These Almond Flour Chocolate Cookies have a deep dark chocolate flavor and a slight nuttiness. Entirely gluten-free and so easy-to-make—no mixer required.
When it comes to chocolate, I am ready to double down in any recipe. These almond flour double chocolate cookies are no exception. Cocoa powder gives them deep chocolate flavor, while chocolate chips add melty chocolate delight when you bite in. Great texture—a little chewy, and a little crumbly. And super tasty!
Table of Contents
Why Make This Recipe
- Gluten-Free but So Delicious: These chocolate almond flour cookies may be entirely gluten-free and grain-free, but you would never know it.
- Easy-to-Make: This recipe is super simple, and doesn't even require a mixer! Click on the video to see how easy it is.
- Perfect for Freezing: You can make this cookie dough in advance and freeze it. That way you can have almond flour chocolate chip cookies at a moment's notice!
🥗 Ingredients for Chocolate Almond Flour Cookies
- Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate: These cookies really shine with a good-quality chocolate. I like to use a bar that is around 70% cacao, which is in the bittersweet range. You can go sweeter if you prefer.
- Almond Flour: Almond flour is key to this recipe, making these cookies entirely gluten-free. Look for blanched almond flour rather than almond meal since almond meal is sometimes ground more coarsely than almond flour and can include almond skins. If you don't have almond flour, you can also substitute hazelnut flour for a slightly different flavor.
- Sparkling Sugar: I love to use sparkling sugar for this recipe, but if you don't have any, you could try turbinado sugar instead.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
To make these double chocolate almond flour cookies, start by melting 7 ounces of dark chocolate and 3 tablespoons of butter together in a saucepan over medium-low heat (about 3-5 minutes).
Stir frequently with a rubber spatula to make sure your chocolate doesn’t burn.
When the chocolate and butter are fully melted, scrape the mixture into a large bowl.
Whisk in ¼ cup sugar.
Whisk in an egg and continue whisking for about a minute, until fully incorporated and glossy. Now, whisk in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Then, with a wooden spoon, stir in 1 cup almond flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ½ cup mini chocolate chips.
Refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until the chocolate almond flour cookie dough firms up enough to roll into balls. This is a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
When you are ready to bake, scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball. (I love to use a spring-loaded cookie scoop for this!) Fill a small bowl with sparkling sugar, then press the top of each cookie ball into the sugar, and place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 min at 350 degrees. You will begin to smell chocolate, and the cookie tops will crack. They will still look very soft when you take them out, but they will firm up as they sit. The bottoms will burn easily, so err on the side of underdone until you know what time works for your oven. Place the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let sit for 3 minutes. Then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack.
🧐 Recipe FAQs
Yes! You can freeze both the dough and the cookies. If you want to freeze the dough, roll the dough into balls and press into sparkling sugar, as directed. Then, put the balls into a ziplock freezer bag and freeze them. Bake frozen cookie balls at 325 degrees instead of 350 and add 3-5 minutes to your baking time. You can freeze baked cookies as well. Wait for them to cool completely, then put them in a ziplock freezer bag or freezer-safe container. Separating them with parchment or waxed paper can prevent them from sticking together. Defrost in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Both cookie dough and baked cookies will last up to three months in the freezer.
Almond flour, made entirely from raw almonds, is quite healthy for you. Almonds are low in carbs and high in fiber, protein, manganese, magnesium, and Vitamin E. They are also high in omega-3 fatty acids. Adding almond flour to a recipe adds fat, which adds richness to a recipe and can extend the shelf life of your cookies.
Yes! Almond flour can be expensive, and you can save money by making it yourself. Look for blanched almonds in the grocery store (you can often find these as blanched, slivered almonds). Blitz them in a food processor until finely ground. Just make sure you stop as soon as you see the texture you want. If you grind for too long, your almond flour will turn into almond butter.
Yes! To make a vegan version of my almond flour chocolate cookies, you will need to replace the butter with a non-dairy butter substitute or with coconut oil or vegetable oil. Then replace the egg with a vegan substitute, such as a flax egg or ¼ cup applesauce. And, replace the chocolate chips with vegan chocolate chips—make sure to look for dark chocolate chips as milk chocolate chips are much harder to find in vegan form.
👩🍳 Expert Tips for Almond Flour Chocolate Cookies
Be careful that your melted chocolate/butter mixture is not too hot before you add your sugar and egg. If you have melted your chocolate and butter over medium-low heat and transferred to a new bowl, the temperature should be fine. But if the mixture is very hot to the touch, let it sit for a minute after adding the sugar. This will prevent any cooking of the egg before it is stirred in.
With almond flour cookies, waiting for your dough to firm up before you scoop it is essential. If you scoop the dough out onto your baking sheet without rolling into balls, you will get flat cookies that burn if you cook them for the suggested time. Refrigerators vary, so just wait until you can roll the cookie batter into a ball before you start (and know that the batter will harden quickly after that). If you find your batter has chilled for too long, and is too hard to work with, just let it sit out at room temperature until it softens up.
Other Delicious Almond Flour Dessert Recipes
There are so many delicious uses for almond flour, and we have a great round-up of The Best Almond Flour Cookie Recipes for your baking pleasure. But for some of our favorites, try these:
You can also make delicious muffins, like these Lemony Almond Flour Muffins , Banana Almond Flour Muffins, or Almond Flour Blackberry Muffins. Almond flour can also make a delicious crumble topping for a fruit crisp, crumble, or tart. Try it with my Peach Blueberry Crisp recipe, replacing some or all of the regular flour in the topping.
