These classic gluten free chocolate chip cookies are deliciously rich and thick, with slightly crisp brown edges and the perfect chewy center. They really are the best you'll find!
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What makes these “the best” cookies?
It's entirely possible that you already have a recipe for classic gluten free chocolate chip cookies that you think is already the best. But I'm here to tell you, these are better.
This recipe is a version of the thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies that I was small-f famous for, long before I started baking gluten free for my son (and you) in 2004. In fact, I'd been making them for years before that.
They're the best because:
- Perfect texture: They're thick and chewy, just crisp enough on the edges that they have a super satisfying bite.
- Depth of flavor: Especially when you chill the cookie dough before baking it, these cookies have rich, complex flavor that goes way beyond a ton of vanilla extract.
- Consistency: If you follow the recipe closely, they never fail. You'll never have cookies that spread into each other in the oven.
- Adaptable: Replace all or some of the chips with chopped walnuts or pecans; use almond extract in place of vanilla; make them with vegan butter. They still turn out amazing!
Recipe ingredients
- Gluten free flour blend: Any of my recommended gluten free flour mixes will do, especially Better Batter or Nicole's Best. If you use Nicole's Best, be sure to add a bit more than 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum, but Better Batter already has xanthan gum so you'd leave out that ingredient. I'm afraid you can't use Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour or any of the others I recommend against. They have gritty rice flour and aren't properly balanced for good results.
- Baking soda: Neutralizes the acid in the brown sugar, and helps browning in the oven. We don't use baking powder here because we aren't use the leavener for rise. Baking soda is activated immediately and only once as soon as it gets wet, and we chill the cookie dough, so once the cookies go in the oven, the baking soda has completed its active phase.
- Salt: Balances the sweetness and enhances the other flavors in the cookies.
- Granulated (white) sugar: Adds sweetness and tenderness.
- Light brown sugar: Adds more sweetness and tenderness, some more moisture, and the depth of flavor that makes chocolate chip cookies taste different than butter cookies and sugar cookies. Be sure to break up any lumps with a fork, the back of your spoon, or your fingertips or you'll have caramel-type pockets in the cookies.
- Butter: Adds moisture, tons of flavor, helps the cookies brown in the oven and helps create crispy edges and chewy centers. Be sure it's at room temperature so it blends properly with the dry ingredients.
- Eggs: Adds rise and binds the cookies together. Just be sure they're at room temperature or they'll make the butter clump.
- Vanilla: Adds the type of depth of flavor that we expect from chocolate chip cookies
- Chocolate chips: You can use whatever gluten free-friendly chocolate chips are your favorite. I usually use the dark chocolate chips from Trader Joe's because they're inexpensive, a bit larger in size and taste amazing. But you can use whatever you like best.
How to make gluten free chocolate chip cookies
Whisk the dry ingredients
Whisk together the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already have it, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar). Add the brown sugar last, and use a fork to break up lumps in it.
Add the wet ingredients & chocolate chips
Add the softened butter, beaten eggs, and vanilla extract into the dry instead of creaming the butter first. Then add the chocolate chips and mix to distribute the chips throughout the cookie dough.
Shape the raw cookie dough
Scoop the prepared raw cookie dough using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop, for easy shaping, roll into a ball between your palms, and then press into a disk. Before baking, chill the cookie dough for best results (but you don't have to!).
Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes
After you've (hopefully!) chilled the cookie dough, bake the cookies just until they're beginning to brown on the edges and they're mostly set in the center. Let them settle for a minute and then serve warm!
Recipe tips & tricks
This recipe is incredibly easy, and it's fairly forgiving, too, making it perfect for beginner gluten free bakers as well as seasoned baking pros. But no matter your experience, there are some tips and tricks that can help you make these gluten free cookies perfect the first time and every time.
Chill the cookie dough for at least 12 hours
I know this is not what anyone wants to hear, because this is a simple recipe that should produce quick, easy, delicious home-baked gf cookies in minutes! If you want your cookies to stay thick, you'll need to chill them at least until they're cold.
