If you love soft and tender chocolate chip cookies, you’re going to love these gluten free soft batch chocolate chip cookies. They really do taste like they just came out of the oven!
I already have, like, a million recipes for gluten free chocolate chip cookies. But this is the only recipe for forever-soft chocolate chip cookies. They’re just like the ones by Keebler that are “so soft … they taste like they’re right from the oven.” (I looked that up.)
These cookies are perfect for packing up and sending clear across the country for the holidays. Or for gifting to your coworkers. Or for the mailman (who really just wants money from you but maybe throw in a few cookies too). Or for yourself, because a freezer well-stocked with emergency chocolate chip cookies is the secret to a good life.
How to make soft but stable gf chocolate chip cookies
Like all the other styles of chocolate chip cookies, to make gluten free soft batch chocolate chip cookies, it’s all about the balance of ingredients. A mix of shortening and butter, an egg and an egg yolk for extra chew, and fewer chips.
Fewer chips are actually pretty important to the success of these cookies. Too many chocolate chips will overwhelm the dough, and the cookies won’t stay soft. It’s also important to begin with chilled balls of cookie dough. Ideally, once the cookies are in the oven, the dough will melt like a snowman. If you end up chilling the cookie dough for too long and you find that it’s too firm, flatten each piece of dough by about 1/3. Then, allow the dough to sit at room temperature while the oven preheats.
The result is cookies so soft .. they taste like they’re right out of the oven. They’re very stable once cool, and they really don’t crumble at all.
All too often, a recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies is super fragile because it doesn’t have enough flour and it’s underbaked. Even when the cookies are completely cool, each time you pick one of them up it’s likely to fall apart before it reaches your mouth.
These soft batch CCCs are soft but reliable. When they come out of the oven, they’re fragile. But once you let them cool on the baking sheet, they’re soft in your mouth, but never in your hand. In other words, they’re perfect. 😍
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy-free: I bet a dairy free butter sub would work here, but I would try 5 tablespoons of Earth Balance buttery sticks and 6 tablespoons shortening, instead of 6 of butter and 5 of shortening. Earth Balance has a lot more moisture than butter, and shortening has a lot less. If you’re reluctant to use shortening, don’t be! Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening is good for your health and is sourced sustainably.
Egg-free: One key to the soft and chewy texture of these cookies is the addition of an extra egg yolk to the dough. Although you can replace the one egg with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel), the egg yolk is a little more difficult. Since egg yolks are nearly all fat, without much if any moisture, perhaps 1 tablespoon of a neutral oil would work? Try it and let us know how it goes!
Cornstarch: The cornstarch in these cookies makes for a more tender cookie. If you can’t have corn, try replacing the cornstarch with an equal amount, by weight, of arrowroot or potato starch. Either one should work just fine.
Push play ▶️ and watch me make these GF chocolate chip cookies
Then it’s your turn!
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!