Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies are irresistibly chewy with a crisp edge and a gooey centre filled with puddles of molten chocolate. Even if you are a novice baker, these are so easy to make using one bowl, all-purpose gluten-free flour and no xanthan gum. You'll be satisfying your cookie cravings in no time.

this recipe

Let’s cut through all the fuss with this simple Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. You can bake them with:

• minimal hands-on time
• easy ingredients
• no fancy method
• no weird gums
• still with the same sense of nostalgia, comfort and loving feeling
• and sense of accomplishment that true home cookie baking provides.

When I picked my son up from school the other day he gave me a big hug and happily exclaimed ‘Mummy, you smell like freshly baked cookies,’ I swear his hug was extra tight.

Then when we got home with the warm scent of vanilla and chocolate permeating the house, a huge tray of freshly baked cookies and a large jug of milk set beside, we sat down together. We ate a cookie each, drank some milk and he told me what happened at school that day. I can’t bake my children cookies everyday but I cherished this particular day and this cosy feeling of connection, calm joy and comfort which goes beyond the realm of ordinary baking.

And it’s so easy to achieve even though we are using gluten-free ingredients. You will not notice a difference as all the hallmarks of your favourite nostalgic chocolate chip cookie are present and correct. I’ll guide you through the simple steps of baking these cookies and help you bypass the common mistakes to ensure your cookies turn out perfectly every time.

✨I’ll advise you on:

• which gluten-free flour to use and how to work with different brands
• how to substitute ingredients
• which chocolate works the best and how to prepare it to make perfect chocolate puddles
• and even give you a special tip on how to make your cookies taste even more butterscotchy.✨

So, gather your baking essentials and let’s begin.

Watch the video to see how to make them

Why you'll love this recipe

• Perfect Texture: The cookies strike a wonderful balance of chewiness, crispness at the edges, and a gooey centre.
• Pockets of Melted Chocolate: By using good quality chocolate chopped into chunks by hand instead of the chocolate baking chips, you will achieve not only more delicious chocolate but the chocolate will melt throughout your cookie into irresistible pockets of molten joy.
• Gluten-Free without Xanthan Gum: These cookies achieve an impressive chewy texture with a soft tender bite, that holds together without crumbling and without relying on xanthan gum (or other thickeners).
• Quick and Easy: The recipe is simple and straightforward, allowing you to whip up your cookie dough in no time in just one bowl. You will need to rest the dough but after that the cookies bake up very quickly.
• Nostalgia The classic combination of butter, sugar, and vanilla, paired with rich chocolate chips, creates a warm cosy comforting cookie that are just how you remember cookies should be.
• No Compromises on Taste: These gluten-free cookies are indistinguishable from their gluten-containing counterparts, ensuring everyone can enjoy them without telling the difference. I’ve also included flour substitution ideas for allergies.

Which flour to use for gluten-free cookie dough

Using the right gluten-free flour is key in creating a gluten-free cookie which has the right structure, taste and texture.

This cookie can be made with your favourite all-purpose gluten-free flour blend. Do note though that all brands of gluten-free flour have different ingredients in their mixes so will work differently depending on which brand you use. Rest assured though that any brand will work and will deliver the same result - the only difference will be how long you rest your cookie dough for.

The brands that have fewer starches or proteins in their mix will need the cookie dough to be chilled and rested for longer.

You won't necessarily know how much starch or protein your brand contains - as the ingredients list does not include amounts. So instead you need to know the texture of the cookie dough you are looking for.

🍪The cookie dough needs to be stiff and just about scoopable before you shape it for baking.🍪

A lot of flours will get to this consistency within 2 hours of chill time but some I tested took about 8 hours.

The brand of flour I recommend

I particularly recommend my Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Blend which has the right balance of starch and wholegrain flours to produce a great texture and structure in the cookie and only needs 2 hours of chilling time.

I have also tested the recipe with Doves Farm Freee Gluten-Free Plain White Flour and the cookie dough reached the correct consistency after 8 hours of chilling time.

So, you can use whatever brand you have available to you, but bear in mind the different chilling times. Although to be honest you will always have good results if you chill your cookie dough for 8 hours - hence this is why these are the timings included in the final recipe.

