Chocolate Chip Cookies
Update: For those of you looking for a dairy-free version, try my other chocolate chip cookie recipe which uses grapeseed oil instead of butter.
These cookies are good and good for you. Gluten free, naturally sweetened, yum. Go ahead, try one.
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour *
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup dark chocolate chips 73% cacao
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Stir together wet ingredients in a smaller bowl
- Mix wet ingredients into dry
- Form 1¨ balls and press onto a parchment lined baking sheet
- Bake at 350° for 7-10 minutes
- Cool and serve
Posted on March 20, 2007 in desserts by Elana
other entries you may like: Video Tutorials: Chocolate Chip Cookies
or Dairy Free, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies!
or White Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Before you leave a comment...
"Check out Elana's FAQ page for info on substitutions -- there are just too many possibilities so she can't answer all of these : ) But the Forums are an excellent resource and I highly recommend posting your substitution questions there; everyone is friendly and helpful." -Katie
I made the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from the Denver Post. Called for grapeseed oil, not butter. It was a flop--thin, spread out cookies that never held form, greasy on base. Used Bob's Red Mill Almond Meal/flour, from blanched whole almonds. Any suggestions as to what went wrong?
I made my cookies with grape-seed oil, Alana's recipe, and turned out incredible! Alana, do you know a fat or calorie count for these cookies? I made mine gluten and dairy free. Any info would be amazing. I love love love how the cookies turned out and have turned so many people to loving these recipes! Incredible! Thank you thank you thank you!
I use sparkpeople.com - I add my recipe to the site & it figures the calories, fat & such.
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for your comment. This has actually happened to me once before with this recipe --although I have made it literally hundreds of times.
Did you take the almond flour straight from the fridge? Was it cold? When I have done this the cookies turn out like yucky little pancakes, just the way you describe.
Another possibility would be the type of salt you were using; I have had friends report less than good results when using kosher salt.
Can you give me some more hints? I would like to help you out with this and want you to have cookie success.
Elana
hi elana - i do love the cookies and they're so easy to make. there are two chocolate chip cookie recipes; one calls for 10tbl of butter and 1c chocolate chips and the other calls for 1/2c grapeseed oil and 1/2c chocolate chips. which do you recommend?
Hi Reveka -Thanks for stopping by. Since I am now on a DF eating plan I would say go with the recipe calling for grapeseed oil and less chips --that's the staple in our house these days. :-)
I recently made ginger cookies with almond flour/meal instead of all purpose flour (swapped 1:1 in a recipe), with the result being that they tasted great, but never firmed up. In fact, each ball melted into the next one until it turned into one giant sheet of cookies. Could this be because I used almond flour instead of AP flour, or maybe because I used butter instead of shortening (again, swapped 1:1)?
David-
Sounds like you are getting some experience in experimenting with recipes. This takes a lot of practice and patience. I don't have any formulas --I just keep trying again and again until I get it right!
Elana
Hello Elana! I am in Florida at the moment visiting my mother. My mother and I try to get away one week out of the year for a beach trip. No husbands, just us girls. I just saw my grandparents which is a very rare occasion. My nanny is so intrigued by the natural products I brought with me... almond flour, agave, sea salt, etc. Last night my nanny and I stayed up late making your chocolate chip cookies together. This was such a special moment for me. I couldn't have made this connection with her had it not been for your website. I am sure she will not be around very much longer. Her health is fading quickly. We just laughed, tasted and had an incredible evening. As I disappeared to get ready for bed I came back into the kitchen to cover the cookies. The cookies had quickly gone from a whole pan to a plate full... My papa just sat in the recliner with a big smile on his face. Apparently he enjoyed them, too! Thanks so much. I will connect with you again soon.
Courtney
Hi Courtney,
I'm so glad that you and your family enjoyed the cookies. I always love your comments, and even more so now that I had the opportunity to meet you in person!
xo Elana
I recently found this site and am drooling over the recipes I've not tried yet. My concern is that I'm a type 1 Diabetic/Celiac on an insulin pump and keep track of ALL my carbohydrates and Calories. Is there a way for me to decipher what they are in your recipes?
Thanks so much!
Lynn
Lynn,
I don't have a solution for you currently; however if you look at my FAQ's, you will find a link where nutrition info can be calculated online.
Thanks,
Elana
Hi! i just wanted to know if you could use coconut oil instead of the grapeseed oil, and whole wheat flour?
I usually use coconut oil or coconut ghee in Elana's recipes and they come out fabulous.
