These almond flour cocoa cookies are super rich, with a soft and chewy texture that rivals traditional chocolate cookies. Made with almond flour instead of regular flour, these chocolate almond flour cookies are a healthier alternative to regular cookies without sacrificing flavor.
You can stick with butter for a traditional version or use coconut oil for a paleo vegan dessert option. You can even make them keto.
These cookies are an all almond flour version of my Paleo Chocolate Cookies, which use a combination of almond and coconut flour.
I’ve gotten a few questions about how to omit the 1/4 cup of coconut flour, so I tried it out. In the end, I replaced it with .58 cup of almond flour. It worked great!
So now you can just use 1 1/3 cups of almond flour and no coconut flour.
I also tested out a keto option. More on that below!
And if you need an all coconut flour version of this recipe, I’ve got these Coconut Flour Chocolate Cookies.
Ingredients
If you haven’t bought almond flour in a while, it’s important to know that Bob’s Red Mill recently rebranded their almond meal as Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour. It was previously known as Natural Almond Meal.
Their almond flour is now labeled as Super-Fine Almond Flour. You can see how this might cause some confusion!
The new name threw my photographer off, and she used almond meal (“Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour”). So that’s why the almond flour in the shot below looks like almond meal. Because it is almond meal. 😆
I’ve made these cookies with German almond flour (which is called ground almonds here) and the above two Bob’s products I mentioned.
The cookies turned out great with all three flours, so feel free to use whatever you’d like. I always use blanched almond flour because I don’t like the specks of almond skin in my cookies.
In this recipe, it doesn’t really matter, but if you make something like these Almond Paste Cookies, it’ll make quite a difference in appearance. The taste will be almost the same but with tiny flecks of almond skin.
How to make them
It’s a basic cookie recipe. Mix together the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another.
Then mix until combined, and add the chocolate. Bake!
Size
These cocoa cookies are pretty large.
If you’re aiming for regular-sized cookies, you can easily get about 16.
But I was going for those big, bakery-style cookies. I just love how they turn out that way. If you make them as written, you’ll get 8.
If you decide to make smaller (more reasonably sized) cookies, don’t forget to adjust the baking time accordingly.
Cocoa type
I always use Dutch-process cocoa powder because I like the darker, chocolaty taste, and I recommend you do the same, at least for these cookies.
If you can’t find it, Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder should do the trick.
And if you’re looking for a paleo chocolate dessert that doesn’t call for cocoa powder, these Paleo Brownies look great!
Can I use cacao?
No, and you can read why in detail over here → Cacao vs Cocoa.
But basically, your cookies are going to be cakey, not chewy, and possibly even crumbly. Cacao is more absorbent than cocoa.
Your cookies would also need a LOT more sweetener.
In my paleo Vegan Gelato recipe, you need to use 33% more sugar if using cacao in place of cocoa powder. And in other recipes I’ve tested with cacao, I had to use even more than 33% to get the recipe sweet enough.
It depends on both the recipe and the brand of cacao.
And even with the extra sugar, I didn’t even like the flavor of the finished product.
There are some people who say they use cacao in place of cocoa, but they’re absolutely not interchangeable.
I have about 7 kilos of different brands of cacao left over after writing my cacao vs. cocoa post, and I’ve tried using it in recipes I’ve made dozens of times. The results aren’t nearly as delicious and a lot of baked treats have the wrong texture.
Some people love it, though. 🤷♀️
Keto option
You can use Gentle Sweet or this copycat, which is what I use in all of my keto recipes. I don’t like the taste of keto sweeteners, but this one is by far, the best I’ve tried.
Here’s what you need to make a large batch.
- 1 pound (453 grams) xylitol – approximately 2 1/4 cups
- 12 ounces (340 grams) erythritol – about 1 1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons
- 2 teaspoons pure stevia powder
Note that this blend isn’t a 1:1 replacement for granulated sugar. I usually use around 2/3 of the amount of sugar called for in a recipe.
Sometimes more, sometimes less. It really depends on the recipe.
Once you’ve mixed this up, you can try it in these other keto desserts:
In these cookies, they have a little aftertaste, but it’s not bad at all. I usually really dislike keto sweets, especially keto chocolate desserts, but I loved these cookies.
What else to do with almond flour
After making these cookies, you’ll be left with quite a bit of almond flour to bake with. Here are some of my favorite things to do with it!
Out of all my almond flour dessert recipes, these Almond Flour Brownies are my very favorite. They’re insanely gooey, fudgy, and have the perfect texture.
If you’re not in the mood for brownies, here are some cookie options.
I hope you’ll enjoy these almond flour cocoa cookies! I’d love to hear your thoughts below in the comments. Thanks! :)
Almond Flour Cocoa Cookies
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 8 large cookies or 16 regular-sized cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups (133 grams) finely blanched almond flour1
- 1/3 cup + 4 teaspoons (48 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 7 tablespoons (98 grams) refined coconut oil,2 not melty3 or for non-paleo/vegan, unsalted butter,4 room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) coconut sugar, or brown sugar for non-paleo, or 1/2 cup (93 grams) Gentle Sweet5 for keto
- 6 tablespoons (98 grams) natural almond butter, room temperature6
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large (50 grams, out of shell) egg, room temperature or 1 chia egg for vegan7
- 1 cup (170 grams) chocolate chips 8, divided
Directions
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, beat together the fat and sugar at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Beat in the almond butter and vanilla extract on medium speed and mix until combined. Beat in the egg on low and mix until well incorporated.
- Stir in the flour mixture until well combined.
- Then stir in 3/4 cup (128 grams) chocolate chips. If you used brown sugar or Gentle Sweet, skip to the next step. If you used coconut sugar, place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 1 hour or until the dough is firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into 8 (93-gram) balls and place the remaining 1/4 cup (43 grams) of chocolate chips on the top and on the sides of the dough balls.
- Place 3" apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press the cookies down lightly with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes (if using coconut sugar) or 12-15 minutes (if using brown sugar) or until the surface of the center of the cookies no longer appears wet. They'll be very soft but will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.
- Let cool completely on the baking sheet. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They can also be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen up to 3 months.
Notes
- Non-blanched almond meal is what was actually used in the photos, but I prefer the cookies with blanched almond flour as there are fewer flecks of almonds in the cookies.
- I used refined coconut oil. If you use unrefined, these cookies will have a little coconut taste to them.
- If your coconut oil is a little melty, put it in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until firmer like softened butter. If you use slightly melted coconut oil, the dough will be greasy and the chocolate chips will be hard to incorporate.
- Butter works in these cookies but they're fudgier and in my opinion, better, with coconut oil.
- There's a Gentle Sweet copycat recipe listed in the post. It's what I always use in my keto recipes and works exactly as well as Gentle Sweet.
- The almond butter shouldn't have any added fat or sugar.
- To make a chia egg, mix together 1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds and 3 tablespoons water. Let sit for 1 minute or until goopy like an egg.
- For paleo vegan chocolate chips, I use Hu Dark Chocolate Gems. For not-technically paleo but vegan chocolate, I like Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips. For keto, I like Dark Chocolate Chips by Lily's, although the price right now is insane!