Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
I am a big fan of anything that justifies eating five cookies at 7 in the morning before working out… Which is why “paleo” and “cookies” are really a match made in CrossFit Heaven.
I tend to be THAT girl who brings in baked goods to a work-out class and tortures everyone with the overwhelming aroma of freshly baked cookies. But everyone was singing a different tune when I brought these babies in! Gluten-free, refined-sugar, paleo, or not… These cookies are sure to make any chocolate chip cookie lover obsessed.
One of my trainers, Clark is a big fire-fighter with an aptitude for baking and he actually CREATED this recipe. When he first gave me a cookie I was in such disbelief that these weren’t made of gluten nor refined sugars because they were so delicious, soft, puffy, and buttery.
But there is no butter! Or flour! Or refined sugars! And I could eat 12 of them and simply wave it off as I am eating a handful of almonds! Kind of.
I immediately requested that Clark send me the recipe so I could recreate these goodies. For this post I just copied and pasted his recipe verbatim because you can just see his excitement growing as he goes through the recipe… I think it goes without any additional commentary that you should just try them and make yourself and others happy.
I promise my next dessert will include gluten and refined sugars… But if I didn’t mention they were paleo in the title would you have been able to guess it?
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe by Clark, The Trainer:
3 ¼ cup almond meal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract (or regular if you don’t give a damn)
½ cup honey (maple syrup or agave nectar works too)
½ cup coconut oil, melted
1 ½ cups cacao nibs (pure chocolate chips and vegan chocolate chips work too)
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, Grab a cookie sheet and some parchment paper or aluminum foil. I’ve found it easier to use something like that rather than baking directly on the cookie sheet (plus I can get the next sheet in the oven quicker and I want my cookies NOW!)
- Combine 3 and 1/4 cups of almond flour (Trader Joes almond meal is by far the best, and it’s cheaper than Red Mill or whatever) with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of baking soda.
- In a large bowl, combine 2 eggs, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup of coconut oil and 1/2 cup of either honey, pure maple syrup, or agave nectar (I like honey).
- Combine wet and dry ingredients then add 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips. The darker the chips the more paleo friendly they are, but the dairy free ones from Trader Joes taste pretty good. Haha! (The dough will look pretty wet, I placed my dough in the fridge to firm up a bit before rolling them into balls, but you can just pop them into the oven as is)
- Spoon them onto your parchment and pop them in the oven. This recipe makes about 24 cookies, and i usually do 2 rounds of 12. Bake ‘em for about 8-10 minutes (the tops will start to get golden brown). If they go longer than that the bottoms burn because of the sugar in the honey. No good at all.
- When I pull them out I let them cool long enough to get them off the parchment and put them in something sealed to go into the fridge. I like them better out of the fridge because there’s no flour and they tend to be a little sticky at room temp.
- Now it gets a little crazy… Done like this, sometimes they can seem a little under cooked. Just the nature of the recipe. I’ve experimented a little with adding 2 tablespoons of coconut flour and it really changes the texture. Makes them more “cakey” if you will.
Wow… I just re-read this email and I’m a little frightened by my intricate knowledge of baking these cookies. Now that I’ve completely nerded out on you, I’m going to get back to doing something a grown man should do. LoL!!
Hahaha!! Thanks a TON for posting this up. They’re really good and not terrible if you’re trying to stay clean. I’ve done them with local honey, raw honey, pure maple syrup, a low calorie version (not very good) and with no choc chips. I can’t take full credit though for this… It was handed down to me and I’ve adjusted it to what you see here. Enjoy!
I bought coconut BUTTER instead of oil! Eeek:( can I substitute???
I made these in cookie bar form for the Super Bowl. Pretty tasty!
This looks amazing. I would love to try it out.
This looks amazing. I’d like to try it.
What a great recipe! Going to link to you if that’s ok.
Of course and thank you!
Excellent recipe! Not that sweet, and that’s a good thing, sweets fuel my cravings. I used 82% unsweetened chocolate, it was a tad bitter. Also, I did not have almond flour so I used ground almonds, which worked out just fine. Thanks for the recipe:-)
Good recipe! Just made these. Mine didn’t quite look like your pictures, but I’m guessing those are the ones you made with coconut flour. I’ll be trying that next time, and using more paleo-friendly chocolate. I just had milk chocolate chips on hand, but they are still delicious and probably much healthier than a regular cc cookies anyway.
My sweet tooth is satisfied and my body isn’t too upset about it!
super yummy but totally flattened! added coconut flour, but still thin and flat. ;-( i mixed in semi sweet chips with nibs and even my 7 year old loved them though.
I made these with pure maple syrup (Grade B) because I didn’t have raw honey on hand. They didn’t look smooth like the picture despite using the 2T of coconut flour. BUT regardless, they looked very good AND tasted wonderful! I’m trying to convince family and friends that the Paleo lifestyle is not difficult and that you don’t have to give up everything you love. I think these cookies are the ticket! As far as the chocolate, I used 60% cacao dark chocolate chips and it was a beautiful thing
Made them with Agave and they are wonderful!
