For the Love of Cookies
I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t love a good cookie, and especially a chocolate chip cookie. Depending on your sources, these cookies are not only one of the most popular cookies in the United States, but in the world. No matter. Any way you cut it, they are sweet and comforting. True whether you make them with a recipe on the chocolate chip bag, or go fancy with chopped chocolate bars and a final sprinkling of flakey salt.
There are as many variations as there are bakers, and my goal is a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie that doesn’t have me comparing it to one made from wheat flour. At the same time, I didn’t want to use too many unusual ingredients. I am happy that there is no need for this almond flour chocolate chip cookie dough to spend time in the fridge before baking. And there are no complicated methods or steps, just allow the butter to soften a bit and bringing the eggs to room temperature.
Gluten-Free Choices
You can go a couple of ways with a gluten-free cookie: use a gluten-free flour blend or almond flour. Flour replacements often contain flours that aren’t as healthy for me as almond flour, so that is what I’ve used here. Since this is an Indian website and I love Indian spices, I’ve mixed in both ground cardamom and Kashmiri red chili powder. Surprisingly, neither are recognizable as themselves, but they add a lot of flavor. These cookies will be glorious without them, but I recommend that you give them a go.
Go Nuts!
I have made this recipe with pistachios, but they are not shown to their best advantage in this cookie. My two favorite nuts, pecans and macadamia nuts, work well though. Walnuts are also a favorite, but any nut (or no nuts) is a perfectly acceptable option. If you decide not to add nuts, I suggest that you double the amount of chocolate you use. And if you would like to try your hand at making your own almond flour, visit Aysegul of the blog foolproof living, to see how.
Happy cooking!
~ Alonna
PS. Do you need a guide for troubleshooting cookie baking? Tessa Arias of Handle the Heat has a helpful checklist.
See the Notes below before you cook.
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingrediants
- 1/2 cup butter ~ Slightly warmed but still firm, see Notes
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ~ Light or brown sugar, or all coconut sugar or MAKE
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar ~ Or white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg ~ At room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups almond flour ~ Not almond meal, make your own
- 1/2 cup arrowroot flour ~ Powder or starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea or table salt ~ Substitutions
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom ~ Optional, but recommended
- 1/4 teaspoon Kashmiri ground red chili ~ Optional, but recommended
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunk ~ Dark or semi-sweet
- 1/2 cup nuts ~ Pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts; if not using nuts, double the chocolate
- 1 tablespoons coarse salt ~ Optional sprinkly, e.g. Maldon salt
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring the egg to room temperature and warm butter slightly.
- In a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, add the sugar and butter and mix on medium-high for 3 to 4 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and egg and thoroughly beat together. The batter will look slightly curdled, but this is normal and will be resolved with the addition of the dry ingredients.
- In a medium-size bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together except for the nuts, if using, and the chocolate chips. Add the dry ingredients into the sugar and butter mixture. Mix together well.
- Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Shape balls of dough into your favorite cookie size. I think the ideal is 2 1/2 tablespoons (45g), about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. But this is up to your taste. Press each ball down slightly. Almond flour cookies don’t spread much, so they need a little help. Sprinkle salt if using.
- Place into the oven on a middle rack. If your cookies are on the small size, start checking them at about the 8-minute mark, turning the tray around halfway through the baking. The cookies will take between 8 and 13 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies and your oven.
- When the cookies are lightly browned all over, remove them from the oven. Gently tap the tray on the oven top if the cookies haven’t complexly flattened out. Leave on the tray to cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
Notes
- Baking Tip: The butter should be cool but not soft or the cookies can wind up being greasy. I tend to take the butter out of the fridge and cut it into small pieces. It breaks down pretty quickly with the sugar in the mixer.
- Warm the egg: drop into hot tap water for 5 minutes.
- About sugars: Brown sugar is moister than other sugars and will add some additional chewiness to a cookie that I quite like. Gemma of Bigger Bolder Baking shows you how to make your own brown sugar.
- Arrowroot powder: If you don’t have this ingredient, your almond flour chocolate chip cookies will still be good. They will have a slightly sandier or crumbly texture.
- If you prefer a soft cookie, you might try subbing some of the coconut sugar with brown sugar.
- Don’t skimp on the creaming step. The whipping of the cream and butter together helps give the cookie a nice chewiness.
- To make this cookie vegan use palm butter or shortening that you like.
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