Almond Flour Cookies

These almond flour cookies will blow your mind! They have light golden edges, a soft gooey center, and they are loaded with chocolate chips. This recipe only takes 20 minutes from start to finish. Do not miss these grain free, Paleo friendly almond flour chocolate chip cookies!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• These almond flour cookies take only 20 minutes to make.
• This recipe requires only 7 ingredients.
• These cookies are soft and gooey.
• The almond flour adds protein and nutrients.
• Almond flour is the only flour used! These Amaretti Cookies only use almond flour as well.
• They are made in one mixing bowl.
• No dough chilling required.
• This recipe is Paleo friendly, grain free, gluten free, and easily made dairy free.
• Check out these Almond Flour Oatmeal Cookies or these Almond Flour Brownies for another delicious treat!

Ingredients & Substitutions

These are the main ingredients and substitutions. Scroll down to the recipe card for full ingredients list and instructions.

Use cold butter straight from the fridge. Cut into small cubes. This helps the butter fully cream together with the brown sugar. For dairy free, use solid coconut oil.

Tightly packed light brown sugar or coconut sugar add the sweetness. For Paleo and refined sugar free, use coconut sugar.

The egg helps bind the dough together. I have not tried this specific recipe with a Vegan egg replacement. However, I have had much success wit substituting ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce for 1 egg. See these Eggless Cookies for more tips and tricks for egg free baking.

Vanilla extract adds a great classic cookie flavor.

Use finely blanched almond flour for best results. I love Bob’s Red Mill finely blanched almond flour. Almond meal is not a viable substitute. See both sections below for more about almond flour.

Baking soda is the leavening agent.

Any chocolate chips will work. I love dark chocolate chips for deeper and richer flavor.

Add a pinch of sea salt if using unsalted butter.

Baking with Almond Flour

Almond flour is a common low carb, grain free flour. It is also Keto and gluten free. This flour is made from ground up almonds.

Almond flour is much less absorbent and less dense than traditional flour. It does not crisp up or harden while baking. For these reasons, almond flour typically yields softer baked goods.

There is no perfect substitute for almond flour. In addition, do not use almond flour in place of regular flour.

Almond Flour Versus Almond Meal

Blanched almond flour is ground up almonds whose skins have been removed. It is a popular Paleo and grain free flour. In addition, this flour is significantly lighter in color than almond meal. Due to the peeled skins, blanched almond flour is much less coarse than almond.

Blanched almond flour is highly recommended for baking. Check out these Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies and Almond Flour Banana Muffins which both use almond flour.

On the other hand, almond meal is made from ground up almonds with their skin on. Almond meal is darker in color and more coarse than blanched almond flour.

To be clear, almond flour and almond meal are very different from regular flour. Additionally, they are also vastly different from gluten free 1 to 1 flour. For these reasons, I do not recommend trying this recipe with regular flour, wheat flour, or even gluten free 1 to 1 flour.

Taste & Texture

These almond flour cookies are just sweet enough, buttery and so delicious! They taste like classic chocolate chip cookies.

The texture is soft baked and light. They are not crispy, hard, bland or dry.

How to Make

Step 1

First, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Step 2

In a stand mixer, beat together cold butter and brown sugar. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes or until no clumps of butter remain.

Step 3

Add in egg and vanilla. Beat until combined.

Step 4

Then, add in almond flour, baking soda and pinch of sea salt. Stir to combine.

Step 5

Fold in chocolate chips.

Step 6

Use ice cream scoop or cookie scoop to scoop balls of dough onto lined pan.

Step 7

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are golden along the edges and middles are barely set.

Step 8

Finally, remove from oven. Allow cookies to cool on pan for 10 minutes before placing on a cooling rack.

Expert Tips & Tricks

Use cold butter for this recipe. Slice into small cubes before creaming together with brown sugar.

Beat butter and brown sugar until no clumps of butter remain.

Use ice cream scoop or cookie scoop. This produces evenly sized, perfectly round balls of cookie dough.

Do not over bake! Remove from oven when cookies are barely set in the middle.

Variations & Add Ins

These almond flour cookies are great with chocolate chips! Consider adding these mix ins to the dough.

Mini chocolate chips

White chocolate chips

Chopped walnuts

Chopped pecans

Sesame seeds

Dried cranberries

Dash of cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

How to Serve & Store

Serve almond flour cookies warm from the oven! Allow them to cool for 10 minutes before digging in. Serve with a tall glass of milk or with a smear of peanut butter on top.

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Freeze for up to 2 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

You May Also Like

• Almond Flour Chocolate Cookies
• Paleo Almond Flour Pumpkin Cookies
• Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
• Crispy Almond Flour Lace Cookies
• Almond Flour Thumbprint Cookies (Vegan)

If you make this almond flour cookie recipe, I would really appreciate a review! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I would love for you to follow along!  For more ideas, check out these Dessert Recipes.

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