It was 9pm, the kitchen was clean, the dishwasher was humming away while it cleaned my dirty dishes, and the kids were finally asleep in their own beds. All was peaceful for a Tuesday night. I sat down on the couch, with a warm cup of herbal tea, ready to snuggle with Dustin and watch another episode of Community. After just a few minutes of watching an episode, a late-night must-have-it-now kind of craving hit me.
I’m not usually the kind of gal to get a late-night craving. (Maybe I’m just too exhausted from #momlife to even think about making or eating anything once the kitchen is clean.) But, for some reason, my mind couldn’t stop picturing, and my stomach desiring, homemade chocolate chip cookies. As hard as I tried to block the craving, and just relax on the couch, I couldn’t.
Since it was so late, I didn’t have time to wait for butter to soften on the counter, or any other “fancy” baking steps. I needed chocolate chip cookies, and rest. Any cookie that I prepared had to be beyond easy to make. I also didn’t want anything overly heavy, like a wheat-based cookie.
I grabbed the bag of Honeyville Almond Flour sitting in my fridge. As I pulled it from the cold fridge I noticed a recipe on the back for almond flour cookies. I skimmed the short ingredient list, and then read through the short instructional notes. Yes! Recipe found!
Making a recipe on the back of an ingredient bag at 9pm is a huge risk. If the recipe was a major failure, I’d be left without my intensely-desired cookie. On the other hand, what was my alternative? Waiting 30 minutes for butter to soften? The chance of failure and no cookie far outweighed the latter.
The recipe on the bag called for agave and grapeseed oil, neither of which I keep in my pantry. And, to be honest, the idea of making a cookie without good ol’ butter just didn’t sound very appetizing. I subbed the grapeseed oil for real butter, agave for honey (and reduced the amount), added a starch and an egg yolk, and then topped the recipe additions off with a splash of vanilla extract. The dough mixed up perfectly: resembling gluten-based chocolate chip cookie dough.
After scooping the batter on my prepared cookie sheet, and placing my late-night creation in the warm oven, I couldn’t help but turn on the oven light and watch the cookies through the large glass oven door. Please work! Please work!
The cookies spread, just like a cookie should do, in the heat of the oven, and then twelve minutes later, the golden cookies were ready to be pulled out and enjoyed.
Clearly the recipe was a major success, a miracle so to speak, because here I am talking with you today about almond flour chocolate chip cookies.
I know, “miracle” cookie sounds pretty extreme and dramatic…it’s a cookie! But that’s the only word that I’ve been able to think about each time I’ve tested this recipe since that 9pm baking session. These cookies, in my mind, shouldn’t work. The cookies only contain 1/3 cup of sweetener, and that sweetener is simply honey. Between the honey, and the fact that the recipe is beyond easy to make, I’m going with “miracle” chocolate chip cookies.
"Miracle" Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 TB butter 1/2 cup // 110g, semi-melted
- 1/3 cup honey 80ml
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups blanched super-fine almond flour 250g, see the flour note under "Ingredient Notes"
- 2 TB arrowroot flour starch or organic cornstarch 15g
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup organic semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a medium-size bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the semi-melted butter (if you're using a microwave to melt the butter, my butter was perfect after 30 seconds) and honey, until well combined and creamy. Add the egg yolk, and beat for a few seconds, until combined. Finally, beat in the vanilla extract.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients: almond flour, starch, baking soda, and salt. Stir in 1 cup of chocolate chips.
- I like to use an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You may also make smaller cookies, and not use an ice cream scooper--you may need to adjust the baking time.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, until golden on top. Because the cookies are made with almond flour, they will feel very soft. As the cookies cool, they will firm up, so wait until the cookies are cool (about 5-10 minutes) before enjoying one. The cookies will always be soft, but once they cool, you'll be able to easily pick one up without it crumbling.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Ingredient Notes
Semi-soft butter means that half of the butter is melted, and half is soft but still in a solid state. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s worked really well in this recipe. I’ve used both salted and unsalted butter in this recipe without issue.
I tested three different almond flour brands in this recipe: Honeyville (also available via the Honeyville website), Bob’s Red Mill, and a generic bulk-bin “brand” from a local health food store. Both the bulk flour and Honeyville flour worked perfectly in this recipe–the cookies spread in the oven, and they were sweet (remember, there’s very little sweetener in this recipe). Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour consistently had issues: the cookies didn’t always spread, and they definitely weren’t as sweet. I’m not sure why this happened, but according to many online threads, I’m not the only one to experience issues with Bob’s Almond Flour and baked goods. If you’re using Bob’s Red Mill, you’ll probably need to smash the cookies down half-way through baking (if the cookies aren’t spreading), and you may need to bake the cookies for 2-3 extra minutes. Also, your cookies may not turn out as sweet with Bob’s, so you could increase the honey to 1/2 cup. Oh, Bob!
I like Enjoy Life, Equal Exchange, or Trader Joe’s Chocolate Chips.
Delicious recipe. I’m becoming pretty good in the kitchen thanks to your amazing blog!
this website is now unusable thanks to the ads. it’s unfortunate because I used several of the recipes, I’ll have to find another site.
Hey Jason, Thank you for sharing. If an ad is blocking a recipe or content please send me a screenshot through the contact page. We never want to interrupt your experience! In order to keep everything free (running this website costs us thousands each month, so it’s free for users but costs us a lot to keep it up), we must have something to ensure we don’t go in the red every month. Ads are the best way we can do this–it keeps everything free for you, while paying the bills around here. I know that ads aren’t enjoyable, but if you want free recipes and content, there has to be some sort of willingness to have ads on sites. The vast majority of recipe sites out there, that put time, money, and attention into developing and sharing free content, will have ads to pay the bills of maintaining such a site (buying ingredients to test recipes, paying for hosting, photography, the hours and hours spent writing and testing and photographing recipes, etc.) But those ads should never make the site unusable–if an ad blocks any content please notify us so we can have it removed ASAP. Also, we provide a print button on the recipe itself. If you click on the print button, you can go to a page that’s 100% ad free.
This is my second comment,
In case anyone wonders – I make these by the triple or quadrulple batch and freeze cookie dough balls to have on hand for future cravings. The cooking time increases a little bit, but we love them just as good.
That’s awesome, Sandra! So glad you’re loving the cookies. Great idea.
I have made this several times. In terms of taste, texture and preparation this is mine and my son’s favorite. I feel any guilt making this for my kids which is the cherry on the top. Thank you for the recipe Kristin!
That’s awesome, Harika! So happy to hear that.
These were so amazing they were all gone in less than a day!
Yay, Avina! So happy to hear that.
What is the best way to make this vegan? I was thinking coconut oil for the butter and extra baking soda in place of the egg? Thank you!
Hey Yesi, Coconut oil may work and is probably the best option in that case. For the egg, you need a binding agent so baking soda won’t work in this case. I would try a flax “egg.”