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}
I’m just wondering if that is the right amount of chocolate chips? 3 1/2 TBSP total? The cookies in the photos look like they have a lot more chocolate chips than that.
Yes, that’s correct Michelle! I made the cookies in my photos with the exact same amounts of ingredients listed. The trick is in saving some of the mini chocolate chips to press into the tops — it makes the cookies look (and taste!) like they have even more chocolate in them! 🙂
Just made these. I did 2 tbs fructivia and 1 tbs stevia in the raw and 1 tbs stevia in the packets. I also added my sugarfree chocokate chunks. Are they suppose to be soft, kinda like pancake consistancy?
They are good no matter the consustancy. 😉 now I just need to let them cool. :/
Okay, I had to come back and post. They have cooled and I ate one.
Those are delicious cookies. Even though they aren’t crispy the remind me of a pound cake only way better. 🙂
Now I have to keep me hands off the rest until late tomorrow
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Lori! They’re supposed to have a traditional chewy cookie texture. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you try next! Is the carrot cake still on your list?
Hello Amy! I always search for new recipes on Google in my free time. I found this recipe on your website. It is looking so tasty. The little chocolate nuts are looking so yummy and tasty. I hope the taste of this recipe is out of the world. Thanks for sharing. I am very excited to try this one. Thanks
It’s my pleasure Benjamin, and I’m really excited to hear what you think of the cookies! 🙂
Looking forward to making these today! I’m happy you are using more stevia in recipes! So helpful. Have you ever used the Lilly brand chocolate chips? They’re made with stevia and great quality chocolate making the cookies completely sugar free. They’re a wonderful find! Pricey, but definitely worth it! ?
I have a bag of Lily’s chocolate chips waiting for me on my pantry shelf — so funny you mention that Aimee! (And I still get a kick out of how you leave your name in your comments every time! 🙂 ) I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cookies!
okay, YUM. Making these next!!!!
I can’t wait to hear what you think of the cookies Haley!
Just curious about your SweetLeaf powdered stevia. I have conversion chart and the values don’t match how much value of sweetener you put, unless you are using Sweetleaf Stevia Powder Plus version. According to Sweetleaf, the Stevia Extract powder is 1/2 teaspoon to equal the value of one cup of sugar.
I feel hesitant to use a whole Tablespoon of the extract powder based on their chart, which I have found accurate in my own cooking.
I appreciate your interest in my recipe Ladonna! I link to the exact SweetLeaf stevia product that I used in the Ingredients list, so you can compare it to the product that you have. For the product that I used, 1 tablespoon of stevia is equivalent to 8 tablespoons of granulated sugar. 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think of these cookies if you try them!
If I used xylitol instead of stevia, how much more would I need to use?
I don’t have any experience with xylotiol, so I’m not entirely sure whether that substitution will work. You’ll need the xylitol equivalent of ½ cup of granulated sugar, and you may need to adjust the amount of almond milk as a result. I’d love to hear what you try and how the cookies turn out Alexsandra!
First time here….. as to “healthy” baking, that means different things to different people. To me, this is not a healthy recipe. However, I’ll check out your other recipes and maybe I can find some healthy ones.
I’d love to hear what you think of any recipes that you try Sandra! 🙂
I made these today, with the following subs, I used a whole egg rather than just the whites, and used 2.5T total of just erythritol as that is the sweetener we use ( Australia has much less access to all the sweeteners you guys talk about!! ) and sugar free chocolate chips/buttons. They turned out great! Quick and easy and the kids love them 🙂
I’m really glad you and your kids enjoyed the cookies Linda! It always amazes me just how different grocery stores and available products can be in various countries. I’m glad you were able to tweak the recipe to make it work, and thank you for sharing those modifications with me! 🙂