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These gluten free dairy free chocolate chip cookies bake up thick with crisp edges and soft centers, without spreading thin or turning greasy like dairy free cookies tend to do.
Designed from the start to work without dairy, we use cold block-style vegan butter and almond flour for perfect moisture, browning, and buttery flavor.
Why this recipe works
Cookie recipes that claim they have a “dairy free option” without any other changes just don't work. Since vegan butter doesn't bake like dairy butter, this recipe handles it differently. Cutting it into the dry ingredients while it's still cold helps prevent it from melting into a greasy cookie dough.
Almond flour helps aid tenderness, flavor, and browning. A little butter bakery emulsion boosts the buttery flavor, but the cookies still work well without it.
A short chill makes the dough easier to shape and helps the cookies bake up thick instead of spreading too much. Pull them from the oven while the centers still look a little soft, and they’ll stay soft for days.
Recipe ingredients
Here's what you'll need to make these bars at home. For full ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below.
- Gluten free flour blend: Provides most of the structure for the cookies. Be sure to use a well-balanced dairy free blend based on rice flour like Better Batter's original blend or Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten free blend in the blue bag (with an additional 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum, since it has some, but not enough). Avoid Nicole's Best here, which contains dairy.
- Almond flour: Adds lots of unsaturated fat and helps to trap moisture and create a soft texture that dairy butter would normally provide. It also helps the cookies brown in the oven. Use a blanched almond flour that's finely ground and sifted like Wellbee's, Blue Diamond, or order from nuts dot com, Avoid almond meal or anything not blanched (with skins intact), which is too coarse to disappear into the dough. If you store yours in the refrigerator or freezer, let it come to room temperature first so it isn't clumpy.
- Salt: Brighten the other flavors.
- Baking soda: Helps the cookies brown in the oven.
- Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness, traps moisture for a tender crumb, and helps the cookies crisp on the edges.
- Light brown sugar: Also adds sweetness and traps moisture, and the molasses it contains adds that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor.
- Vegan butter: Replaces dairy the moisture, flavor, and fat of dairy butter in our classic gluten free chocolate chip cookies. All vegan butter is softer at room temperature and contains more moisture than dairy butter, so use it straight from the refrigerator. Be sure to use block-style vegan butter like Miyoko's or Melt brand, which contain less moisture than vegan butter in the tub.
- Eggs: The yolks add fat for a chewier texture, and the whites add structure that helps the cookies hold their shape as they cool.
- Flavorings: Pure vanilla extract adds classic depth of flavor; LorAnn Oils butter bakery emulsion helps replace the buttery flavor of real butter without adding any dairy. That's why we also use it in our gluten free dairy free cake recipe.
- Chocolate chips: I like the 72% dark chocolate chips from Trader Joe's, which are gluten free and dairy free. You can also use Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips, which are free of all 8 top allergens, including gluten and dairy.
How to make gluten free dairy free chocolate chip cookies (step by step images)
Here's an overview of how to make these cookies, including an explanation of the reason behind each step:
Whisk dry ingredients
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the gluten free flour blend (with xanthan gum), almond flour, salt, baking soda, granulated sugar and light brown sugar for a uniform mix of dry ingredients. There's no reason to work out any brown sugar lumps now, since that will happen naturally when we cut in the vegan butter next.
Cut in the vegan butter
Chop the cold vegan butter into cubes to make it easier to work them into the flour mixture. Toss the cubes in the dry ingredients to coat so they don't stick to the bowl, then break up the cubes with a fork to disperse them throughout the dry ingredients. This is how we spread the butter evenly through the dough without melting it or creaming butter and sugar, which would make the cookies greasy by breaking the vegan butter's delicate emulsion.
Add wet ingredients
Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the beaten eggs and flavorings (vanilla and butter emulsion, if using). Mix until just combined into a cohesive cookie dough to avoid heating up the cookie dough.
Add the chips
Mix the chocolate chips into the cookie dough until they're evenly distributed throughout it.
Portion the dough
Use a medium ice cream scoop or 2 spoons to divide it into portions about 2 ounces each. I like to use a scale to make even portions so I know they'll all bake at the same pace.
