Shortly before I finished college, my family developed a slight obsession with Nutella. My mom bought jars of the sweet chocolate hazelnut spread to slather on her toasted whole grain English muffins in the morning or generously dollop alongside fresh fruit for dessert, and while the rest of our family typically did the same things, my brother and I also loved ours drizzled inside of warm crêpes with fresh strawberries.
A few months after I graduated, Mom announced that she was starting to eat gluten-free, not because of an intolerance, but to try to keep her mindless snacking in check. Although not completely militant about it, she gave up just about everything, including the complementary warm bread baskets served in restaurants before dinner, crackers in the pantry at home, and all of the incredibly tempting baked treats in the break room at work.
When her birthday rolled around that December, I wanted to make her a special dessert that still fit her new gluten-free habit. After much brainstorming, I settled on a small batch of Nutella cookies made with gluten-free flour (perfectly portioned and with very few leftovers to tempt her!).
As one of my first attempts at gluten-free baking, I picked up the first gluten-free baking flour blend I found at my local grocery store. Back at home, I stirred it into my cookie dough, took a little taste, and…
Nearly spit it right back out. Unbeknownst to me, the flour blend contained garbanzo bean flour… Which is undetectable once treats come out of the oven because the bean flavor bakes out, but that bean taste is still so strong and prominent in raw cookie dough.
Oops.
After a little more research and discovering that important little detail about zero aftertaste in the finished treats, I continued on my gluten-free baking adventure and slid my tray of Nutella cookies into the oven. Thankfully, the bean flavor did completely disappear once the cookies cooled, and they were a huge hit with my family at our little birthday celebration that evening.
So when I perfected my recipe for the ultimate healthy homemade Nutella last week, I immediately knew what I wanted to make first…
These Healthy Practically Flourless Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, an even better version of those birthday cookies! They’re supremely soft and chewy with lots of rich chocolate hazelnut flavor hiding in every bite, yet because they’re practically flourless (and include no bean flour!), the raw cookie dough still tastes incredible!
Plus these cookies contain no eggs (so the raw dough is completely safe to eat!), butter, oil or refined sugar… And just 115 calories!
Let’s just say… I should’ve baked a double batch. One for everyone else and one all for me. These cookies taste so rich and irresistible that I didn’t want to share any!
So let’s go over how to make these healthy practically flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies!
Instead of regular flour, you’ll actually start with oat flour (like this—or this for a gluten-free version!). Technically, oat flour is just really finely ground oats… But “powdered oats” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “oat flour.” ?
Therefore, I wasn’t sure whether to call these healthy Nutella chocolate chip cookies flourless or practically flourless, seeing as they’re just made from finely ground oats. What do you think? Flourless? Practically flourless?
No matter what, these healthy cookies are completely delicious!
Tip: I show you how to make your own oat flour here!
Just remember, it’s extremely important to measure the oat flour correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. (← That’s the one I own and love!) Oat flour is a bit more absorbent than most other flours, so adding too much to your cookie dough will result in cakey, dry, or crumbly cookies… Rather than the incredibly soft and chewy healthy Nutella chocolate chip cookies that you’re aiming for. So I promise it’s worth the few extra seconds to properly measure!
Another key ingredient? The ultimate healthy homemade Nutella, of course! I showed you how to make it here. You just need 4 ingredients and a blender! And even though it contains no dairy, oil, or artificial ingredients like in the original classic jars, my healthy homemade Nutella tastes exactly the same. My taste testers couldn’t tell the two apart!
You’ll need ¼ cup for these healthy flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies, which is about a third of this recipe. It’s best to make your healthy homemade Nutella the day before you make these cookies to give it time to chill and thicken in the refrigerator.
Or… Maybe you’re like me and already have a jar or two of that healthy homemade Nutella in your refrigerator right now?
No judgments here if you do!
To give these cookies as strong of a Nutella flavor as possible, you’ll actually skip the butter and coconut oil! Because of how much homemade Nutella you’re adding to the cookie dough, your healthy flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies already have a really soft and chewy texture without butter or oil.
More Nutella flavor and supremely soft and chewy? I call that a win-win!
You’ll also skip the eggs! Instead, you’ll add some unsweetened cashew milk to your cookie dough. I love using unsweetened cashew milk because it’s thicker and creamier than most nut milks with a consistency similar to whole milk or light cream. It’s also a non-dairy milk, so my lactose intolerant brother can enjoy these healthy flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies too!
Yet another ingredient you’ll skip? Refined granulated sugar! You’ll sweeten your cookie dough with coconut sugar instead. Coconut sugar is exactly what it sounds like: an unrefined sweetener that comes from coconuts. However, it does not actually taste like coconuts! It has a rich caramel-like flavor, similar to brown sugar, and you can generally find it on the baking aisle right next to the other sugars.
