Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Library
Five grain-free chocolate chip cookies for every craving and kitchen: a loaded coconut, pecan, and walnut cookie (plus a classic no-spread version), a dairy-free almond cookie with toasted almonds, a coconut sugar walnut cookie, a tahini cookie with pistachios and apricots, and a raw, dehydrated cookie with homemade cacao chips. All are refined-sugar-free.
Yield: 14–25 cookies per recipe · Active: 15 min (1 hour for the raw cookies) · Total: 30 min (about 12 hours for the raw cookies) · Year-round · Best eaten: afternoon
A grain-free chocolate chip cookie is one of the most useful recipes in a nourishing kitchen. Made well, it brings real nutrition along with the pleasure of a cookie: almond flour for vitamin E and healthy fats, grass-fed butter for butyrate and fat-soluble vitamins, honey or maple syrup for trace minerals, and dark chocolate (70% or darker) for magnesium and flavanols, prized as both food and medicine in Mesoamerica. With all that fat, fiber, and protein around the natural sugars, these are much gentler on blood sugar than any wheat-and-sugar cookie, closer to a satisfying snack than a sugar rush.
1. Master Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut, Pecans, and Walnuts
Almond flour, coconut flakes, sprouted nuts, and dark chocolate. The everyday afternoon cookie.
Makes about 14 cookies
2 cups blanched almond flour
2 tbsp coconut flour
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
½ tsp baking soda
Optional: ½ tsp grass-fed gelatin, for a chewier cookie that holds its shape
6 tbsp grass-fed butter, melted
¼ cup raw honey or maple syrup
1 pasture-raised egg
Optional: 2 tbsp cashew or peanut butter, for a richer crumb
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
½ cup sprouted pecans and walnuts, roughly chopped
½ cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (70% or darker)
Prep. Heat the oven to 350°F, and line a sheet pan with parchment.
Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the almond flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, and gelatin (if using).
Make the dough. Stir in the melted butter, honey, egg, nut butter (if using), and vanilla, until it comes together. If you’re using gelatin, let the dough rest 5 minutes, so it can bloom.
Fold in the coconut flakes, nuts, and chocolate.
Shape. Scoop about 2 tbsp of dough per cookie onto the pan, spaced well apart, and press each one gently to about ¾ inch thick.
Bake 12–14 minutes, until golden at the edges but still slightly soft in the center.
Cool 5 minutes on the pan before moving them to a rack; they firm up a lot as they cool.
Classic no-spread version (adapted from Deliciously Organic): For a simple, classic chocolate chip cookie with a traditional texture, beat 10 tbsp softened grass-fed butter with 4 tbsp maple syrup, then beat in ½ tsp vanilla, 1 room-temperature egg, and ½ tsp grass-fed gelatin. Let it rest 5 minutes, so the gelatin blooms (this keeps the cookies from spreading). On low speed, beat in 1¼ cups almond flour, 2 tbsp coconut flour, ½ tsp baking soda, and ¾ tsp salt, just until combined, then stir in 4 oz chopped dark chocolate. Scoop with a 1½-inch scoop, and bake at 350°F for about 12 minutes, until golden at the edges. Makes about 16. They’re best warm.
2. Dairy-Free Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Almonds
A tender, slightly cake-like cookie, made with coconut oil and maple syrup, with toasted almonds for crunch.
Makes about 25 cookies
3 cups blanched almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
¼ cup coconut oil, softened (not melted)
¼ cup maple syrup
1 pasture-raised egg, plus 2 egg whites (or 2 whole eggs)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips (70% or darker)
½ cup sliced almonds, toasted
Prep. Heat the oven to 375°F, and line two baking sheets with parchment.
Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the almond flour, baking soda, and salt.
Cream. Beat the softened coconut oil and maple syrup in a stand mixer for about 5 minutes, until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla for 2 minutes.
Combine. Mix in the dry ingredients for 1 minute, until combined, then fold in the chocolate and toasted almonds.
Shape. Drop large rounded tablespoons onto the sheets, 1 inch apart, and flatten them slightly.
Bake 12–15 minutes, until golden at the edges.