Alenia,
I'm not sure as I haven't tried coconut oil instead of grapeseed oil.
If you decide to experiment, feel free to share you results here or open up a topic in the forums.
For more info on substitutions in my recipes, please see my FAQ.
Thanks,
Elana
Hello Elana!
I am so thrilled to have found your site! I eat almost EXACTLY like you do and it seems that we both went through the process of elimination in order to feel healthier. Along with having Celiac disease, I do not/can not eat grains, dairy, soy, anything in the nightshade family (potato, tomato, cucumber, eggplant, etc), peanuts, food additives like guar gum, garlic, and I just gave up sugar for agave nectar. I am starting to experiment with coconut flour, almond flour, and agave nectar now and have found your website to be enormously helpful! Also, I am interested in the raw food movement, but truthfully, I don't think I can easily give up fish, turkey, eggs... Thank you so much for validating my own very strange food elimination journey and making me feel that I am not alone in this! What made you have up grains/sugar, etc? I am so interested in knowing your story! Please tell us more!! Thank you again!
Hello Elana!
As many others, I am so glad to have found your site. I enjoy baking, and making tasty treats for the girls at work, but I am also on a gluten free, sugar free diet... I made these cookies last night, and they turned out FABULOUS!! I used carob chips instead of chocolate chips, and used only 6 tablespoons of butter with one table spoon of olive oil. I also wasn't sure if almond flour and ground almonds was the same thing, but I used ground almonds and it worked out perfectly. It even gave them a nice fluffy texture. A tip to anyone who loves "squishy" things as much as i do.. I left them in the oven for 7 minutes, let them sit for about 10-15 minutes, then put them in an airtight container until i brought them to work today. They were super squishy and soft. Everyone was amazed how tasty, healthy and soft they were!! Thanks for the great recipes! The banana cake will be next on my list to try!
Jen
Jill - Thanks so much for your kind words! You can find out more about my story in the about page, in my post The Joy of Food and also in my forthcoming cookbook (slated for publication Fall 2009).
Jen - I'm glad you liked the cookies and appreciate your letting us know your results. So great that you took chances with the recipe and experimented to make your own special squishy cookies.
[...] http://www.elanaspantry.com/2007/03/20/chocolate-chip-cookies/ [...]
[...] http://www.elanaspantry.com/2007/03/20/chocolate-chip-cookies/ [...]
HI Elana,
All I can say is WOW these cookies are amazing my whole family loved them, when I was diagnosed a few months ago all I wanted was just one good recipe for a good chocolate chip cookie and I have it now, I dont do sugar or dairy so this makes it even better. Thank you so much for all your time in the kitchen your a joy to create wonderful food and then bless others. your awesome! I cant wait to buy your cook book. Rhonda
Rhonda,
Thanks for your comment. I'm so glad you like the cookies.
Elana
Elana, thanks so much for the yummy recipe! I love chocolate chip cookies...especially when they are made with dagoba chocolate!!! And these ones are gluten-free to boot **sigh**! We are very proud to have your recipe included in this week's FoodieView Recipe Roundup. Thanks again!
Michele,
Thank you for posting this recipe on FoodieView; you have a great site!
Elana
Hi Elana,
Just wanted to let you know how absolutely scrumptious these cookies are, very much a childhood comfort food.
I used 1/2 cup melted coconut oil instead of butter or grapeseed oil and they turned out delicious. I also substituted Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. They were crun-chewy just the way I, my family, co-workers and friends like them!
Thank you so much for your wonderful yet simple recipes. I really like how practical you are.
Debra
Debra,
Thanks so much for your comment. So glad to hear that you are enjoying these cookies --they are a favorite of mine.
Elana
Hi Elana, these cookies have become a favorite of our whole family of 8, including those who have no special dietary needs. We prefer just a little less butter and use the sunspire barley malt chocolate chips as my daughter cannot have cane sugar at all. I recently made the rule that any goodie made in our house had to be edible by all family members. My 10yo son had a birthday Tuesday and he wondered what he could pick that everyone could have. I told him not to worry, that whatever he picked I would adapt for everyone. Well, he chose carrot cake and cookie dough ice cream. Carrot cake, no problem, cookie dough ice cream? That took a little more thought. My teenage daughters came up with the solution. They made homemade vanilla ice cream sweetened with agave (we can do dairy but I would use cashew cream ice cream if we didn't) and they made your cc cookie dough and froze it raw in small blobs on a cookie sheet. Since there are no eggs we didn't have to worry about safety concerns of raw dough. When the ice cream was frozen but still soft, we stirred in the blobs of dough and ate it up. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD! What a treat. Give it a try for a really gourmet ice cream. Thanks so much for all the work you put into this blog.
