Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan option, grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free)

These perfect paleo chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy and have the perfect texture. Many of the reviewers have called these the best cookies ever and said that nobody had a clue that they were paleo! They also have a vegan option. Thanks to Bob’s Red Mill for making today’s post possible!

My paleo and grain-free recipes have been seriously lacking as of late. I ran out of my favorite Bob’s Red Mill almond flour months ago and I’ve been so frustrated with the brands of almond flour I’ve been buying here in Germany since they’re so inconsistent.

Because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of ordering flour from the US, I thought I’d wait it out until December, when I’ll back in the US and can buy all the Bob’s Red Mill I want.

So to save my sanity, I ordered myself some Bob’s Red Mill almond flour. By the way, for anyone else living abroad, Vitacost has great international shipping rates! I just recently discovered this and it’s been life-changing. ;)

If you have Bob’s Red Mill in a retail store in your area, you can use one of these $1 coupons.

The cookies made with Bob’s Red Mill came out thick, chewy and just as delicious and magical as all-purpose flour chocolate chip cookies. I doubt that anyone would be able to tell that these are paleo cookies! And every batch comes out the same. Hooray for consistency!

So the almond flour obviously plays a huge role in the final outcome of these paleo cookies. Another thing that will affect the cookies is the temperature of the coconut oil.

If you make these in the summer when room temperature coconut oil means melted coconut oil, you’ll need to refrigerate the coconut oil until it’s firmer, like softened butter.

Please read the footnotes at the bottom concerning substitutions!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (100 grams) blanched almond flour1
• 1/4 cup (32 grams) coconut flour2
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (84 grams) coconut oil or unsalted butter, room temperature (if your coconut oil is a little melty, put it in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes or until firmer, like softened butter. If you use slightly melted coconut oil, the dough will be greasy and the chocolate chips will be hard to incorporate.)3
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) coconut sugar or brown sugar4
• 6 tablespoons (98 grams) natural almond butter (the kind with just almonds in it and no added fat / sugar), room temperature5 (here's how to make almond butter)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, room temperature (or 1 chia egg for vegan)
• 1 1/4 cups (213 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (make sure to use paleo-friendly chocolate chips, if desired)

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, beat together the fat and sugar at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute. If you use coconut oil, it may not come together easily. If that's the case, use your hands to combine it and then beat another 20 seconds.
3. Beat in the almond butter and vanilla extract on medium speed and mix until combined. Beat in the egg on low and mix until well incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until well combined. Then stir in 1 cup (170 grams) chocolate chips. If you used brown sugar, skip to the next step. If you used coconut sugar, place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 1 hour or until the dough is firm.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
5. Roll the dough into 8 (75-gram) balls and place the remaining 1/4 cup (43 grams) of chocolate chips on the top and on the sides of the dough balls. You can also roll them into 16 smaller balls but then you need to adjust the baking time (a few minutes less than recommended below). Place 4" apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press the cookies down lightly with the palm of your hand.
6. Bake for 11-14 minutes (if using coconut sugar) or 14-17 minutes (if using brown sugar) or until the surface of the center of the cookies no longer appears wet. They'll be very soft but will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.
7. Let cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

If you don't have almond flour, you could try a different type of nut flour. Unfortunately, nuts flours aren’t interchangeable with non-nut flours. I’ve heard of people using sunflower seed flour as a sub but I've never tried it and have no idea if it'd work here.

There's no sub for coconut flour.

I haven't tried these with ghee or shortening or anything other than coconut oil and butter.

I don't recommend using honey, maple syrup, date syrup, etc. They make the cookies very cakey and in my opinion, not worth making.

I don't recommend making these with peanut butter. I’ve made these so many times with homemade peanut butter (with just peanuts and salt in it) and while the cookies aren’t a disaster, I just don’t think they’re very good. The texture is so different than the almond flour version and they’re not very peanut butter-y.

Recipe Source:texanerin.com