I’m alergic to almonds, is there something else I could use in place of the almond meal?
OOPS!! allergic
Yes! This is exactly what I have been looking for and they look so delicious! Thank you Thank you! Oh and I really like your blog!
Just like they used to bake in the cave then eh? Gonna have some Paleolithic cave brewed coffee with that too?
Absolutely delicious! So easy to make and they turned out perfectly. I would even be satisfied with less chocolate so I may minimize the chocolate chips next time. Definitely a keeper!
Tried these cookies today, and they are BOSS!!! I did, however, make some tweaks to the recipe, and pinned it on Pinterest. I did link the “original” back to this page, to give credit where it’s due :0) If you’re interested in my tweaks to this, the pin address is http://pinterest.com/pin/41447259043049689/
Kinda blows that I had to shorten it because it only lets you post 500 characters or less, but I did the best I could! ;0)
This paleo version of chocolate chips is more delicious than the recipes with all the processed ingredients! However, I threw in a little extra brown sugar to make the cookies sweeter, but this is what I am going to make from now on, paleo or no paleo living!
I have made these twice with and without the coconut flour. I prefer the coconut flour addition. I also discovered that by whipping the eggs by themselves before adding the other ingredients, the cookies were more of a cookie consistency and even less gooey than without whipping the eggs (and even with the coconut flour). This is my new favorite paleo cookie recipe; thanks for sharing!!!
I just made these, and dang are they good! I made some giant cookies, and I have already eaten two of them! They have only been out of the oven for 45 seconds!
I just made these, and dang are they good! I made some giant cookies, and I have already eaten two of them! They have only been out of the oven for 45 seconds!
P.S. If you dont mind, I would like to post the recipe up on my fat loss journal, http://www.fatdudegetsfit.com.
Omg these are amazing!!!!! Best paleo chocolate chip cookies ever!
Omg these are the best Paleo chocolate chip cookies ever!!! Just made a batch and ate two before they even cooled. So good!!!
Love these! Gotta keep the chocolate calories in mind, though. Will decrease next time
These turned out incredible! I used the extra 2 tbs. of coconut flour and it was, by far the best paleo choc chip cookie around. Thanks!
These cookies are amazing! My kids and husband love them as much as I do! Thank you SO much!!! I used agave in them, and it was perfect! By far my favorite cookies! Oh, and when my husband tried one, his exact words were, “These taste like cookies!” LOL! My kids took them to school today for their snack, can’t get better than that!
I love these cookies and so do my 3 kids. They actually asked if I could make them again! Thanks for sharing:)
DELISH. I made with chestnut flour instead of almond and used agave. Seriously delicious.
These look delicious! Do you happen to know the calories, protein, carbs, etc?
I use spark people.com to enter the ingredients and servings and it calculates the nutrition content for you.
These are so good! I’ve made them 4x already since I found this post on Pinterest three weeks ago! My 2 1/2 year old, mother in law and I love them!!! Thank you!
P.S. I bake them for 13 minutes and they come out perfect! Fluffy and all! Anything less and they come out flat and gooey.
I am new to Paleo and have been looking for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. These were easy to make and quite tastey
These cookies are great, they are just what I needed in the NO Grain world. I added the 2 Table spoons of the Coconut flour and used Organic Agave, and dark chocolate chips. My family, friends and I loved them. They were gone too quick. I will be making more very soon. I found that rolling them into balls and smashing them flat, (kind of like you would making a peanut butter cookie) work better for cooking in my oven. They looked nicer and cooked better. I tried the drop method and they did not cook evenly, although they looked rustic.
I made these and this recipe is a keeper, they turned out great, kept in the fridge the make a nice soft gooey cookie! Thank you
My daughter makes these for my husband and I. So unbelievably good! She uses a flaxseed/water mixture instead of eggs and they come out more fluffy than with eggs. Definitely keep them in the fridge and DO NOT OVERBAKE. Burnt honey tastes awful.
Thanks for a great recipe!
I am making them with carob chips right now. Can’t wait to try them!
Love it. Already make it twice. The first time I forgot the baking soda and the cookies where not so doughy. I will leave it out next time.
I just made these butter I added 1 tsp of double acting baking powder and replaced the coconut oil with melted butter and used real chocolate chips. I know, not as clean as the original recipe but its what I had on hand and my main goal was to replace flour with almond meal for chocolate chip cookies. They look great and taste wonderful. Thank you!
This recipe was great! We forgot the eggs and they still tasted awesome. Had a good consistency too. One of the other side effects was that the batter looked more like cookie dough. Thanks!
I have just made them and they are gorgeous. Do you know if they freeze ok? I dont want to eat them all one go!!!!
I actually just tried freezing the dough for the first time this weekend so I am not entirely sure, but I will let you know once I de-thaw the dough and bake them!
Empoweredsustenance.com gave me the idea to add 2 tbsp great lakes beef gelatin to the dry mix to make them chewier. Turned out awesome!!!