Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Cookies (So Fudgy!)
Amazing Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Cookies that are oil-free and so easy to make! They are fudgy, rich, super decadent and have bonus flavors of espresso and sea salt for the most delicious vegan gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!
Servings: 16 cookies
Calories: 139kcal
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons (35g) superfine blanched almond flour (SEE NOTES below)
- 1/2 cup (64g) superfine oat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
- 3 tablespoons (18g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons (16g) ground flaxseed
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 5 tablespoons (100g) pure maple syrup or agave
- 2 tablespoons (30g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup (128g) roasted smooth almond butter (SEE NOTE below)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (115g) semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips (I used a combo of semi-sweet and bitter-sweet)
- ground espresso powder for sprinkling on top (optional) I love the Illy brand and the Medaglia D'oro
- flaked sea salt for the topping (optional)
NOTE
- I always recommend a scale for baking for accuracy. It makes all the difference. Make sure to add the bowl, hit zero and then start measuring, making sure to hit zero in between each addition. You do NOT need to even use cups, just the scale, bowl and my gram weights listed.
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- To a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flour, cocoa powder, flaxseed, baking soda and salt and whisk very well, breaking up any lumps.
- To a separate bowl, combine the syrup, applesauce, almond butter and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the liquids over the dry but don't stir yet.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir for a few minutes until it all comes together into a sticky thick batter. It will seem too wet at first, but be patient and stir for at least 2-3 minutes. You will think it's too sticky, but if measured correctly, you should be able to roll into balls.
- Scoop about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter and roll into a ball. It should easily form, even though the batter looks sticky. If it's way too sticky to roll into balls, chill the batter for 15 minutes in the fridge, but all 3 trials of my cookie batter I could roll right away, but chill if needed briefly.
- Roll the batter into 16 balls, that is how many I got on each batch. Put them 2 inches a part. You'll need to bake one pan at a time.
- Press each cookie down to a 1/4 inch thick. Please refer to the photo in the post for how they should look before baking. When you press them down, do a circular patting motion with your fingers to make them smooth and flat and piece and round together the edges. If too sticky, dip your finger tips in water and that will help. You want them smooth and uniform so they bake up pretty and evenly.
- If using the espresso, sprinkle it on top of the cookies now.
- Bake for just 10 minutes. They should have spread and puffed up beautifully. I found each batch to be perfect at 10 minutes in my oven. You don't want to overbake these or they dry out.
- If using the flaked sea salt, immediately upon removing the cookies, sprinkle the salt on top while the cookies are warm.
- Cool on the pan 5 minutes and then transfer to cool on a rack completely. Seal cooled leftovers in a tight container at room temperature. These are best fresh the day made, but are still ok the next day.
Notes
- ALMOND FLOUR: This is an essential ingredient to make these cookies so rich and moist, especially since we are not using oil. Almond flour contains a high amount of fat to make them moist, so it cannot be eliminated. If you are allergic, I would suggest grinding raw sunflower seeds into a flour as fine as you can get it. But keep in mind sunflower flour will never be as fine as almond flour, so you may end up with a stickier batter that's hard to roll into balls and may need to chill the batter first before baking.
- SUPERFINE OAT FLOUR: I used Bob's Red Mill. You want it fine so that the texture and batter comes together.