Chill it
I measure out the cookie dough onto a small baking sheet, then chill it for about 10 minutes or until you can roll the portions into smooth balls.
Bake the cookies
Roll each piece of raw cookie dough between your palms quickly into a smooth round. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes. The cookies are done when they're golden brown around edges, light tan all over, and still somewhat wet in the center. There will be some carryover baking as they cool, and we want to avoid drying them out by overbaking.
Expert tips
Once you've selected the right ingredients and measured accurately by weight wherever possible, getting these cookies just right comes down to temperature:
Use cold, block-style vegan butter
Block-style vegan butter has more fat and less water than vegan butter in the tub, so it is more solid and melts more slowly, which is why we choose it for cookies that don't spread uncontrollably in the oven. But the fats in vegan butter have a lower melting point than dairy butter, so they're still easy to work into our cookie dough even when cold from the refrigerator. If you leave your vegan butter out to warm to room temperature, your cookies will be greasy.
Chill the cookie dough briefly
You can bake with this cookie dough as soon as it's mixed and portioned, and as long as your vegan butter wasn't warm, the cookies won't spread too much. But if you chill the dough for just a few minutes, the tops of the cookies will rise more smoothly. You'll be left only with the beautiful, classic chocolate chip cookies crackles on top from where the cookies settled as they cooled.
Avoid baking on a cold surface
I chill the dough on a baking sheet or other surface that I don't intend to bake the cookies on. Placing a cold baking sheet in a hot oven can cause the oven temperature to spike as it tries to regulate the burst of cold. That can lead to overbaked, dry cookies.
Ingredient substitutions
Egg free
You can try to replace the eggs with “chia eggs” (2 tablespoons ground white chia seeds plus 3 to 4 tablespoons lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel), Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, or JustEggs liquid egg substitute (in the refrigerated section of the grocery store).
Almond free
In place of almond flour, try finely ground and sifted hazelnut flour. You can also try using finely ground and sifted oat flour in its place for very similar results. If you use more gluten free flour blend, your cookies will be brown less and be less tender. If you can't have tree nuts, avoid Miyoko's vegan butter, which is made using cashew milk.
Butter emulsion
In place of butter bakery emulsion, you can use another teaspoon of pure vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, or you can omit the ingredient entirely.
Storage instructions
You can store the chilled raw portions of cookie dough in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to 1 week before baking them still cold. Just roll the dough balls into rounds again in case they've lost their shape. They will be a little bit thicker, but otherwise unchanged.
Store baked and cooled cookies in a sealed glass container at room temperature for up to 5 days. For longer storage, place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes)
- ½ teaspoon xanthan gum, (omit if your blend already contains enough; See Recipe Notes about Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1)
- ⅓ cup (40 g) superfine blanched almond flour, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (164 g) packed light brown sugar
- 10 tablespoons (140 g) vegan block-style butter
- 2 (100 g out of shell) eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon LorAnn Oils butter bakery emulsion, (optional)
- 12 ounces dairy free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, place the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, almond flour, salt, baking soda, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Whisk to combine well. There will be lumps from the brown sugar, but we’ll work them out in the next step.
- Cut the vegan butter into large cubes and toss them in the combined dry ingredients. Use a large fork to press the cubes of butter into the dry ingredients completely, until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy, moist sand.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the beaten eggs, vanilla extract and butter emulsion, if using. Use a mixing spoon to combine into a cohesive dough. It will be thick and smooth, but not stiff.
- Add the chocolate chips, and mix until they’re evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
- Line a small rimmed baking sheet or other portable flat surface that will fit in your refrigerator with wax paper or plastic wrap.
- Use a medium-size, spring-loaded ice cream scoop to create portions of dough about 1 1/2 tablespoons in volume, each weighing about 2 ounces. Place the portions right next to each other on the lined surface.
- Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill just until firm enough to roll into smooth balls (about 10 minutes).
- Roll each portion of cookie dough into a smooth ball between your clean palms, and place 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake in the center of the preheated oven until golden brown around edges, light tan all over, and still somewhat wet in the center, about 10 minutes.
- Place the cookies, still on the baking sheet, on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes or until firm enough to move without crumbling. Transfer from the baking sheet to sit directly on the rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
