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These classic gluten free chocolate chip cookies have crisp brown edges, soft centers, and deep, rich flavor in every bite. The secrets to their ideal texture and all that flavor are in the mixing-wet-into-dry method and chilling the raw dough first, even just for 30 minutes.
I was known for these cookies long before I started baking gluten free in 2004, and there’s almost always a batch in my freezer, both baked and raw. With nearly 400 five-star reviews, this is the ultimate recipe.
“This is an awesome cookie. We have had a family recipe that we all loved till we had to go gluten free and this was the first recipe that is better than that! Thank you so much, Nicole ❣️”
Why this recipe works
These cookies are thick and chewy in the center with just enough crispness around the edges, and they're packed with chocolate chips. The ideal butter to flour proportions reliably keep the cookies from spreading too thin during baking, no matter what.
I recommend you chill the dough for at least a few hours before baking for the deepest caramel flavor and even browning in the oven. But unlike some other recipes, if you just can't wait, you can bake some cookies right away and they'll still hold their shape.
This recipe is forgiving enough for you to swap in chopped nuts, try different extracts, or even use vegan butter for cookies that still turn out great.
Ingredients explained
You only need a handful of classic ingredients to make these cookies, with a few key tips to get the texture and flavor just right:
- Gluten free flour blend: Any of my recommended gluten free flour mixes will work here, especially Better Batter's original blend or Nicole's Best. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 (in the blue bag) also performs very well. If you're using Bob's and don't plan to chill the dough at all, add another 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum to help control the cookies' spread in the oven.
- Baking soda: Helps with browning in the oven without overbaking or burning.
- Salt: Balances the sweetness and sharpens the other flavors.
- Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness, tenderness and helps the cookies spread just enough, then brown and crisp.
- Light brown sugar: Provides extra moisture and a rich, caramel-like flavor. Without brown sugar, nothing tastes like a chocolate chip cookie!
- Butter: Adds flavor and helps create crisp edges and chewy centers. Make sure it’s at room temperature so it blends evenly but doesn't melt outside the oven. If you're starting with cold butter, chop it roughly and let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes.
- Eggs: Help the cookies rise and add structure so the cookies hold their rise as they cool, in combination with a binder like xanthan gum, even without gluten.
- Vanilla extract: Adds a warm background note that boosts all the other flavors.
- Chocolate chips: Use your favorite gluten free chocolate variety, or a combination of flavors. I love Trader Joe’s 72% dark chocolate chips and Ghirardelli chips.
How to make gluten free chocolate chip cookies (step by step photos)
See the recipe card for ingredient amounts, and keep scrolling for a visual on how to make gluten free chocolate chip cookies in your own kitchen.
Mix the dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk together your gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum (if needed), baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar for evenly distributed ingredients that bake into uniform cookies.
Add the brown sugar last and use a fork to break up any lumps that don't combine with the rest of the batter and melt separately in the oven.
Add the wet ingredients
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, then add the softened butter, beaten eggs, and vanilla right into the center. Mix the wet ingredients together toward the center, then incorporate the dry ingredients little by little for uniformly mixed cookie dough, still made in one bowl.
Mixing the wet ingredients in the dry instead of creaming the butter and sugars separately first ensures a dense, chewy cookie with a crackled top.
Stir in the chips
Fold in the chocolate chips until they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough. Adding them in last avoids getting the chips wet from the eggs, which can cause the chocolate to bleed into the rest of the cookie.
Portion the dough
Scoop the dough with a spring-loaded scoop into even portions so they'll bake at the same rate in the oven. I like to use a medium cookie scoop (a #20 scoop or a medium OXO scoop) and fill it full. For perfectly uniform cookies, each should weigh about 50 grams.
Shape into balls
Roll each portion into a ball between your two palms, pressing it together so there are no gaps in the center that would cause misshapen cookies. The dough will be thick but workable, and should easily hold its shape when rolled and pressed.
Flatten
Hold each ball of dough in the palm of one hand and use the fingers of the other to press each ball into a disk. This will ensure the exact right amount of spread in the oven, since these cookies have less butter than some others, so they don't spread as much.
Chill the dough
For thick, chewy cookies that have tons of flavor, cover the shaped dough so it doesn't dry out, and chill it for at least 30 minutes, or ideally overnight or longer. You can also bake a few cookies right away, and let the rest chill.
Bake
After about 12 minutes at 350°F, the edges should be golden and the centers mostly set. You don't want the center to glisten like it's still wet, but be careful not to overbake and dry them out. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes or they'll fall apart. Once set, they're very stable.