Kathleen,
Oh my goodness, this sounds amazing. We have used the cookies to make ice cream sandwiches, however this sounds even better! Yum and thanks for sharing.
Elana
Elana,
OMG!! I just made these cookies last night and I can't belive how incredibly delicious they are! Even better than traditional butter/flour/sugar cookies!
I'm 41 and just a few months ago found out that I have food allergies. The main ones being milk/casein and sesame seeds, to a lesser extent, corn, soy, wheat and peanuts. Obviously they are not severe, but they were enough to cause my overall unhealthy feeling, the symptoms I experienced were low grade depression, stomach cramps, constant headaches and hayfever. They had been getting progressively worse as I got older. It's amazing how good I feel now that I have been eliminating dairy and limiting the other problem foods, even avoiding them altogether when I can.
I took you're recommendation and bought a 5# bag of almond flour from Honeyville and although I don't have Celiac's, I still want to avoid wheat as much as possible. I'm even going to try and make my own bread :-)
Getting back to those cookies! What a joy to know that I can have my sweets with alternative, healthier ingredients AND have them taste good! Now I just need a really good brownie recipe. I've tried a few vegan ones and they're okay, but not great. Do you know of any?
Thank you so much for this website, I'm so glad I stumbled upon it!
-tracey
tracey,
So glad you found us over here. I would recommend trying my blondies recipe for now, my forthcoming book from Ten Speed Press will have a brownies recipe.
Elana
i substituted carob chips (since i am allergic to chocolate) and these turned out amazing! my husband has been a little cookie monster with them! lol
April,
Glad to hear it!
Elana
Hi Elana,
I am so glad to have found your website! Like you, I love 101cookbooks and have been making lots of Heidis's recipes for several months. I am not allergic to wheat/gluten, but my best friend here is. We both love food and cooking and although she uses a special gluten free white flour in baking, I will be happy to use a healthier and higher in protein almond flour. I am in Berlin and can't get 'blanched almond flour' per se, but reading the website, I found a little Asian shop that carries ground up blanched almonds. Can't wait to bake these cookies for my friend Vendula!
Thanks so much.
Elana
(yes, I also like your name :)
[...] you I am health nut, so I challenge you to try some healthy cooking. This weekend, I made my own gluten-free cookies. Healthy doesn’t necessarily mean fat free/low carb, it means health smart. Removing certain [...]
Elana,
You are the third Elana (who spells it our way) that I have met through this blog :-)
I'm glad you found some ground, blanched almonds at the Asian shop and hope you and Vendula like these cookies.
Thanks,
Elana
Made these cookies today with all your recommended ingredients and I was very careful about measuring and they turned out very runny. Do you ever cool the dough first - or maybe I should use a little less butter? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Becky -Try packing your cups of almond flour when you are measuring. I'm sorry for the inconvenience of this recipe not turning out and am happy to help you! Let me know how it goes, ok?
[...] cookies are loosely based on a gluten-free recipe from Elana’s Pantry. My goal was to make wheat-free chocolate chip cookies. I wound up with oat [...]
Hi Elana, my sister intoduced me to this site, it's very interesting & thanks but i don't need gluten free so do u have a section where u have 'normal' recipies, cos in our country some or ur ingrediets r hard 2find.
Thanks
Renance,
Thank you for your comment. I do have a recipes page you can browse through. You can also look at my FAQ's for the answer to your question and more.
Elana
Hi Elana,
I am a Type 2 diabetic and cooking/baking with coconut and/or almond flour sounds great! I just received my package of almond flour and immediately made your chocolate chip cookies...simply awesome! I substituted your dark choco chips with the low carb "Simply Lite" dark chocolate from Trader Joe's (cut up into small chunks).
Thank you for your recipes...can't wait for your book to come out!
You're welcome Cynthia!
Elana, Thank you!
I have been looking for a recipe for Dark Choc Chip cookies that uses Agave!! This is a great recipe. However, I really don't like the taste of almond flour, so I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead. They turned out wonderfully! Also, you can make a choc-choc version by adding 1T of baking choc powder. They are delicious! Thank you soo much for sharing this!!
ps- how'd you know the perfect amount of Agave to add? I have trouble with this in some of my recipes. Thanks again!
