Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies {Gluten-Free and Amazing!}

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If you’ve tried a million chocolate chip cookie recipes out there trying to find the best one, look no further. Not only do these blow other cookies out of the water, but they are made entirely without flour! It’s pretty amazing that you can make a crispy, chewy, tasty cookie without any flour, but you really can. 

One ingredient I try to limit from my diet is refined flour. Typical flour is milled discarding all the essential nutrients the original grain contained. The heat that is generated to crush the grain into flour destroys any vitamin or mineral normally found in the the grain, leaving a white powdery product devoid of any life. It’s essentially dead food. So they have to “enrich” it back by adding in synthetic vitamins and minerals.

The next part is even scarier because fresh milled flour usually isn’t acceptable for consumption because of the look, feel and smell of it. The FDA has approved over 60 chemicals for manufacturers to use to help these aesthetics and the shelf life of flour. Chlorine is used to bleach conventional flours to remove the smell and change the color. The flour is put into a gas chamber and treated with chlorine dioxide which leaches all the vitamin E out of the flour and leaves a chemical called dichlorostearic acid that remains in the flour. Additionally treating flour with chlorine can create more chemical byproducts that have been known to react to other proteins and cause nervous system damage in humans.

The good news is that refined flour is pretty easy to avoid if you know what to look for. If you see “wheat flour”, “enriched flour”, “bleached flour” on an ingredient list, this is refined flour – so stick it back on the shelf and look for alternatives. This standard applies to other flour-based foods like breads, crackers, rolls, bagels, and any commercially baked food. 

When it comes to gluten-free cookies, they are often made with replacements for wheat flour, like rice flour or tapioca starch. Rice is known to contain 10 to 20 times more arsenic than other grains, as it tends to absorb more arsenic due to the way it’s grown. Arsenic is a powerful carcinogen that promotes the risk of several types of cancer. It’s also linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, problems in pregnancy and infant development. Tapioca flour can skyrocket your blood sugar (more than whole wheat does) and has zero nutrient value – just empty calories. I get that you don’t eat a cookie to be healthy, but I’m all for packing as much nutrition into all the foods I eat, even cookies! 

They have a texture and taste very similar to cookies made with regular flour. They won’t crumble all over the place like other gluten-free cookies you may have tried, and are rich with flavor. 

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and lining a large baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper. This makes cleanup super easy!

Crack an egg into your favorite glass mixing bowl and give it a little whisk. Stir in the date sugar, molasses, real vanilla extract, and a touch of baking soda. Mix it all up well…

Measure out a cup of almond butter into the bowl and stir well to combine…

Fold in the organic chocolate chips (make sure they are gluten-free if you can’t eat gluten!)…

Using an ice-cream scoop, drop tablespoon-sized balls on the parchment-lined pan. You should get about 12 cookies out of this recipe. If the batter is somewhat loose, gently shape them into nice little circles…

Put the pan in the oven and check them at 10-12 minutes to see if they’re done. Bake for up to 15 minutes if you want a crispier cookie…

My cookies came out perfectly crispy around the edges and bit softer on the inside. They are amazing dipped in homemade coconut milk! 

You might want to hide a few of these cookies away for yourself before letting anyone know you made them – they will be gone in a matter of minutes! If you know anyone who loves chocolate chip cookies, bake them up a batch. Who knows, maybe someday they’ll return the favor!