Cool 5 minutes on the sheet before moving them to a rack.
Why it works: Beating the coconut oil and maple syrup until pale whips in air, for a tender, slightly cake-like crumb. The whole egg adds richness, and the extra whites add lift without extra fat. And toasting the almonds first brings out their deep, nutty flavor.
3. Coconut Sugar Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Simple and quick, with a classic cookie sweetness. The weeknight cookie for when you don’t have coconut flakes or sprouted nuts on hand.
Makes about 18 cookies
2 cups blanched almond flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
½ cup grass-fed butter, softened (or ¼ cup softened coconut oil plus 3 tbsp maple syrup, for dairy-free)
⅓ cup coconut sugar
1 pasture-raised egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ cup walnuts, chopped
½ cup cacao buttons or dark chocolate chips (70% or darker)
Prep. Heat the oven to 350°F, and line a sheet pan with parchment.
Cream the butter and coconut sugar until smooth, then beat in the egg and vanilla.
Combine. Whisk the almond flour, baking soda, and salt, then fold them into the butter mixture, until a soft dough forms. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate.
Shape. Scoop heaping tablespoons onto the sheet, 2 inches apart, and flatten them slightly.
Bake 10–14 minutes, until golden at the edges but still slightly soft in the center.
Cool 5 minutes on the sheet before moving them to a rack.
4. Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios and Apricots
Middle Eastern-inspired: nutty tahini in the dough, pistachios for color, dried apricots for a tart-sweet chew, and dark chocolate for depth.
Makes about 14 cookies
1 large pasture-raised egg
½ cup tahini
4 tbsp grass-fed butter (or coconut oil), softened
⅓ cup maple syrup
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
¾ cup blanched almond flour
2 tbsp arrowroot (or tapioca flour)
1 tbsp coconut flour
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup pistachios, chopped
⅓ cup unsulfured dried apricots, finely chopped
½ cup dark chocolate chips (70% or darker)
Prep. Heat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment.
Mix the wet ingredients. Whisk the egg, tahini, butter, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth.
Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk the almond flour, arrowroot, coconut flour, salt, and baking soda, then fold them into the wet ingredients, just until combined.
Fold in the pistachios, apricots, and chocolate.
Shape. Scoop heaping tablespoons onto the sheet, 2 inches apart, and flatten them slightly.
Bake about 12 minutes, until just golden at the edges.
Cool 5 minutes on the sheet before moving them to a rack.
5. Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies with Homemade Cacao Chips
Dehydrated raw cookies with homemade cacao chips. A project for kitchens that already have a dehydrator.
Makes about 16 cookies
Raw cacao chips
1¾ cups cashews, soaked 1–2 hours and drained
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup raw cacao powder
¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
Cookies
2½ cups fine cashew flour
1¾ cups blanched almond flour (or sprouted oat flour)
½ cup raw cacao powder
¾ cup maple syrup
¼ cup filtered water
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1½ tsp Baja Gold sea salt
1 cup raw cacao chips (above), plus extra for the tops
Make the chips first. Blend all the chip ingredients in a high-speed blender until silky. Pipe small, chocolate chip-sized drops onto a silicone or nonstick dehydrator sheet, and dehydrate overnight at 115–118°F, until firm. Store them sealed in the fridge. (Short on time? Use cacao nibs or chopped dark chocolate instead.)
Make the dough. Mix all the cookie ingredients, except the chips, by hand until cohesive, then stir in 1 cup of the chips.
Shape. Form 3-inch rounds, and press a few extra chips into the top of each.
Dehydrate on mesh screens overnight at 115–118°F, until firm at the edges but still slightly soft in the center.
Why it works: Dehydrating at 118°F or below is the defining technique of raw food, since many of the enzymes and delicate compounds in plants are believed to stay intact below that temperature. A dehydrator is essentially a very low oven that removes water without cooking, so the cookies turn crisp outside and tender inside. The homemade chips are just cashews, cacao, maple, vanilla, and salt, with no emulsifiers, and they taste more like Mexican drinking chocolate than a typical chocolate chip: deeper, more bitter, and more aromatic. This style of cookie comes from the raw food world of the 2000s, when chefs like Matthew Kenney helped turn raw cuisine into a culinary art.
