This past weekend while out on a long run, my thoughts began wandering to make the miles pass by a little faster. After flitting around, they eventually landed on memories from one year ago when I traveled all the way across the country to attend the BlogHer Food Conference in Miami.
Although I first started flying as an itty bitty baby and feel entirely comfortable walking through airports all by myself, I still enjoy a good reward (okay, okay—more of a bribe) for traveling solo. A carrot dangling at the end of the stick. Or, with what usually happens in my case, a cookie at the end of the flight.
Since my second connection landed in Miami close to midnight, I knew all of the food stalls and restaurants would be closed for business, so I strolled around the terminal in Houston, scouting out the bakery options.
Fairly close to my gate, I spotted a shop that sold mostly traditional fare: sandwiches, salads, fruit, yogurt parfaits, and cookies. But not just any cookies—those jumbo-sized ones practically bigger than my hand! I strode up to the counter and politely asked the girl behind the counter, “Do you have any chewy chocolate chip cookies? Not the hard, crumbly ones, but the really soft kind?”
A surprised look crept across her face, but she kindly responded that she would check, then gently pressed the centers of each of the humongous treats (all of which were tightly sealed inside plastic wrap!). After finding the softest one, she handed it over with a smile, while I swiped my card through the machine.
After standing in line at the Miami airport taxi stand for over an hour and finally collapsing into my hotel room around 2 am, that enormous chocolate chip cookie completely hit the spot—all 37 bites of it!
But when I’m at home and want a reward for finishing all of my chores or powering through four photo shoots, I’m okay with something a little smaller—and definitely a little healthier. That’s where these Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies come in! They’re low-carb, {almost} sugar-free, gluten-free, and clean-eating friendly. Not to mention extremely chocolaty and kind of addictive!
Because many of you have asked whether you can substitute it for regular flour in my other recipes, I’ve started to create more treats with coconut flour. (Like these, these, these, these, and ohmygoodness these!) It’s really important to remember that coconut flour behaves very differently than other flours. It’s about 3 times as absorbent as other flours, so we’ll use a lot less and let the cookie dough rest for 10 minutes to allow the coconut flour enough time to do its thing.
To sweeten the cookie dough, I turned to stevia, a plant-based sweetener. From many of your questions and comments, it sounds like stevia one of your favorite no-calorie sweeteners because it’s clean-eating friendly, so I’m trying to create more recipes with it as well! Because stevia often has a minty or bitter aftertaste, I used three different stevia-based sweeteners to reduce those unwanted flavors: Truvia, Swerve, and SweetLeaf. While I’ve been using the former for at least three years now, I’ve recently discovered the latter two and enjoy them just as much!
Because pure refined stevia can be 200-300 times as sweet as table sugar, we’ll use a lot less in these cookies! To compensate for the missing volume, we’ll mix almond milk into the dough to help keep the cookies moist. Feel free to substitute your favorite milk instead!
And of course, chocolate chips. Lots of chocolate chips. I prefer Hershey’s special dark chocolate for the standard-sized ones because many other brands make their dark chocolate chips larger than regular semisweet chips. Then I use Ghirardelli for the minis. Both melt really well into rich, gooey, chocolaty pockets of bliss!
One final thing to remember: you must flatten the cookie dough before baking. These cookies do not spread in the oven, so gently squash down the balls of dough to your desired thickness and width. The thinner the cookies, the faster they’ll bake!
And the sooner you can devour the whole dozen one or two fresh from the oven!
| Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies | | Print |
- ⅔ cup (75g) coconut flour (measured correctly)
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 tbsp (15mL) vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp (10g) SweetLeaf stevia powder
- 3 tbsp (40g) Truvia
- 2 tbsp (30g) granulated Swerve
- 6 tbsp (90mL) unsweetened vanilla almond milk, room temperature
- 2 tbsp (30g) dark chocolate chips
- 1 ½ tbsp (21g) miniature chocolate chips
- In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter or coconut oil, egg whites, and vanilla. Stir in the SweetLeaf, Truvia, and Swerve. Mix in the milk. Add in the coconut flour mixture, stirring until just incorporated. Fold in the dark chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of miniature chocolate chips. Let the cookie dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough into 12 scoops onto the prepared baking sheet. Moisten your hands, and gently shape into rounded mounds. Flatten to your desired thickness and width. Gently press the remaining miniature chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 9-10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack.
Any milk (cow’s, soy, cashew, etc.) may be substituted in place of the unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
I do not recommend substituting anything for the coconut flour, nor omitting the xanthan gum. The xanthan gum imitates gluten, holds together the cookies, and makes them chewy.