Extra protein

If you have ever experienced gluten-free cookies which are dry or crumbly then the next tip ensures that you won’t have the same experience with this recipe.

✨Support the gluten-free flour mix with an extra protein-packed flour.✨

The protein in flour helps trap and hold moisture, preventing the cookies from drying out. This recipe uses almond flour (ground almonds not defatted almond flour) which is the easiest protein packed flour to get hold of. However chickpea flour (gram flour/garbanzo flour) and soy flour are also good choices and can be used if you have nut allergies.

✨Do note if you are using chickpea flour or soy flour then they have less moisture than the ground almonds so the dough will be a little stiffer. The cookies turn out the same though.✨

Using a protein packed flour also dismisses the need for using xanthan gum. It achieves the right tender crumb and strong structure from the protein in the right flour so no thickeners or gums are needed for this recipe.

How to ensure gluten-free chocolate chip cookies have the right texture.

There are a few important elements that go into achieving a chewy and moist texture in gluten-free cookies:

• Melted butter. Melted butter has a higher moisture content compared to softened butter, which contains some air pockets. The increased moisture from melted butter adds moisture to the dough, resulting in a softer and chewier texture in the baked cookies.
• Brown sugar. Brown sugar, with its higher moisture content, helps create a chewier texture.
• Extra egg yolk. This gives a little more richness and chewiness to the finished cookie.
• Chill the dough. Gluten-free flours absorb more liquid than regular flour, by chilling the dough the flours are given more time to hydrate and will give your cookies a better structure.
• Baking the cookie until juuuust about baked. To achieve chewy cookies, it is crucial to bake them until the edges are set but the centres are still slightly undercooked.

The best chocolate to use

I recommend using 70% dark chocolate (semi-sweet chocolate) for these cookies. It's a good contrast to the sugar content so they don't err on the too sweet side.

I recommend using chopped chocolate rather than chocolate chips in these cookies. I love the lack of uniformity to the lovely little chocolate puddles and they give a beautifully rustic look and allow the chocolate to spread haphazardly throughout the cookie.

✨If you love chocolate chip baked goods then you'll love these Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins which are rich with vanilla, studded with hand chopped chocolate and puddles of chocolate molten on the top.✨

How to prepare the chocolate

I use a good quality ‘eating’ chocolate bar which I cut myself using a sharp knife into equal-ish sized chocolate chunks. It’s the nature of it that some will break off into shards.

These chocolate chunks/shards tend to melt more readily and spread throughout the dough, creating a marbled or swirled effect when baked. The varying thicknesses and shapes of chocolate shards can create different texture experiences within each bite.

I prefer using a thinner bar like Lindt bar which allows you to control the chopping of the chocolate better. Some thicker chocolate bars cut into chocolate chunks that are just a bit too bulky.

Tip for 'Bakery Style' Cookies

It’s essential that you keep some of the chocolate chunks back until after baking. Then gently press these extra chocolate pieces into the just baked cookies the second they are removed from the oven. This gives the cookies their signature look - like they are stuffed with chocolate chunks. This extra chocolate will sink into the cookies and melt to create our chocolate puddles.

How to ensure your gluten-free cookies are rich with flavour

The first couple of batches of these cookies I baked where I just used a gluten-free all-purpose flour tasted a little bland. Here’s how I improved the flavour and why these final cookie recipe produces cookies that are deeply rich with a buttery butterscotch flavour.

• Almond flour. Yes, we are include almond flour/ground almonds in the recipe primarily for structure but the bonus is that they give a great rich flavour too.
• Vanilla. Up that vanilla extract. I used a whole tablespoon of very good quality vanilla extract in the final version and not a drop is wasted.
• Ground Nutmeg. Here is that special tip I promised you. I read in Stella Parks’ ‘Bravetart’ (one of my favourite cookbooks) that she uses ground nutmeg to amplify the butterscotch flavour of her chocolate chip cookies. And my goodness it works like a charm. It’s not a lot for the total amount of the recipe but it really makes a difference.

Alternative flavour tip

Browned Butter. Take these cookies one step further and brown your butter. You are melting it anyway. If you carry on melting your butter so that it gets browner and more nutty in aroma then this will add an amazing flavour profile to your finished cookie.

