to the others, Ann! Thanks so much for your kind words and being a part of my little baking community :)
Your cookies are so good, my 3 year old daughter loved them, she is allergic to egg whites, nuts, dairy, soy, and wheat. these cookies work perfectly for her. Thank you
I hope I can find more recipes like this.
So glad they’re a hit with your family! Thanks for the feedback, Lina.
Ooooh these look delicious! I’ve never used coconut sugar but bought some yesterday so that I could try this recipe! I’ve missed having the ability to bake and enjoy chocolate chip cookies since starting to eat paleo. Can’t wait to try these! Amazing job as usual, Rachel! :)
Thank you so much Monica – I hope that you love them!
Hello, i’m really hoping to try these! If I don’t have coconut sugar, what can I substitute it for?
Hi Maria! You could probably sub in any granulated sweetener with pretty good results. I’ve only tried it with coconut sugar so I can make any guarantees, but cane sugar, maple sugar, date sugar, or even erythritol would probably work. Hope this helps! :) Enjoy.
I just made this and the cookies turned out so good!! I’ve been looking for a long time for a good coconut flour cookies recipe, thanke you so much for this grate recipe :)
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Kate! Thanks for your feedback.
such a creative combo of flavors!!! They look SO GOOD!
Thanks so much Kayle!
These look delicious! If you wanted to use real eggs how many would you use?
I haven’t tried it with real eggs, but a few readers have and used 2 eggs and said it worked out great!
I haven’t tried it with real eggs but some readers have used 2 eggs instead of the flax eggs and they said it worked well!
Hi
Is it an extra 1/4 tsp of baking soda when using sun butter or 1/4 tsp total? Thanks!
Hi Rebecca, just use 1/4 teaspoon total of baking soda if using sunbutter. Enjoy!
Just made these exactly to the recipe and they came out like soup – ruined a bar of expensive chocolate on them. They melted so much that they came out like one flat bar in the pan. Very disappointed. Triple checked the recipe since the batter came out so wet to begin with. They’re basically inedible. Not a great first foray into your recipes, I’m sad to say!
Hi Kate – that’s SO odd because this should be a very thick cookie dough, not liquidy at all. Was the nut/seed butter you used very liquidy, or is it possible you added too much liquid to the flax egg? I tested this recipe many, many times and never had anything like that happen. I’m so sorry you had trouble, and I’d love to help you figure out what went wrong. So sorry you wasted your ingredients, I know how frustrating that is!!
It’s happened to me where my baked goods didn’t cook well in the centre as well. These cookies look amazing but mine didn’t turn out either. I even put 1 less tbsp of water in the flax mix. They pancaked out in the oven. Still tastes fantastic but nothing like the picture. I used the sunbutter in the picture under the recipe. Triple checked amounts but no luck with the flax-egg substitute. (Just venturing into this as I was recently diagnosed with an egg allergy.)
Hi Jess, so sorry you had trouble – how odd that they spread out for you so much. What brand of coconut flour did you use? I’ve heard certain brands aren’t as absorbent as others, though I haven’t experienced that myself…was the dough thick when you put it into the oven?