Expert tips
Chill for deep flavor
Making something as simple as chocolate chip cookies, it seems particularly annoying for me to ask you to chill your dough at all, much less overnight. But chilling the dough over time creates thick, flavorful cookies in 2 ways:
Cold cookie dough bakes thicker and chewier since cold butter melts more slowly than warm or even room temperature butter.
The older the dough, the more flavorful it becomes as the sugars begin to lose some of their moisture both into the air and into the flour, intensifying the caramel flavor of the brown sugar.
Don't cream the butter and sugar
Unlike a lot of cookie recipes that begin by beating together the butter and sugar until creamy, here we mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Creaming the butter and sugar aerates the cookies to make them lighter and the cookie dough very smooth. Here, we want a dense and chewy cookie with the texture of a crackled, uneven top, so we mix wet-into-dry.
Add extra chips on top
For photo-worthy cookies, press a few extra chips into the tops before baking, or just make sure the shaped dough has some visible chips on top. You can also add a couple of extra chips to just-baked cookies before they've set.
Skip the mixer
If you can, mix by hand. Using a stand or handheld mixer flattens the texture and creates a more uniform cookie texture. If you must use a mixer, work in the chocolate chips by hand to avoid overmixing.
Ingredient substitutions
Unlike other recipes that require you to add almond flour, these are naturally nut-free, and easy to adapt for dairy-free or egg-free baking, too.
Dairy free
Swap the butter for Spectrum or Crisco vegetable shortening or block-style vegan butter (like Melt or Miyoko’s Creamery). Shortening makes crisp-edged cookies but doesn't brown much, and the dough hardens in the refrigerator, so be sure to shape it before chilling. If you're using vegan butter, chill the dough overnight to prevent spreading. And don’t forget to use dairy-free chocolate chips!
Egg free
Replace each egg with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon warm water, mixed and gelled). Or try 100 grams plain Greek-style yogurt at room temperature and add 1 more tablespoon gluten free flour. Either way, chill the dough overnight for the best structure and texture.
Easy mix-in ideas
Try swapping up to half of the chocolate chips, by weight, with:
- Flavored chips (like white chocolate or butterscotch—check for gluten!)
- Chopped nuts (like pecans or walnuts)
- Soft dried fruit (like cranberries or raisins)
Storage instructions
Room temperature: Baked cookies stay fresh in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Refrigerator: You can store shaped, unbaked cookie dough in the fridge for several days. Keep it in a sealed zip-top bag or airtight container and bake in batches as needed.
Freezer: Freeze both baked cookies and raw, shaped dough for up to 3 months. You can bake the dough straight from frozen—just flatten the disks slightly first, and add 2 minutes to the baking time. Or let the raw disks come to cool room temperature before baking.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (315 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- 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 (69°F is ideal)
- 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 (unless you plan to chill your cookie dough overnight). Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, and granulated sugar.
- Add the brown sugar and whisk again, breaking up any lumps with a fork if needed.
- Create a well in the center and add the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients together in tight circles in the center, then stir into the dry ingredients until combined.
- Fold in 12 ounces of chocolate chips. The dough will be thick but workable. Add more chips if desired.
- Divide the dough into 21 (or up to 24, if you used more chips) portions, about 50 grams each. Roll into balls, then flatten into disks about 1 1/2-inches in diameter and 1/2-inch thick.
- If you like, press a few extra chips onto each dough ball for a more chocolatey look.
- Arrange cookies about 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheets.
- Cover and chill the shaped dough for 12 hours—or up to 5 days—for the thickest, best-flavored cookies. Even chilling the dough for 30 minutes will help control oven spread.
- Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are golden on the edges and just set in the center, about 12 minutes.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQs
Yes and no. Chilling helps control spread, enhances the texture, and deepens the flavor. You can bake the shaped cookies right away and they will still taste great, but even 30 minutes of chilling time will help control spread. Maybe bake some now, and chill the rest!
You may have overmeasured the flour, skipped xanthan gum, or used butter that was too cold to mix in properly. Or maybe you just didn’t let them cool long enough, as they’re delicate at first!
Your dough may have been too warm, your butter too soft, or your baking sheet still hot from the last batch.
If your flour blend doesn't contain xanthan gum, adding guar gum or konjac powder instead can work. For a full explanation, see our post about xanthan gum substitutes using this recipe for testing.
Yes, you can refrigerate the raw, unshaped cookie dough in a sealed container . Just don't pack it down too much in the container or it will be too hard to scoop. You may have to let it sit at room temperature briefly until it's scoopable.