Ingredients needed

• Dark chocolate. This recipe uses 70% dark chocolate. However, you can use 50-60% chocolate for a softer chocolate flavour. The chocolate is from a whole bar cut into chunks. I used Lindt Excellence 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Bar.
• Butter. Unsalted is the best choice here so we can control the salt content.
• Brown sugar. Gives lovely gentle molasses flavour and moisture.
• Caster sugar. It's a fine white baking sugar. If you can only get hold of granulated sugar you can grind more finely in the food processor before you use it in the recipe. It gives us our crisp edges.
• Eggs. This recipe uses medium size, about 60g each with shell (50g each without shell).
• Vanilla extract. Use a good quality extract, I like Nielsen Massey.
• Gluten-free flour. This recipe can be made with your favourite brand of gluten-free flour. I also particularly recommend my Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Mix which gives great results.
• Almond flour. This recipe can be made with ground almonds / almond meal.
• Bicarbonate of soda. Also known as baking soda, this is a white crystalline powder that is commonly used as a leavening agent in baking.
• Ground nutmeg. I highly recommend including it as it accentuates the butterscotch flavour of the cookies.
• Salt. I like to use kosher salt in the cookie dough as it has a round gentle flavour. Then finish off the cookies with flaked sea salt.

Step-by-step instructions

For full recipe instructions go to the recipe card at the end of this post.

• Mix melted butter, sugars, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla in a large bowl.
• Add gluten-free flour, almond flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, and nutmeg and mix to form a dough.
• Stir in 100g of chocolate chunks and chill the dough for 8 hours.
• Pre-heat oven to 190°C/170°C fan-assisted/325°F/gas mark 5 and line a baking tray.
• Shape dough into rough oblong shapes (almost ball-like) and place on the tray. Bake for 10 minutes until edges are golden.
• While warm, use a cookie cutter to gently shape them into circles, press in the extra chocolate chunks, and sprinkle over a little flaked sea salt.
• Cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Repeat the baking process with the rest of the dough.

Expert tips

• Make sure the butter has cooled down before beginning making the cookies so it doesn’t scramble your eggs.
• Weigh your butter after melting (so actually you want to be melting about 140-150g) as you want to use the exact right amount of butter in your dough and some of it can get lost during the melting.
• Sift the brown sugar as it has a tendency to clump.
• Chill the cookie dough. This is imperative for hydrating the flours, it allows the flavour to develop and helps the butter to cool. Different gluten-free flours will need different chill times, so for safety I have given an 8 hour chilling time window, but your dough just really needs to be stiff and just about scoopable before it's ready for baking.
• Shape your cookie dough into rough oblong shapes – they should not be uniformly round balls. This helps the cookies not to spread out too much, the dough sort of collapses into itself and helps create a thicker cookie which gives good chew.
• Allow a good amount of space between cookies. I usually bake only 6 per batch on a large baking tray. This recipe produces 16 cookies so you will bake them in batches of 3.
• Bake the cookies until just set. They will look wobbly and underbaked in the middle but they finish setting as they cool and this is how they get lovely and chewy. Overbaking leads to a crisper cookie.
• Use your largest cookie cutter to place around the freshly baked cookie and move around the cookie, gently coaxing it into a round uniform shape. Do it gently so as not to break the cookie apart which will still be quite fragile at this stage (just look at my recipe video to show what happens when you are a little rougher with it – although do note that it made no difference to the cookies once set – I couldn’t tell which were the broken ones after they had cooled as they set back into each other).

FAQs

Flavour variations

• Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies: Mix 1 tablespoon of instant coffee or espresso powder into the wet ingredients for a coffee-infused chocolate chip cookie.
• Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies: Stir in 40g (½ cup) of desiccated /shredded coconut to the dough for a tropical twist and an extra layer of texture.
• Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies: Mix in 1 tablespoon of orange zest to the wet ingredients or replace the chocolate chips for chunks of orange chocolate (I will be 100% supportive if it’s Terry’s Chocolate Orange!!).
• White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies: Replace some or all of the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips and stir in 60g (½ cup) of chopped macadamia nuts for a sweet and nutty variation.
• Dark Chocolate Cherry/Cranberry Cookies: Add 75g (½ cup) of dried cherries or cranberries to the dough for a slightly tart twist.