And of course, you’ll also need mini chocolate chips! However, a word of caution here… I’m the biggest chocoholic and almost never oppose adding as many chocolate chips as humanly possible to cookies.
Yet the strong taste of chocolate chips is rich enough to overpower the more delicate hazelnut flavor in this cookie dough. So if you want that nuttiness to shine through in your healthy flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies, don’t add more chocolate chips than this recipe calls for!
One last thing! These cookies don’t spread very much, if at all, so you must flatten the cookie dough before baking. I just use this mini spatula to flatten my cookie dough and shape it into smooth circles. No special tricks here!
That’s one of the most common questions people ask… “How do you make your cookies look so perfect?” My secret is just time and patience—and a mini spatula! ?
Then after you slide your baking sheet into the oven and set a timer…
You’ll have a pan of warm, chewy, oh so irresistible cookies waiting for you! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your healthy practically flourless Nutella chocolate chip cookies!
Healthy Practically Flourless Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies | Print |
- 1 cup (120g) oat flour (gluten-free if needed and measured like this)
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup (62g) healthy homemade Nutella
- 3 ½ tbsp (53mL) unsweetened cashew milk, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup (96g) coconut sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp (35g) miniature chocolate chips, divided
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the Nutella, milk, and vanilla. Stir in the coconut sugar. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in 2 tablespoons of miniature chocolate chips. Chill the cookie dough for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- Drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet using a spoon and a spatula. Slightly flatten using a spatula. (The cookies should spread some, but not a lot, if there isn’t too much oat flour in the dough!) Gently press the remaining chocolate chips into the tops. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
It’s extremely important to measure the oat flour correctly, using this method or a kitchen scale. (← That’s the one I own and love!) Too much oat flour will make your cookies turn out dry and crumbly, instead of soft and chewy, because oats act like sponges and soak up more moisture from your cookie dough compared to traditional flour.
White whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for the oat flour.
For a NON-oat-flour gluten-free option, I recommend the following: ¼ cup (30g) millet flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, 3 tablespoons (21g) coconut flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum. Many store-bought gluten-free flour blends (like this one!) will work as well, if measured like this.
This is my ultimate healthy homemade Nutella recipe. It’s so easy! If you prefer to use store-bought Nutella, that should also work.
Any milk may be substituted for the unsweetened cashew milk.
Light brown sugar may be substituted for the coconut sugar.
I don’t recommend adding more chocolate chips! They have a much stronger taste compared to the Nutella, so adding more chocolate chips will overpower the hazelnut flavor.
This recipe is easily doubled!
{gluten-free, vegan, clean eating, low fat}
View Nutrition Information + Weight Watchers Points
You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♡ Healthy Practically Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies
♡ Healthy Practically Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
♡ Healthy Flourless Chocolate Cowboy Cookies
♡ Healthy Flourless Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
♡ Healthy Practically Flourless Extra Fudgy Brownies
♡ Healthy Flourless Chocolate Chunk Brownie Bites
Hey Amy! I like a crunchier surface with my cookies. Do you think adjusting the baking time to around 15-18 mins in this recipe will help achieve a crunchier result?
Thank you!
I really appreciate your interest in this recipe of mine Char! Yes, I think baking the cookies for a longer period of time would help with a crunchier texture. Since I haven’t personally tried, I don’t know how much extra time it’ll take, but I think your guess of 15-18 minutes is a good starting point! If the cookies aren’t crunchy enough for your liking at that point, you can always bake them a little longer too. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear how that turns out!
Hello!
Around how large did you make each cookie ball before putting them in the oven? Like did you use a tablespoon of dough?
Thank you!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Sophia! I don’t use any special equipment; I simply use a spoon and spatula (just like I directed in Step 3!) and eyeball it. 😉 Right at the start of Step 3, when the cookie dough is still in the bowl, I’ll use my spatula to press a + sign into the top of the cookie dough to divide it into quadrants. From there, I know each section should yield 3 cookies.
However, if you’re really concerned about each cookie being precisely the same size, then weigh the bowl that contains your butter or coconut oil BEFORE adding any ingredients to it. Then weigh that bowl again after chilling. Subtract the first number from the second number. Then divide the resulting number by 12 to determine the number of grams of dough each cookie should have.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of these cookies! 🙂
Hi Amy, I’d love to try this recipe but I’d like to reduce the sugar at least by half (without affecting the texture)
! What would you recommend me to do ? Should I substitute a part of it with powdered stevia, liquid stevia or anything else ? And if so, do you have an idea of the quantities ?
Thank yoooouuu !!