Hi Nicole,
Just shared your wonderful recipe on Pinterest. Delicious!
I’m loving your cookies and better still the husband with celiac it too! Thank you. I’m wondering about your process. I have a beater for my kitchen aid stand mixer that I got at a kitchen store. It’s not kitchen aid but it has silicone sweeps on the bottom so it gets everything in the bowl. I’ve used it once successfully to incorporate wet into dry and had great success. I’m wondering if there is any reason why you don’t do that.
I’m also wondering why you put the sugar with the flour rather than creaming it for recipes that contain gluten. I love everything I’ve baked from your recipes, but I like to understand what is going on.
I haven’t tried the bread yet, but everything in that book looks so great. I’m waiting until after my mother in law leaves and then I’m going for it.
My methods are not different in that regard because they’re gluten free. The method you’re describing is called a reverse cream, Martha. I use it in certain recipes where I find that it does a better job of incorporating ingredients where I don’t particularly want lightness. It also makes very quick work of the recipe. You can certainly use your stand mixer to make the recipe as I describe. In certain recipes, like sponge cake, angel food cake, my very best vanilla cake, I cream the butter and sugar as it’s appropriate and necessary there for a good end result.
Oooooo… thin and chewy are my favorite!
I love everything you do – just wish I had the energy (CSF, post-triple cervical neck surg, 3 kids, 1st gc on the way & FT job I loathe & blooming art biz). I’m a very late in life GF person, so everything is compared to “the real” version. I got your 1st book last yr after diagnosis & have been hooked since! YOU are amazing to do all you do for us! CC cookies are SO necessary in life & you give us SO many choices! THANK YOU! The only thing I’d add is some alternative chips, like peanut butter, white chocolate and/or Heath bar pieces on occasion. We have a baby shower next week & that daughter is GF – so guess whose recipes will be on the table?!
It’s a tossup between the chocolate chip oatmeal and the cookie with the giant chocolate chunk pieces! With my love of chocolate, the big chunk may just win. Thank you for all the choices but my waistline might not thank you :-)
I have yet to try baking a gluten free chocolate chip cookie, even though I want one SO badly. I have to admit, I’m scared!
My grandchildren prefer the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that I have made for years but my personal preference is the Boston Drop Cookie and I would fight you for those.(Well I guess I would share but I’d be eating fast.) I haven’t had any of these cookies for several years because I haven’t tried to convert them to gluten free. For Easter I baked over 12 dozen cookies and made Easter baskets filled with homemade cookies for the grandchildren. (It is really hard to not sneak a nibble of these cookies when they come out of the oven but the thought of how sick I get stops me cold.) Maybe I’d better get busy and try to convert that Boston Drop Cookie recipe.
The timing of this is funny. I had made the recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies from one of you past blogs. Family loved it so much I decided to double the recipe for other family. I used the recipe in your cookbook though so I ended up with 5 dozen cookies!!!! Sometimes the most important thing to read is how many servings it makes! Both my mother in law and brother in law are happy that I made the mistake though.
That is a happy accident, indeed, ladoramartin. At least for your mother-in-law and brother-in-law!
xoxo Nicole
I’m a chewy chocolate chip cookie type person. Crunchy cookies of any type need not grace these lips. But my secret (past) love? Those giant ones that are made to be cookie cakes (with frosting, thank you very much). How do they get them so chewy? How?? Don’t give me cakes or cupcakes. I’ll take my frosting on a big old slice of cookie.
I’d love to know this, too. Any ideas on how to make a gf cookie cake??
I’ll do you one better than that, Mary Beth! I will make it and post about it. Love those!
xoxo Nicole
Oh, Donia, that’s a MUST MAKE! I have thought about posting a recipe for one of those cookie cakes a million times. And it must be frosted here and there with both white and blue buttercream (why? I have no idea but it must). Oh, I will be doing that for sure.
xoxo Nicole
I’m so excited!!!!!!!
Hey Sister! You are awesome and I’m so glad that you didn’t stop because this year cannot go fast enough until your bread cookbook comes out!!!! can we preorder yet! :)
So, I found this recipe for a chocolate chip cookie and went to get some Erewhon(sp) gluten free cornflakes to get it started yesterday: http://cookingactress.blogspot.ca/2012/07/momofukus-cornflake-chocolate-chip.html
Cookies like these make me jump for joy! :) Also, I was hoping someone would redo that famous nordstroms chocolate chip cookie recipe that floats around…. just sayin’!