A note on “raw”: Every cashew sold has been heat-treated to remove the caustic oil in its shell, and U.S. almonds are pasteurized by law, so “raw” here means unbaked.
Storage
Baked cookies: airtight at room temperature up to 3 days, refrigerated up to 1 week, or frozen up to 2 months.
Raw cookies: airtight at room temperature up to 1 week, or refrigerated up to 2 weeks.
Freeze the dough: Scoop the dough for any of the baked cookies into balls, freeze them on a sheet pan, then move them to a freezer bag. Bake straight from the freezer, adding 2–3 minutes, for fresh cookies whenever you want them.
A note on honey: Honey is no longer raw once it’s baked. Honey shouldn’t be given to babies under 12 months.
Nourishment Notes
Almond flour is the base of every cookie here, with vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol, the form your body uses best), magnesium, and monounsaturated fats, and about 3–4 grams of protein per cookie.
Grass-fed butter brings butyrate and vitamins A, D, E, and K2, which develop in milk from cows grazing green pasture. Vitamin K2 helps direct calcium into bones and teeth.
Dark chocolate (70% or darker) keeps the cacao high and the sugar low, for more magnesium and flavanols. Cacao’s flavanols, especially epicatechin and catechin, are studied for their benefits to blood vessels and the brain.
Sprouted pecans and walnuts (in the master cookie) are soaked and dried, which helps reduce phytic acid, making their zinc, iron, and magnesium easier to absorb. Walnuts are the nut richest in ALA omega-3s, and pecans bring zinc, manganese, and antioxidants.
Coconut flakes bring fiber and lauric acid.
Grass-fed gelatin (optional) brings glycine, an amino acid that supports the gut lining and helps the body make glutathione. It’s the same nourishment traditional cultures got from bone broth.
Coconut sugar is unrefined, with some potassium, zinc, and iron, plus a little inulin, a prebiotic fiber.
Tahini brings calcium, magnesium, copper, and sesame lignans (sesamin and sesamolin), studied for their antioxidant effects. Sesame paste has been a staple of Middle Eastern cooking for centuries.
Pistachios — lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamin B6, and copper.
Dried apricots — beta-carotene, potassium, and iron (choose unsulfured ones, which are brown rather than bright orange).
As a circadian food, these cookies are best in the afternoon, before about 4 p.m., since cacao’s theobromine can linger into the evening. With a glass of raw milk, some full-fat yogurt, or a handful of nuts, they make a satisfying afternoon snack. The master cookie is especially cozy in fall and winter, and the tahini-apricot cookie is lovely in summer with mint tea.
For your cycle: The dark chocolate’s magnesium makes these a comforting treat in the luteal phase, when chocolate cravings often peak.
Sourcing
Almond flour, cashew flour, and coconut flour — organic and finely ground (keep the nut flours in the fridge)
Sprouted oat flour (optional) — organic, like One Degree Organic Foods
Grass-fed butter — organic, cultured butter from 100% grass-fed cows
Eggs — organic and pasture-raised, from a local farm or Alexandre Family Farm
Dark chocolate — organic, 70% or darker, ideally sweetened with coconut sugar and tested for heavy metals, like Hu, Pascha, or Eating Evolved
Raw cacao powder — organic, and ideally tested for heavy metals
Nuts — organic pecans, walnuts, pistachios, and sliced almonds; sprouted nuts from a source like Blue Mountain Organics or Living Intentions
Cashews — organic (every cashew sold has been heat-treated, even “raw” ones)
Tahini — organic and stone-ground, made from just sesame, like Soom
Gelatin — grass-fed, like Great Lakes or Bernard Jensen
Coconut oil, coconut flakes, and coconut sugar — organic and unrefined; unsweetened, sulfite-free flakes
Dried apricots — organic and unsulfured
Arrowroot — organic
Raw honey and maple syrup — organic, local, unfiltered raw honey; organic Grade A dark maple syrup
Vanilla — organic pure vanilla extract
Baking soda — aluminum-free
Salt — Baja Gold sea salt
— Anna aka Food Marshall