More gluten-free cookie recipes you'll love!

• Oat and Raisin Cookies
• Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
• Flourless Cashew Butter Cookies
• Easter Cookies
• Sugar Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
• Embossed Cookies

✨Have you tried this Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well! I would love to hear about how your recipe turned out and your feedback also helps other readers.✨

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Georgina Hartley

These Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies are irresistibly chewy with a crisp edge and a gooey centre filled with puddles of molten chocolate. Even if you are a novice baker, these are so easy to make using one bowl, all-purpose gluten-free flour and no xanthan gum. You'll be satisfying your cookie cravings in no time.

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Chilling Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 25 minutes mins

Course Cookie

Cuisine American

Servings 16 cookies

Calories 213 kcal

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 120 g unsalted butter - melted and cooled
• ▢ 100 g soft light brown sugar
• ▢ 50 g caster sugar
• ▢ 1 egg - medium, see notes
• ▢ 1 egg yolk - medium, see notes
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 160 g gluten-free flour* - see notes
• ▢ 80 g almond flour - ground almonds / almond meal
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ 150 g dark chocolate - roughly chopped into little chunks
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

 

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, sugars, egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix well until the ingredients are fully incorporated.
• Add the gluten-free flour, almond flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and nutmeg to the bowl. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until a dough forms.
• Stir the 100g of chocolate chunks into the dough until evenly distributed. Set aside the remaining chopped chocolate for later use.
• Place the dough in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight if desired.
• Pre-heat the oven to 190°C /170°C fan-assisted /325F / gas mark 5 . Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
• Remove the dough from the refrigerator and portion it into rough oblong shapes, each weighing approximately 40g.
• Place them onto the prepared baking tray, spaced apart. You will have to bake the cookies in batches, possibly 6 in each batch.
• Bake the cookies in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden.
• Once baked, remove the tray from the oven. While the cookies are still warm, use a large round cookie cutter to swirl around the cookies to gently coax them into perfect circles. Press some of the extra chocolate chunks into the tops of the cookies, and sprinkle a small amount of flaked sea salt over each cookie.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
• Continue with baking another batch of cookies until you have used up all the dough.

Video

Notes

• This recipe can be made with your favourite brand of gluten-free flour. I have tested this recipe with Doves Farm Freee Gluten-Free Plain White Flour and also my Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Mix.
• You can substitute the almond flour for chickpea flour (gram flour / garbanzo flour) or soy flour.
• The whole eggs used in this recipe are medium size, 60g with shell and 50g without shell. The yolk weighs 20g. If you can't get hold of medium eggs I suggest you weigh the amount.

Expert tips

• Let the melted butter cool before starting to avoid scrambling the eggs.
• Weigh the butter after melting to ensure the right amount in the dough.
• Sift brown sugar to prevent clumping.
• Chill the dough for 8 hours to hydrate flours, develop flavour, and cool the butter.
• Shape the dough into rough oblong shapes for less spreading and chewier cookies.
• Leave enough space between cookies on the baking tray (bake 6 per batch).
• Bake until just set for chewy cookies; avoid overbaking for a crisp result.
• Use a large cookie cutter to gently shape the freshly baked cookies into a uniform round.

Storing

The cookies will keep well for up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Freeze

You can freeze the cookie dough in their oblong shapes ready for baking. Or you can freeze the baked cookies. Store for up to 3 months.

US customary measurements

These US measurements for the ingredients provided are based on a conversion calculator. This recipe was tested with metric measurements and I recommend using a digital scale to weigh ingredients for the most accurate results. READ MORE >>> Why you should always weigh vs measuring with cups 

Nutrition information

Please note that the nutrition information provided below is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients you use. Please seek a professional nutritionist’s advice for further clarification.

The nutrition serving is for 1 cookie.

Nutrition

Calories: 213kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 3gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.5gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 39mgSodium: 118mgPotassium: 84mgFiber: 2gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 222IUVitamin C: 0.001mgCalcium: 33mgIron: 2mg

Have you tried this recipe?Head to the comment section and let me know what you think!