Finally, you can replace breadcrumbs with almond flour when you are making breaded chicken or fish. Watch closely though because almond flour will burn more quickly than traditional breadcrumbs. You can even use almond flour for crêpes, in combination with buckwheat flour—try this Gluten-Free Crêpes with Almond Flour recipe.
If it's chocolate that you're looking for, definitely check out my Chocolate Madeleines recipe. It calls for regular flour, but it's a fantastic cookie/cake for chocolate-lovers!
If you try this Almond Flour Double Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, we would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—we read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to us.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. We'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Almond Flour Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 7 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate 200g
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 45g
- ¼ cup sugar 55g
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond flour 100g
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips 85g
- ¼ cup sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Melt dark chocolate and butter together in saucepan over medium-low heat, about 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently with a rubber spatula to make sure chocolate doesn’t burn. When fully melted, scrape into a large bowl with the spatula.
- Whisk in sugar. Be careful that your melted chocolate/butter mixture is not too hot before the next step. If you have melted over medium-low heat and transferred to a new bowl, the temperature should be fine, but if the mixture is very hot to the touch, let it sit for a minute after you add the sugar. This will prevent the egg you add in the next step from cooking before it is incorporated into the batter.
- Whisk in egg and continue whisking for about a minute, until fully incorporated and glossy.
- Whisk in vanilla extract.
- Then, with a wooden spoon, stir in almond flour, baking powder, salt, and mini chocolate chips.
- Refrigerate for 45 minutes, or until dough firms up enough to roll into balls. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- When you are ready to bake, scoop out one generous tablespoon of filling at a time, and roll with your hands to make a ball. Fill a small bowl with sparkling sugar, and press the top of each cookie ball into the sugar, then place onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 min at 350 degrees. You will begin to smell chocolate, and the cookie tops will crack. They will still look very soft when you take them out, but they will firm up as they sit.
- Place the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let sit for 3 minutes, then remove cookies and place directly on cooling rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made these almond flour cocoa cookies, tag us @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because we'd love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Chris says
These are our favorite Christmas cookies! We are huge fans of all of your almond flour recipes.
L. says
With the price of my fave chocolate chips (Ghirardelli) skyrocketing, can I use chocolate cocoa powder instead? if so, what measurements? Thanks!
Chef Molly says
That's a good question. I've only tested this recipe with regular chocolate, not cocoa powder, so I'm not sure what measurements to suggest. You'd need to up the sugar for sure since cocoa powder is unsweetened. Maybe try making my Almond Flour Chocolate Cake instead? That uses cocoa powder, and while it does call for 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, you could leave them out, and the cake would still taste great! You'll find that recipe on my main home page of the blog or you can use the search feature to find it. If you do try the cookies with cocoa powder, I'd love to know how it turns out!
Jess says
5 star
mimi rippee says
Well this is my kind of baking! Great sounding cookies - I've printed the recipe.
Chef Molly says
Yes, my kind of baking too---easy and delicious! 🙂
Lorraine says
I really love these cookies! I made as directed but added 1/2 chopped pecans. Thanks for the great recipe!
Chef Molly says
Ooh, yummy idea to add pecans! Glad you enjoyed these. They are one of my favorite cookies!
Xxx says
These cookies turned out to be delicious, very rich. I chilled them of a way too long though (about an hour and a half) so the batter solidified and I had to put it to a microwave for 30 seconds to be able to scope it
Chef Molly says
So glad you liked this recipe! Yes, the batter definitely gets too hard to scoop fast. Good idea on using the microwave to soften it up a bit!
Shelley F. says
Baking with almond flour is something I do on a regular basis because my husband is on a starch free diet, which is more restrictive than a gluten-free diet. I can't use rice flour or any of the other alternative flours only nut flours. I'm always on the hunt for new and good tasting baked goods. Followed your recipe to a T, the cookies came out perfectly. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Chef Molly says
So glad to hear that, Shelley! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and let me know. I've also got recipes here for Almond Flour Oatmeal and Almond Flour Peanut Butter cookies, so you might want to try those too. Oooh, and my Almond Flour Chocolate Cake is my favorite! Please try it and let me know what you think.
Bunny Avila says
Hello!
Could flax eggs be used as a successful substitute for raw eggs in your recipe please? Would the ratio be the same? Would any additional adjustments be required please?
Thank you.
Chef Molly says
Hi Bunny, I haven't tried to substitute the flaxseed egg method for the regular egg in this recipe, but I think it would be fine! There's only one egg in the recipe, and you don't need to whip the egg whites or anything, so my guess is that you could just substitute 1:1 with the flaxseed/water method. If you try it, let me know how it works!
Josiah - DIY Thrill says
These chocolate cookies look so decadent, love how you used almond flour!
Chef Molly says
Thanks! They are decadent, but pretty healthy as cookies go! My favorite combination.
Jacqueline says
These are incredible! So chocolate-y and not overly sweet. I love them, and love that they are gluten free. Thank you!
Chef Molly says
So glad you like them! I feel the same way! Thanks so much for posting to let me know. 😊