Thanks Colleen, so glad you liked 'em. Lots of experimenting, that's how :-)
Hi Elana, I've found that these cookies don't rise well, but I'm at 600 ft above sea level and Boulder is a LOT higher than that. Have others told you that doubling the baking soda helps us low landers make puffier cookies? By the way, I love almond and coconut flours and your recipies are wonderful. These flours are so much healthier than sorghum or other alternative grain type flours!
Oh my gosh! These cookies are so delicious! I've been making a batch of them every couple of days ever since I read the recipe a 3 weeks ago. I started adding 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the mix, adds a little spice to it. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Hi Elana
You had mentioned somewhere that you previously had made your own almond flour but you used so much you couldn't keep up.
I am buying either a Total Blender from Blendtec or a Vita-Mix and would like to make my own flour. I would love instructions on how you make it.
Thanks!
Karalee
[...] If you need gluten free cookies, heres my favorite from Elanas Pantry [...]
Hi! Love the site! Am planning to attempt to make these cookies, but wanted to know if you have tried subing stevia for the agave nectar? I am a little nervous about trying it since the mass and textures of the two are so different. Is the texture of the agave pertinent to the outcome of the cookies?
YEA!!!!!!!! Finally a Choc chip Cookie I could EAT.. I loved them... thank you...Love the Book.. I am doing the Julie and Julia..concept... making a new recipe from your book every night...super yum.. I have been struggling with all kinds of different gluten free recipes since Feb 2009..and boy it has been a challenge...so thank you..
[...] afternoon hunger was satisfied with Elana’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. She had baked a box full and thankfully was sharing them. The glasses of water were just not [...]
Amazing!
I used honey in place of agave as I live in VT and that just makes more sense for me. I also used milk in place of the vanilla and only 7 T of butter.
They were great! My bf gave them a 10 out of 10!
Thanks so much Elana. I have not had a cookie in well over a year. You made my night :)
Hi there,
I am just wondering if I could use coconut flour for this recipe instead of the almond flour...Is that possible?
Thanks!!
These cookies were SOOOOOOO good! I couldn't stop eating them! We made them with the butter recipe instead of grapeseed oil, and they tasted wonderful. Thank you Elana for making a chocolate chip cookie recipe that tastes just as wonderful as the wheat version. Our family loves your website and I love telling people about it! No one ever understands what exactly we CAN eat, so I like to point them in the direction of your site, because the food on here doesn't make our diet look like a restriction, but a blessing! :) Thank you!
Wow! My daughter and I just made these and they are delicious!
WOW! I just made these cookies (literally, the last batch is finishing up) with Earth Balance instead of butter and Bob's All Purpose Flour w/Xanthan Gum instead of almond flour (I couldn't get any this quickly) ... these are AMAZING. I cannot stop eating them. Thank you so much for making a wonderful, healthy indulgence!
Hello,
I made a rendition of these cookies When I taught a cooking class for 4 year olds yesterday, and they LOVED them! I omitted the chocolate chips and made little sandwich cookies with almond butter and fruit-sweetened jam and it was a total hit. Thanks so much for all of your great recipes.
Emily
I just made these and they were so good! I did make a few alterations to suit my needs...I substituted honey instead of agave (used a little less than original amount), added 1 egg, and 1 TBSP coconut flour and they turned out very nice. Thanks for your wonderful website! I can't wait to try more of your recipes! :)
I notice you use 78% Cocoa chocolate (I believe this has sugar in it still). I am completely sugar,soy,dairy and gluten free. I use Agave as a sweetner. Is there a chocolate out there I can use that is free of all this that would not be too bitter?
These were wonderful, my girlfriend is insulin resistant and I'm celiac, these were the perfect cookie for us! We always made cookies for one and now we can both enjoy them. We just substituted honey for agave nectar and they came out amazing!
This is a great, great recipe. My family loves them and we all dont have sensitivities, etc.
Anyhow, I am wondering if you have any insight how I can mimic a "Nestle Toll House Pie" along the lines of this recipe.
Wife's birthday is coming....
I just found your website this week, and had to make these chocolate chip cookies. They were SOOOO good! I used half maple syrup and half coconut sugar, a little too sweet, but my husband loved them. I also used homemade almond flour, which is not as fine as the flours you recommend, next time I will try it with the almond flour brands you suggest. I think maybe next time I will try it with stevia also. I love your website, there are so many good recipes that are actually really healthy. Thanks for all the work you do, so that everyone else can benefit from it. We really appreciate what you do! Thanks!
