My delicious almond flour, gluten free (GF) chocolate chip cookies are just the thing you need. Honestly, I don’t think there is much else better than the humble chocolate chip cookie. This version of my chocolate chip cookie came about from my gluten free experiments for one of my best friends who is Coeliac and our pregnant + Coeliac neighbour.

These might be GF but oh my goodness are they incredible.

These cookies are a little bit crunchy on the outside, and a little bit chewy on the inside and are really quite decadent. You won’t miss the flour in them at all.

During the 2021 lockdown in Sydney, we started a little tradition on our floor by sharing some homemade goods across to spread a little bit of joy.

It’s just the beginning of 2022 and the Sydney COVID-19 situation has worsened. We are experiencing case numbers like never before and I would say 1 in 4 people around me now are positive. Now, even though we aren’t in lockdown again I figured it was the right time to restart the sharing. So that everyone on the floor could enjoy my baking, I opted for a GF treat this time around.

What do you need?

Baking Tray

Of course any amazing cookie recipe needs a standard cookie baking tray – this sheet tray from Amazon is wonderful value and is safe for temperatures up to 230 degrees Celsius. You can go a step further and get your hands on a silicone mat with marking for your cookies. These are a great investment if you ever plan on making macarons!

Is the investment worth it?

Hell yes! I’ve purchased very heap baking trays before and let me tell you straight away that they bend after exposure to prolonged heat or anything over 180 degrees Celsius. Re-shaping them is a total nightmare and you always end up with bent or out of shape baked goods because the surface doesn’t stay flat. I was once making gingerbread cookies and the tray made a large pop sound in the oven and completely bent out of shape!

So instead of buying cheap from the outset, get your hands on something good quality and durable.

Ice cream scoops

Hear me out.

The best way to get perfectly shaped and sized cookies is by using an ice cream scoop. These are the ones I own and I love that I have 3 sizes to play around with – trust me the result is just fabulous.

Stand Mixer

Whilst not necessarily essential, this is a tool that I think completely changes the way you make baked goods. Quite simply having a stand mixer will save you loads of time and effort when trying to cream or aerate anything. If you are planning to learn more about baking, or are continuing a baking journey then I highly recommend investing in one.

I use the Breville Scraper and I absolutely love it. This model is compact and really light, making it super easy to move in and out of my cupboard. This mixer is especially great for anyone without much bench space.

Ingredients

Chocolate

I typically use 70% dark chocolate for these cookies, because I find the richness of the chocolate just complements the nutty flavour of the almond flour in these cookies. Now by all means use whichever chocolate you wish, but for gluten free cookies I always use Lindt chocolate (I often buy the chocolate in bulk because I bake so often!) Ultimately any brand is fine as long as you check the back for any trace elements of gluten!

The rustic look of chopped up chocolate bars in baking is something I absolutely adore! You could absolutely use chocolate chips instead – I’m just a sucker for the random shapes.

Almond Flour

Also known as almond meal, this is the crux of this recipe. The almond meal is what makes the recipe incredibly flavourful, a little bit crispy, and yet super chewy and light. This is one of those recipes where the almond flour is just perfect – you don’t need to go substituting this out with anything else.

In Australia, I always go for Macro Almond Meal, or alternatively there are some great options available through Amazon.

Butter

Now whilst this recipe is Gluten Free, it is absolutely not vegan. There is PLENTY of butter (140g to be exact) and it is what makes these cookies golden, a bit sweet on the edges and just plain delicious. I’m fully aware that this is a lot of butter – but a treat so delicious must only be totally indulgent.

In regards to the butter, get your hands on the unsalted kind. This recipe has some salt added to the batter so you will not miss it! Make sure the butter is completely softened at room temperature before creaming with the sugar.

If you want to make the recipe vegan, you can substitute it with some almond butter (in place of the egg!) and coconut oil. The almond butter will give you a richer result that is more similar to that of butter, which you cannot quite achieve with coconut oil alone.

Egg

1 egg at room temperature. This is so critical to the recipe! Usually, unless otherwise stated, if a recipe calls for eggs or butter they are always to be used at room temperature.

