Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This almond flour chocolate chip cookie recipe is buttery, chewy, and melt-in-your-mouth pure goodness. You wouldn’t know they’re gluten free because they taste just like classic chocolate chip cookies.

I’ve been obsessed with making the perfect chocolate chip cookies ever since I had the ones at the Apple tech campus in Austin. Apple has its own cafeteria and a bakery where they make their own desserts. Their chocolate chip cookies are what cookie dreams are made of: the best ratio of chocolate chips to dough, perfect sweetness, chewiness, and density.

Since the cost of fancy cookies adds up, I set out to make my own top-notch cookie with these standards. My recipe uses healthier ingredients, and you won’t feel guilty grabbing a second cookie. My cookie has subtle butter and vanilla scents and melted morsels of chocolate chips.

These cookies are crumbly but soft and holds its shape. It has just enough height to hold layers of chocolate chips, without being too overbearingly thick like a scone.

It’s just perfect to dip in milk. It’s sweet enough to make you want to grab another, but not too sweet that you feel gross after.

I also have a paleo friendly version of this recipe here.

Gluten-free almond flour

Almond flour is what makes the recipe gluten free. This flour has a courser texture than all-purpose flour. It is made from ground almonds and has a mildly sweet taste and a slightly nutty texture. Some people taste a mild bitterness to this flour, just like the flavor in regular almonds.

You can find almond flour in your grocery stores or even online. My favorite places to shop for ingredients at this recipe is Trader Joe’s. They have everything you need here. One of my favorite almond flour is Bob’s Red Mill superfine almond flour.

For this recipe, use superfine, blanched almond flour, then sift it with a flour sifter to mimic all-purpose flour’s fine texture.

The temperature of butter

For this recipe, do not use melted or softened butter. This will make your cookies flat.

Room temperature unsalted butter has a consistency that will make little air pockets when it’s creamed with sugar. This will make your cookies rise to perfection. Read more about creaming butter and sugar here.

I like to have the butter and the eggs out for 30 minutes to get it to rise to a level I’m happy with.

Beat or use a hand mixer to mix the butter with the sugar. This will incorporate just enough air to give the cookies a little fluff.

Since it there was not too much batter, I used my immersion blender to blend the ingredients for this step and it turned out perfect.

Brown sugar

Brown sugar gives the soft chewy goodness of this cookie. I used light brown sugar, but if you want your cookie more browned, you can use dark brown sugar. Use a 1:1 substitution.

When are the cookies ready?

It will take 12-15 minutes for the cookies to bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Use your middle rack. Every oven differs, so monitor your cookies in the oven and look for visual signs. When the crust starts to brown, you can take it out. It will continue to bake by the internal heat, causing more of the cookie to brown.

Make sure to check with a toothpick for readiness. The toothpick should not pick up any of the dough once you pierce it completely through a cookie.

It’s up to you how brown you like it. I’m happy with a light golden brown.

Tips for best results

Almond flour. Use blanched, superfine almond flour. It gives the best texture. If you can’t find that, my next best choices in order are: fine almond flour, then almond meal. The almond meal gives more of a texture, and you can tell it’s different from regular flour.

Take out eggs and butter 30 minutes before preparing batter. This will give you the best consistency of batter, which gives it the best height.

For higher-rise cookies, make sure the butter is at room temperature but not completely soft or melted. You can also freeze the dough in balls then bake it after. Frozen dough tends to retain a better shape if you bake it immediately.

Equipment Needed:

• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper, aluminum foil, or silicone mat.
• Flour sifter. I was new to this but now I can’t work without one! I like the one that pumps instead of cranking it because I can use one hand.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened (this is 1.5 regular sticks, or 6 ounces).
• 150 grams brown sugar (This is about 3/4 cup, packed).
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk.
• 310 grams blanched almond flour (about 3 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheet with sheet of choice.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until well mixed.
3. Add egg and egg yolk, vanilla extract.
4. Sift in almond flour then add salt and baking soda. Mix with a spatula until ingredients fully mixed. It should look like a doughy batter and not greasy or soft.
5. Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Optional: leave in fridge for 30 minutes or overnight to firm up. 
7. Using your tablespoon, spoon balls of cookie dough in onto prepared baking sheet or parchment paper. Make sure dough balls are spaced evenly. You’ll be making 2 batches of about 12-15 cookies each.
8. Put cookie tray in the oven in the middle rack. Bake for about 12-15 minutes (the crust will start to get golden brown).
9. Remove from oven, let the cookies cool on a cooling rack. Serve when cooled.

Storing

Store leftover cookies in airtight container, or a sealed ziplock bag in the fridge, until ready to eat.  They taste better out of the fridge, as they can get pretty sticky if they have been sitting at room temperature. If you leave them out long, you might get flat cookies.

Store balls of dough in freezer and bake it when you’re ready.

Modifications

You can use coconut sugar if you want to avoid processed sugar. This is a 1:1 ratio.

Mix in coconut flakes, walnuts, or your choice of nuts.

I like to drop a dollop of peanut butter or almond butter on top.

To get crispy edges, do half and half for white and brown sugar. When you bake them, leave them in the oven a little longer. When you see it start to brown, take it out and let it cool on a wire rack. The center of the cookie will finish baking and crisp up once it’s out of the oven.

FAQs

Can you use coconut flour?

I haven’t tried it, but the consistency would be different.

My cookie turned out very flat, how do I fix that?

It may be that your eggs and butter were too warm. Don’t overmix because this can heat up the batter and cause the butter to lose its air-pocket-forming qualities.

Chill or freeze before baking.

How to get your crumbly appearance?

It’s the scoop style. I like the texture of the cookie a little rugged, like the Earth. To do this, I do not form them into balls with my hands.

Instead, I scoop with a tablespoon scooper, then I put it directly on the sheet without smoothening the surface.