And if you want the cookies to have that beautiful caramel flavor that the best chocolate chip cookies have, you'll need to chill them for at least 12 hours. You might be craving a chocolate chip cookie right now, but trust me, this step makes all the difference!
Add a range of chocolate chips, to taste.
You'll notice that there is actually a range of chocolate chips that you can add to this recipe. You begin with 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and you can add up to another 4 ounces for a total of 16 ounces, or 1 full pound.
It's really a matter of personal taste (how many chips are you hoping for in each and every bite?). But, be aware that if you add more than about 14 ounces of chips, the cookies will be less likely to keep their perfect shape during baking.
Use a silicone spatula to press the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
In this recipe, when you're mixing the eggs, butter, and vanilla into the dry ingredients in the cookie dough, begin by mixing the wet ingredients together in the center, and then draw the dry ingredients into the wet by pressing the back of a silicone spatula firmly into the wet ingredients.
This will hydrate the dry ingredients more slowly, making it easier to create a smooth, uniform gf cookie dough. Remember, we want to keep our cookie dough as consistent as possible so each bite will be perfectly chewy and delicious!
Add a few more chocolate chips
If you're rolling your cookie dough, and you feel like you just can't see enough chocolate chips, go ahead and add a few more to each of the cookie dough balls. The number of chocolate chips you add is up to you, but don’t forget that the more densely packed your dough is with chips, the less likely it will keep its perfect shape.
Popular ingredient substitutions
This recipe for gluten free chocolate chip cookies is easy—and it's pretty forgiving. That's what makes it one of my most popular gluten free desserts. It also means you can make some substitutions and still get really great, tasty gluten free cookies.
Dairy free chocolate chip cookies
I have successfully made this recipe with Spectrum healthy vegetable shortening (an affiliate link) in place of butter, and they come out beautifully. They don't brown as much in the oven, but they're still crisp on the edges. Keep in mind that shortening will get very hard in the refrigerator, so be sure to shape the dough before chilling it or you won't be able to shape it at all.
Avoid using vegan spreads as, like margarine, these will cause your gluten free chocolate chip cookies to spread excessively during the bake. Melt & Miyoko's Creamy brand vegan butters also work very well.
Egg free chocolate chip cookies
You can try replacing the two eggs in this recipe with a “chia egg” each (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).
These are such simple cookies that the texture may not be the same when you make such an important substitution, but it's definitely worth trying. If you do try this method, let us know how it worked in the comments section below!
If you'd like to make a recipe that is written to be dairy-free and egg-free, try our vegan gluten free chocolate chip cookies recipe.
FAQs
Yes! Both the shaped dough and the cookies themselves freeze perfectly. I almost always have a batch of the cookies themselves and a batch of the cookie dough disks in my freezer.
You can bake them right from frozen, but if you plan to do that, I recommend pressing the raw disks of cookie dough flatter since they'll spread less if you bake them from frozen. You'll also need to add at least another 2 minutes to the baking time.
Yes, you must chill the dough at least briefly, so the cookies hold their shape during baking. For better flavor, shape, and texture, you should consider chilling the dough for 12 hours.
Store them at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 3 days. From there, you can keep them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. For longer storage, freeze them in a freezer-safe ziptop bag for up to 3 months.
You might be able to make them with a sugar substitute. I recommend trying Lankato brand monk fruit granulated sugar replacement for the granulated sugar and their “golden” variety as a replacement for the brown sugar. You can also replace the brown sugar with coconut sugar one-for-one. Those sugar alternatives do tend to be drying, though, so you may need to add water by the half-teaspoonful as necessary to achieve the proper cookie dough consistency. Watch the video carefully before trying the swap.
The best gluten free flour for these chocolate chip cookies is a high-quality gluten free flour blend. I've most often used Better Batter here, but check out my gluten free flour guide for more detail. Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour blends simply won't work here, I'm afraid. The quality is too inconsistent and the rice flour is gritty.
There are several reasons why your gluten free chocolate chip cookies might be dry and crumbly:
1. You didn't let them cool and firm on the baking sheet for long enough after baking. They're fragile at first.
2. You didn't use enough xanthan gum, or any at all.
3. You used a poor-quality all purpose gluten free flour blend that uses gritty rice flour and/or is just poorly balanced so nothing you make with it will turn out as intended.