The temperature makes a massive difference to the result. When I started out baking I never really paid much attention to the temperature and would just use eggs and butter straight from the fridge. This piece by Sally’s Baking Addiction (you should 100% check out her page especially if you are learning about baking!) is great if you want to understand more about the impacts of temperature

Vanilla Extract

Another standard for baking, is vanilla extract. For perfect baking and flavour balance, do get your hands on some quality stuff. I love using Heilala Baking Blend Vanilla Extract (from New Zealand and it’s beautiful!) or the classic Queen Vanilla Extract.

A lot of people try to make do with imitation vanilla – please don’t!

Brown & White sugar

Yes we need both in this recipe! This is another major element to nailing that crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside texture. Brown sugar lends a beautifully caramel flavour due to the molasses content, and the white sugar offers the overall balance to the sweetness.

Baking soda

Now THIS is possibly the most important ingredient in these cookies to get the right texture. Baking soda helps to create that beautiful crispy texture for the cookie. It might seem like a lot in this recipe, but remember that in the absence of flour and gluten, you need a bit more of the soda to react with the egg and other recipes in order for the cookies to spread nicely.

Let’s make these cookies

So we start quite simple with the cookies.

As always pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare the middle rack. Also prepare 2-3 baking trays with baking paper.

Start by creaming together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar for at least 4 minutes until smooth, light and fluffy. This is where having a stand mixer comes in super handy! If you are going to attempt this by hand, you will need easily 10 minutes of good strong beating.

Follow this with the egg and vanilla, and continue to cream for another 4 minutes until the mixture is homogenous and smooth. This process of creaming together the ingredients adds air to the recipe and keeps the cookie light and most importantly gives you that lovely chewy texture.

In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda and salt. I recommend using a whisk to break apart any lumps in the bowl which will make combining the final cookie dough so much easier.

When the wet ingredients are ready, add a spoonful of the dry ingredients at a time and fold this through. Once one spoonful is just combined, add another and continue until the dry ingredients are all in the bowl. Only mix until just combined.

You actually have a little more grace with this recipe as there is no gluten. Ordinarily, over mixing flour based batters/doughs would result in the gluten developing. Unless you rest the batter/dough for a few hours, the end result is always a very dry and tough baked good. The almond flour in the recipe helps in that you don’t really get this action.

That doesn’t mean you go ahead and overbeat – ultimately the heat and friction will result in the oils from the almond flour being released which will spoil the batter balance. The key is to fold until just combined.

Now it’s time to use your ice cream scoop to spoon out the mixture onto the baking tray. Arrange each dough ball an inch or so away from each other depending on the size of your cookie. Test this by flattening one of the dough balls and estimating the radius, now make sure your next dough ball is this distance away. Flatten out all the dough balls and if you want an additional hit of salt, sprinkle over some sea salt before placing the tray in the oven.

These cookies will take about 8-12 minutes to cook. Make sure you rotate the tray half way through the bake. Now, these cookies are done when they turn a beautiful shade of golden brown. Once they have browned, remove them from the oven. Keeping them in for longer will result in some burnt edges and no one likes that!

And that is it!

Serve these fresh from the oven with some tea, coffee or even to sandwich some ice cream. Delicious!

Here is the recipe card

I hope you all enjoy these cookies as much as I loved making them and sharing them around. For me cookies represent giving and sharing! A big batch of cookies simply means cookies for the neighbours, or my team at work, or a party. I love whipping up some to show my love for those around me – and we all need some love every now and then 🙂

I love to see your photos of my recipes so be sure to send them in to me via Instagram @theminiaturelife and of course please leave me a comment too. You can check out more of my baking right here.

Want some more cookie recipes? Try out my delicious Masala Chai Cookies or my favourite Tim Tam Cookies. Or with ANZAC day coming up, why not make the very best ANZAC cookies ever?

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Please note that I’ve linked to these products purely because I recommend them and they are from companies I trust. There is no additional cost to you.