I was wondering Elana if you could provide the gram weight or oz. weight for your 2 1/2 cups of Blanched Almond Flour for your Chocolate Chip Cookies. Not knowing if I should pack it tightly or just let it fall into the cup loosely is always a problem for me. If you could weigh the 2 1/2 cups of Almond Flour you use when making these cookies, we would all then know the correct measurement in weight. I know this would be very helpful for me as I always weigh my dry ingredients for consistency when baking. I love your book and have made many recipes from it and all are excellent. Thank You.
Elana does answer this over at the forums:
http://www.elanaspantry.com/forums/topic/almond-flour-help-no-success#post-702
:-)
Jessica, Thanks so much for replying to my question for Elana. I will use her 4oz. per cup of almond flour measurement and see if I get good results. Do you measure your flour by weight or just eyeball it? Just curious. Thanks Again, Joanne
Can you substitute ghee instead of the butter??
Elana-
these are amazing. is there any way to make them with a sugar substitute instead of the agave? i have insulin resistance and using the almond flour is great but adding the agave nectar really limits me. what would you recommend? thank you so much!
These cookies are delicious! Everyone that tried my batch of cookies just absolutely loved them. They taste better than the recipe I (and probably most of us)have been using for years using white flour and sugar. I love your site and appreciate your healthy recipes.
[...] recipe was a special request from The Husband. He was craving chocolate chip cookies, so I made Elana’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re made with almond flour, agave syrup, and dark chocolate. I had to go pick up [...]
I have made these several times now. I sub the agave with maple syrup (grade B) and use almond MEAL from Trader Joe's, but only 2C and 1/2C br. rice flour...these are SO much better then cookies I have been eating for years! I crave these constantly!
[...] the next post, I attempt Elana’s (from Elana’s Pantry) chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour and agave [...]
[...] Recipe Maker Romantic Valentine’s Day Meal Suggestions | Reluctant Gourmet100+ Cheap Valentine’s Day Ideas / Money WatchAll type of RECIPES!.. What's Your Favorite Romantic Dessert? | ModernDomesticRomantic And Valentine’s Day Recipes Cookbook. |Valentine's Day Chocolate Candy | Green & Black's Organic Chocolate — Food and Recipe Blog Planning a Romantic Dinner for Valentine’s Day | Part 2Chocolate Chip Cookies - Gluten Free Recipes | Elana's Pantry [...]
[...] snap peas; almond flour Rosemary Crackers (recipe from elanaspantry.com); water; 3 almond-flour chocolate chip cookies (my recipe is adapted from one at [...]
[...] on the healthy side, and still be happy, as long as it’s close enough. And I love almonds, so this gluten-free, chocolate chip cookie recipe is perfect for me (and the Big Man). He loves these almost as much as I [...]
Do you know how many calories would be in each cookie??
[...] worry about feeding him sugar and flour, though, so I was thrilled to find this recipe for chocolate chip cookies at the blog, Elana’s Pantry. Elana wrote “The Gluten-Free Almond [...]
Elana, I loved this recipe! You can see the results here: http://bit.ly/au0BdN They're not as pretty as your cookies, but boy, were they good. Thank you for sharing this. Hubby is very happy, and I am happy that I could deliver a "guilt-free" dessert. Looking forward to more from your cookbook and your blog.
[...] 12. Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies – These cookies are good and good for you. Gluten free, naturally sweetened, yum. Go ahead, try one. From Elanas Pantry [...]
My 21 year old son is on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I stumbled across your website and decided to try these cookies. We had to leave out the chocolate chips and substitute honey for the agave nectar. These cookies are possibly the BEST thing we've tried since starting the diet. We literally jumped up and down saying "These taste like real COOKIES!" I'm definitely sending him back to college with plenty of these! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Just tried these tonight for the first time. Halved the recipe since I'm making some substitutions and didn't want to ruin a whole batch! But they turned out great! I used ghee instead of the melted butter (really, hardly a substitution) because even though I'm sensitive to all milk proteins, I tolerate the oil of the butter just fine. Also subbed maple syrup (mine is an organic Grade B). Since I like salt with chocolate, doubled the salt (so in my half recipe, the final amount stayed the same as yours listed above). I also doubled the baking soda because I didn't think it would make much difference and I didn't want to use another measuring spoon (I'm lazy!) The dough looked pretty runny so I added another quarter cup or so of the almond meal. I'm using the organic version from Benefit Your Life. My cookies ended up a bit puffier than yours and not quite so dark, but I love them! Soft and chocolatey good! Thanks!