Paleo chocolate chip cookies that are gluten, grain and dairy free but taste just like the real thing! Just a small amount of easy ingredients and you can be eating these in minutes!
It’s been a week.
Like one of those that despite your best intentions, all you can eat think of is chocolate, dessert, pasta, cheese… Basically, all the bad stuff.
I blame the stupid weather which, according to weather.com, was supposed to be sunny and 60s every day when I checked on Sunday and then somehow ended up a cloudy, drizzly mess for 3 of those days.
My cousin just graduated with a degree in meteorology and took his first job which is accompanied by a disgustingly low salary. I now understand why. I’m convinced they all just sit around throwing darts at a selection of weather patterns and pick whichever one they hit for the forecast. (Chris- I’m kidding)
This is why I hate winter. It makes me crave bad things.
And before someone gets all sassy in the comments, no, I’m not calling cheese and pasta inherently bad, but when you crave copious amounts of each every day because it looks like armageddon outside, it’s not the healthiest choice.
I can usually hold myself off for the first half of the day but that 2-3pm blah time gets me.
Every. Single. Time.
It’s about the time I want a nap, lose all motivation to work and want to eat every single piece of chocolate and/or carby goodness in my house. This doesn’t happen in the summer.
Reason #345987456 why we should’ve never moved back to NY from Florida.
So since we have approximately 6 more months of this craptastic weather coming our way, I decided I needed a go to 2-3pm fix.
Requirements:
- Chocolate
- Tastes legit
- I can eat like 5 of them without feeling bad.
Let’s expand upon #2 for a second – when I say “tastes legit” I mean I don’t want some “health-ified” or “high protein-ified” version of a classic that uses prunes or dates or protein powder. Although, I’m kinda making fun of myself when I say that because these raw brownie bites fit that description but are SO delicious at the same time.
Guys- there’s some crazy ass shit out there in the form of “recipes” for stuff like that.
I just so happened to have picked about 5 of them for recent breakfasts. Wednesday’s ended up in a batter explosion and a black waffle with great flavor but the texture of an air puff. Um, wtf? Do people not taste their creations before posting for the world?
I digress.
I’m giving myself an A on this assignment.
These paleo chocolate chip cookies have chocolate chunks, legit chocolate chip cookie flavor and most importantly for me when it comes to a chocolate chip cookie, they have the soft gooey chocolate center. Soft batch cookies are where it’s at. Life’s too short for crispy, hard cookies, at least when it comes to chocolate chip.
Somehow they’re also miraculously dairy-free, grain-free and paleo.
Holla.
Also, I somehow only ate 3 straight out of the oven. So make that an A+ on this cookie assignment.
If you want to take these paleo chocolate chip cookies to the next level, check out these paleo bacon chocolate chip cookies!
Same recipe just with the addition of some crispy crumbled bacon to the batter for that delicious salty sweet combination.
Love these paleo chocolate chip cookies?
Try these other paleo cookie recipes like this Paleo Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet <– so gooey and insanely delicious!, these Paleo Blueberry Thumbprints or these Paleo Blueberry Chocolate Macaroons.
And for something chocolaty but not in cookie form, paleo chocolate mousse never disappoints.
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil, *update: make sure to measure oil after melting so that you’re not inadvertently using too much. This can cause cookies to flatten
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon almond milk
- 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate pieces Enjoy Life chocolate chips are a great option.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Whisk together wet ingredients in a small bowl.
- Add wet to dry and mix together.
- Fill a tablespoon measure with batter and press down to form a half-circle. Tap batter out onto baking sheet and lightly press down in the center. *Optional – freeze cookies on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before baking. This helps keep them from spreading.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes until bottoms just start to turn brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool 3-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will be soft when removed from oven but firm up in a couple of minutes.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Did anyone else take a bite and they seemed a little raw?
they harden up after a few minutes out of the oven so if you took a bite immediately that might be why. Otherwise, just bake them a minute or two longer.
awww, shoot.
5 of these cookies were my dinner #noshame
great recipe, and THANK YOU for making them normal… none of this ” add 3 boiled indonesian dates (halved and individually chewed) to the mixture of hand churned wild Nordic nut butter, flax meal (in a semi liquid state) and the 14 other ingredients you haven’t heard of, and don’t exist in real life.”
;)
I just made these with the following exceptions:
•Doubled the ingredients list.
•Substituted heavy whipping cream for almond milk
They came out splendidly. Wonderful.
So glad you liked them! Good to know heavy cream works well, I bet it makes them nice and rich :)
I just baked these cookies and they were surprisingly good! Instead of honey, I used 1 tbs of coconut (palm) sugar. They didn’t flatten and came out just like your picture. I will definitely share this recipe! Thanks! :)
Delicious. Just made 5 batches as part of my spread of holiday cookies that my 5 year old daughter and I (gluten-free) can enjoy (oh, and, um, yes … the other people that we made them for!) This is an easy recipe so it was not a stressful process to have my daughter “help” – LOL.
I had these last night at a friend’s house and they are AWESOME!
:) glad you enjoyed them!
Perfect and delicious. I subbed almond butter for the coconut oil because I wanted a peanut butter/chocolate chip variety, and just used half-and-half for the 1tbsp of almond milk because I didn’t have any on hand, and half-and-half in our morning coffee is one of our few allowed indulgences.
Anyway, the recipe worked flawlessly in every respect. Thank you!
B
These are very good and very flexible. The first time I made them, they came out flat and browned at the bottom and were delicious that way! Determined to make them as illustrated here, I tried again. I cut the honey to 1tbs (both times, I left out the almond milk) and adjusted the amount of almonds to get a thicker dough. This time, they stayed round and were crunchy throughout (I blame my thin cookie sheet). The first flat batch was better and I will make them that way again.
Almond flour is difficult to work with. Every brand gives different results, even with the same recipe. I wonder if the weight of the flour was used instead of cups, perhaps results would be more uniform. It might be worth a try.
These are delicious. I just made them and think they are better than traditional chocolate chip cookies. I was out of coconut oil so replaced with canola oil for this time. I also doubled the recipe without any troubles. Thank you for the great recipe!
These cookies are delicious!! Made them over the weekend with my five year old and they turned out exactly as pictured. Bookmarked!! Do you know if they hold up okay in the freezer? Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe!
I bet they would although I’ve never done it.