4. Your butter was too cold when you made the cookie dough, so it never got fully mixed into the cookie dough, leaving it in big pockets here and there. Next time, refer to our “finger in the butter” test above to check that yours is at the right temperature.
5. You mistakenly over-measured the flour. It's very easy to do when you measure by volume, not weight.
If your gluten free chocolate chip cookies are flat, it could be because the butter was melted or just too greasy when you made the cookie dough, or your cookie dough was too warm for another reason when you put your batch in the oven. Remember, your cookie dough must be at least cold before it goes in the oven or the fat will melt too quickly, leading to flat cookies. So, don’t forget how the warmth of your kitchen can affect the final result of your cookies
I get the best results with xanthan gum, but if you're really set on baking gluten free chocolate chip cookies, or really any gluten free recipes without it, here are some potential alternatives:
– Guar gum (although it's better in cold applications; xanthan gum is better for heated recipes, like this one)
– Konjac powder (this is by far the most promising xanthan gum substitute)
Yes, the 12 ounces of chocolate chips called for in the recipe is about 2 cups in volume. So if you reduce the chips by ½ a cup, you can add ½ a cup of nuts. What type of nuts you add is up to you, but I think the following nuts would work best here:
– Pecans
– Walnuts
– Hazelnuts
– Almonds
– Macadamia nuts
Or a mix of a few! Roughly chop the nuts to a similar size as the chocolate chips (but not too small!) before adding them to the cookie dough.
Depending on which type of dried fruit you want to add to your cookies, replace a quarter of the measurement for the chocolate chips with dried fruit. I don’t recommend harder dried fruit like banana, peach or apricot but berries would work well here. Cranberries, goji berries or raisins are probably the best substitutions.
When choosing your dried fruit, read the packaging carefully to make sure it is entirely gluten free and hasn’t been processed with gluten or exposed to gluten in any way.
Yes! Try milk chocolate chips for a lighter sweeter result, or if you can find dark chocolate chips, they’ll give you a much stronger flavor. Alternatively, go for a combination of some or all the chocolate chips – we can’t have enough chocolate!
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (315 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I use Better Batter; please click thru for full info on appropriate blends)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum omit if your flour blend already contains it; use a heaping 1/2 teaspoon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (164 g) packed light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter at cool room temperature
- 2 (100 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature, beaten
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips plus more as desired, up to 16 ounces total
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F about 15 minutes before you plan to bake your cookies. Line rimmed baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set them aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda and granulated sugar, and whisk to combine well.
- Add the brown sugar, and whisk again to combine, working out any lumps in the brown sugar. If you are finding many lumps, try using the tines of a fork to break up any stubborn ones.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the butter, eggs, and vanilla, and mix until well-combined.
- You can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to make quick work of it.
- Add 12 ounces of chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough. The cookie dough will be thick but not stiff. Add more chocolate chips if you like, and mix thoroughly.
- Divide the cookie dough into 21 portions (or 24 if you’ve used all 16 ounces of chips), and roll each tightly into a ball about 1 1/2 inches in diameter (and about 50 grams each).
- Press each of the balls of dough into a disk about 1/2-inch thick and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- As you’re rolling the dough, add a few more chocolate chips to each ball, if desired, and roll them into the dough.
- To ensure the thickest cookies with the best flavor and color, cover the dough on the baking sheet and refrigerate the shaped cookie dough for at least 12 hours and up to 5 days.
- Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and place the baking sheets, one at a time, in the center of the preheated oven.
- Bake until the cookies are golden brown around the edges, light golden brown all over and set in the center (about 12 minutes).
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes or until firm before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Anne Macdonald says
Made these for my great niece who is recovering from a car accident in hospital. They were easy to make, the cookie dough mixture was yum and the cooked cookies were really beautiful. My niece gave them a 5 star rating. Thank you.
Nicole Hunn says
Thank you so much for sharing that, Anne. I hope she’s okay! I’m so glad you and she enjoyed the cookies, and I bet it helped lift her spirits that you went out of your way for her like that. ❤️