These thin and chewy gluten free chocolate chip cookies are made with plenty of brown sugar, and an extra egg yolk. They’re simply perfect for snacking in bed. No crumbs!
Now it’s not like I’m advocating eating cookies in bed. But if you’re going to do it, at least be smart about it. Thin and chewy CCCs don’t leave a trace!
Chocolate Chip Cookie School
Now if you want to know all the details about what makes one chocolate chip cookie crispy, another chewy, one thick and another thin, this post on gluten free chocolate chip cookies is a must-read.
For those of you who are interested in developing your own gluten free recipes, chocolate chip cookies are a great place to start. Changing cookie texture and thickness with just a slight change in the balance of what start out as super simple ingredients is a real life education in baking chemistry. 🤓
By the way, the most important flavor in a chocolate chip cookie (besides the chocolate chips, of course) is molasses. There isn’t a lot of it. In fact, there’s just the amount that you find in the brown sugar. But it’s there.
Try making chocolate chip cookies with just granulated sugar, and no brown sugar. They won’t even smell like chocolate chippers. The dough for these cookies is soft, but not quite as soft as it is with thin and crispy gluten free chocolate chip cookies, which are made with more butter.
The quick-study version of the secret to making these cookies thin and chewy instead of thin and crispy is in the balance of ingredients. Instead of 8 tablespoons of butter, we use 4 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of shortening. Shortening doesn’t spread like butter does, but butter has the best flavor.
We also add an egg yolk to the batter, along with one whole egg. The egg yolk doesn’t create rise. It just adds tenderness to the cookie.
Watch this 1 minute video
Just push play ▶️ and watch me make these perfect gluten free chocolate chip cookies. Then it’s your turn!
These cookies remind me of Archway brand chocolate chip cookies. You know, the kind that comes in a cardboard sleeve, covered in plastic? I used to absolutely adore Archway chocolate chip cookies and Archway oatmeal cookies.
My gluten free son can’t have Archways, but he sure can have these. They’re his favorites.
Ingredients and Substitutions
As always, unless I specifically state otherwise, I haven’t tested these cookies with any substitutions. These are just my best-educated guesses. Feel free to experiment and share your results!
Dairy-Free: My oldest child is currently dairy free (which is, as I’ve always maintained, harder than gluten free!), so I made her a batch of these with Earth Balance in place of butter, gram for gram. They were o-k, but not great in texture, I’m afraid. Since these cookies are all about texture, that’s kind of a problem.
Dairy free butter substitutes have so so so much moisture, which leads to a crispier texture and more spreading, almost no matter what you do. But it’s better than no cookies at all! Just be sure to also use dairy free chocolate chips.
Egg-Free: The whole egg can be replaced with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water mixed and allowed to gel), but I’m afraid I don’t know of any proper substitution for the egg yolk. You might try pureed silken tofu!
Sugar-Free: Swerve sweetener makes an effective substitute for both granulated sugar and brown sugar. I haven’t tried them in this recipe, but if you’re avoiding sugar, that’s what I’d recommend trying.
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!
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Where Can I purchase better batter flour. Can’t find it in stores yet anyway.
betterbatter.org is where you can purchase Better Batter. It is cheaper to buy in bulk from them. In the alternative, you can order on Amazon (and it is eligible for PRIME)
I just made these gooey delicious chocolate chip cookies…
They are so yummy all 24 …umm 23….well the remaining 22 cookies for the grandsons wiÄş be devoured after school tomorrow… oh heavens, thats not for 18 more hours… gulp… well it is still early I can make another batch before the school bus drops them off!
Great and easy recipe.. I can see these with all different types of chocolate bits ..
Thanks … another great recipe from The Gluten Free Queen…
P.S. I have all your books…
Hahaha that’s awesome. Thank you so much, Gramma (is it okay if I call you that? ;)) These are my favorites. They just go down so easily…
Why can you not chill? If you make these ahead can you set out until warm and then bake? I need to make about 10 different kinds of cookies for a Xmas party. And I was trying to pre make all my dough so I just have to bake off when I’m ready.
Thanks. Oh and I had butterscotch chips instead of chocolate.
I first read this as, “Nicole, why can you not chill?” Like, please just chill out! Now I get it. :)
The dough needs to be at room temperature before it’s baked or it won’t spread properly in the oven, Heather.
Hahaha sorry Nicole. I re-read that and it does read like that. Oopppss. I was elbow deep in 8 cookie recipes making dough today. I got ahead of myself. Lol. Sorry about that.
I will set to room temp. Thank you for all that you do. I love every thing you do and have all your cookbooks too. Tell everyone who is going gluten free about you. Huge fan! Thank you!!
Aw, thank you, Heather! You can definitely freeze the dough and then let it come back to room temperature if that helps!
Thank you!! we ate the batter. Just kidding we made a few cookies too. Appreciate all your doing here!! :)
Hi, Jules,
Thanks so much for sharing how you were able to make this recipe one that all the students could have. I’m glad it worked out so well!
Warmly,
Nicole
I just made these yesterday entirely with Crisco shortening instead of butter and used President’s Choice brand (in Canada) chocolate chips, which have no milk products in it. And, voila! Gluten-free, lactose-free, peanut-free CCC’s that are indistinguishable from regular ones. Just an idea for those Moms bringing these into the school. I also made sure to not use any mixers, etc that have latex in them as there is a high latex allergy child in the class too. EVERY child was able to have these. The teacher was thrilled.
Hi, Jules,
You are most welcome. I know exactly what you mean, about working out the kinks in a recipe over time. These varieties of chocolate chip cookies were something everyone demanded of me whenever I showed up (and always were eaten ahead of other, “fancier” desserts), and I thought all was lost when we went gluten free 5+ years ago. So I tweaked and tweaked again… I’m so happy that you can benefit from the tweaking! Thank you so much for your kind posts!
Warmly,
Nicole
WOW!!! Words cannot describe how grateful I am for this recipie! My gluten filled recipie (which the entire extended family demands I bring to any functions) had been a couple of years in the making as I tweaked it and tweaked it. I never thought a GF version would come close, but was just hoping for “good-enough”. My original recipie calls for 2.5 cups of flour, I tried directly substituting GF all-purpose, but -not only is it expensive- it didn’t turn out well.
The cookies I just made from this recipie and my original ones are indistinguishable! I didn’t believe it was possible! You are GOLD! Thank you!
Before I started using all of her recipes – I tried to sub store bought GF AP flour. And recipes just didn’t turn out. She tells you what to use for the different cookies/other recipes. But then I switched to using only her brands she suggest or making the flour mixes (she tells you how to make them). Now that I have switched to her four mixes or using GF AP Better Batter- everything is perfect and you can not tell a difference. But certain flours mixes do not work with her recipes. She really knows what she is doing so I use what she suggests. Or use her recipes to make the flour mixes myself. B/c she does it on a shoestring budget so it makes the flour mixes way cheaper. Just thought I would comment on your comment b/c I tried using other brands of flour with no luck at all. But now that I use her flours or GF BB everything is absolutely perfect. I suggest trying her flakey buttermilk biscuit recipe. That was the big test for this GF southern girl. And once that was nailed with Nicole’s wisdom /recipes I knew I could make anything. Wish I had found her 8 years ago when I started this journey. Would have saved a lot of money and a lot of time.