In total, the cookie dough requires the equivalent of ⅞ cup of sugar, but you’ll need to tweak the amounts of sweetener and milk if substituting something entirely different that the sweeteners used. The Truvia and Swerve may be substituted for each other. However, the SweetLeaf is a highly concentrated version of stevia, and I cannot vouch for any substitutions for it.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, low carb, low sugar}
Those look scrumptious! I don’t use coconut flour often but I’d love to try these, since they’re so healthy 🙂
Thanks June!
I am not a fan of coconut anything but I am willing to try the coconut flour! Does the coconut flour have the taste of coconut! That’s the problem that I have with coconut, I don’t like the taste!
If you’re incredibly sensitive to the taste of coconut, you may detect a very subtle flavor in the background, but I couldn’t taste it at all because of all of the chocolate chips. If you seal the cooled cookies inside of a tupperware container overnight, that will also lessen the coconut taste if it’s too prominent on the first day they’re made. I hope you enjoy the cookies if you try them Dawn!
These cookies look so so good!I have never used coconut flour before but it sounds so interesting, gluten free and low in carbs. That cookie that you had in the terminal sounds perfect, but these look even better!
Thanks Eve!
OMG A COOKIE I CAN EAT (with tiny modifications!) WAHOO! However, also dangerous! 😉
YAY!! 🙂 You got that right GiGi — definitely dangerous. I turn into the Cookie Monster whenever I make them!
Hahhhaha. So glad to know I’m not the only one who specifically asks for chewy cookies…. If I’m feeling extra sassy, I’ll even specify which cookie I want (usually the largest one with the best dough to chocolate ratio). Cookies are NECESSARY on a flight! 🙂
Oh I’ve definitely specified the exact cookie before too Hayley! (And donuts too… Especially if I’m picking one with sprinkles!) But chewiness > extra chocolate in my book, hence me asking to check every single one. 😉
Would this dough be good for a cookie cake for my son’s birthday??? And can I just use Walmart brand stevia granulated? How much?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Crystal! This cookie dough is slightly crumbly, so it isn’t the best for a cookie cake. If you’d still like to try it as a cookie cake, then I recommend doubling the ingredients to ensure it fills your pan and is thick enough to slice. The cookie cake will be done when the edges look golden and the center feels mostly firm to the touch. If your Walmart stevia is a cup-for-cup equivalent of granulated sugar, then check the Notes section to see how much you’ll need. (That info can be easy to miss!) 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of this recipe if you try it!
These cookies are tasty, but i don’t necessarily like the texture. is that the coconut flour?
Yes, coconut flour has a different texture compared to most other flours. If you prefer regular gluten-free chocolate chip cookies with a more traditional texture, I have a great recipe here. I hope you enjoy those if you try them Brittany!
Amy!! I am so grateful for these cookies! I just made them for my family today, and they were a hit! I have been doing some work with Jonathan Bailor from SANESolution.com to help children (and parents) who are tired of counting calories, and this recipe is amazing! Thank you for your inspiration!
-April
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies April! 🙂
I made them but they are so dry. What have I done wrong ?
Oh no! That sounds disappointing Leah. Let’s work together to figure out what happened! 🙂 Did you make any substitutions, and did you measure the flour with a measuring cup or a kitchen scale? Those are the two most likely things that could’ve caused issues, so let’s start there!
Can you substitute in coconut sugar instead of the Stevia? I don’t like Stevia at all! Or maybe Splenda?
Yes, you can substitute either, but you’ll probably need to decrease the amount of milk to compensate for the added volume since stevia’s sweetness is very concentrated compared to coconut sugar and Splenda. I talk about sweetener substitutions in the Notes section beneath the recipe. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the cookies Theresa!
Amy, I made the coconut flour chocolate chip cookies as directed, except that I used Truvia for all of the sugar substitute. I normally use Truvia in drinks with no aftertaste, however, on these cookies, it completely ruined them! They are awful just using Truvia! I love coconut flour, so that wasn’t the problem. Have you ever made these cookies just using all Truvia?
Oh goodness, that sounds really disappointing Robin! As I explained in the text of the blog post, I prefer to use multiple types of stevia-based sweeteners to minimize any strange flavors or aftertastes. I think that your next batch of cookies will taste much better if you’re able to locate at least one of the other two sweeteners!
I was wondering if you substituted almond flour instead of coconut flour, would you get the same result?
No, you wouldn’t get the same results with almond flour. As I talk about in the blog post above the recipe, coconut flour behaves very differently than other flours because it’s much more absorbent. I hope you enjoy the cookies if you try them Deanna! 🙂
Thank you for this. My 9 year old was just diagnosed with a wheat allergy and he lives chocolate chip cookies. I will add pecans, Heath bits and white chocolate chips to these. Thank you so much!!
My pleasure Ramina! I can’t wait to hear what he thinks of the cookies!