Soft-Bake Gluten-Free Cookie Cake

Gluten-free cookie cake topped with silky coconut milk ganache that's easier to make than both cookies AND cake! Made with sweet rice and oat flours in under an hour, it tastes like a giant, tender chocolate chip cookie baked in a springform pan.

It's my party and I can eat cookie cake if I want to.

This was my mantra for my last birthday and it will now likely be the same for all birthdays to come.

This gluten-free cookie cake is like a giant, soft-baked chocolate chip cookie. Formed in a springform pan and topped with ganache, it's easier to make than both cookies AND cake. There's no scooping or worrying about spreading. You don't have to fuss with splitting layers or crumb coats of frosting. And who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?

To make the perfect cookie cake, I combined two reader-favorite recipes: my brown butter gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and chewy gluten-free blondies. All recipes use sweet rice, oat, and tapioca flours to build a sturdy dough loaded with butter, brown sugar, and vanilla.

Here's what I love about it:

• crispy, golden edges
• tender in the middle
• packed with butterscotch flavor from butter and brown sugar
• undetectably gluten-free
• easy to make with one bowl in under an hour

Ingredients & Substitution Suggestions

Just a handful of ingredients go into this chocolate chip cookie cake.

Flours

A trio of GF flours creates dreamy flavor and texture here. You'll never know it's gluten-free!

• Gluten-Free Oat flour (I use Bob's Red Mill brand) gives it earthy flavor, tenderness, and crispy edges.
  • By weight, you can substitute teff or light buckwheat flour. Or try subbing sorghum flour, which will have a slightly sandier texture.
• Sweet rice flour helps it hold together and creates a smooth texture, like all-purpose flour would.
  • You can substitute Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten-free flour, which is made with sweet rice flour, or try cassava flour.
• Tapioca flour adds chew and keeps the cookie middles soft.
  • You can try subbing arrowroot starch.

Other Key Ingredients

• Butter makes it rich and moist.
  • You can use plant butter such as Miyoko's to make it dairy-free.
• Granulated sugar adds sweetness. I use organic granulated sugar, such as Florida Crystals, but regular white sugar will work too.
  • For a refined sugar-free cookie cake, swap both sugars for coconut sugar, measured by weight.
• Brown sugar should be fresh, soft, and full of molasses. Either dark or light will work. I prefer organic dark brown sugar, which is more flavorful and slightly coarser.
• A sprinkle of flaky salt makes it completely addictive. I prefer Maldon salt for its thin, crisp flakes.
• Lots of bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks offset the sweetness of the dough. I like using baking chocolate with at least 70% cacao mass chopped into large pieces, but feel free to use your favorite chocolate chips. I used Hu gems here.
  • For refined sugar-free cookies, use chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar or maple such as Raaka, Guittard Santé, or Hu.

Method

This recipe makes one cookie cake. I used a 9-inch pan here, but an 8-inch pan will work for a slightly thicker cookie cake. It serves 8-10. To feed a crowd, double the recipe and bake it in a 9x12-inch pan for a cookie sheet cake.

The dough takes minutes to mix up and the cookie cake can be in and out of the oven in under an hour. Allow time for it to cool completely before frosting.

Cookie Cake For Everyone

This recipe is friendly to many different dietary preferences. Here's how to adapt the recipe for your own needs:

• Dairy-Free: Use vegan butter in place of the dairy butter, such as Miyoko's cultured butter.
• Refined Sugar-Free: Use coconut sugar instead of granulated and brown sugars and use chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar or maple sugar.

However you make this cookie cake, I hope it makes a special occasion even more special.

Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Pinterest, purchase my award-winning gluten-free baking cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this gluten-free chocolate chip cookie cake, I’d love to know. Leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.

4 from 1 review

Soft-Bake Gluten-Free Cookie Cake

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Gluten-free cookie cake topped with silky ganache that's easier to make than both cookies AND cake! Made with sweet rice and oat flours in under an hour, it tastes like a giant, tender chocolate chip cookie baked in a springform pan.

Alanna Taylor-Tobin

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total: 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 -10 slices (one 8 or 9-inch cookie cake)

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons butter (115 g) unsalted butter (plus ½ teaspoon soft butter for the pan)
• ½ cup (100 g) packed organic dark or light brown sugar
• ¼ cup (50 g) organic granulated sugar
• 1 large egg (2 ounces by weight out of shell)
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• ½ cup (78 g) sweet white rice flour (such as Koda Farms Mochiko)
• ½ cup (50 g) gluten-free oat flour (such as Bob's Red Mill)
• 2 tablespoons (15 g) tapioca flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet chocolate (around 70% cacao mass), coarsely chopped (1 ¼ cups)

To Finish

• 1 recipe coconut milk ganache (cooled for several hours)
• flaky salt such as Maldon, for sprinkling (optional)

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Equipment

• kitchen scale (for weighing ingredients for better accuracy)
• springform pan (8 or 9-inch)

Instructions

Ganache (if using)

• If using coconut milk ganache, make the ganache first thing so that it will be cool enough to pipe.

Prep

• Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350ºF.
• Line an 8 or 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom and rub the sides with the softened butter.

Dough

• Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until bubbling.
• Place the sugars in a large bowl and pour the hot, melted butter over them. Stir combine, then let cool slightly for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract into the cooled sugar-butter mixture until well-combined and emulsified.
• Meanwhile, sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
• Stir until just combined, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake

• Spread the dough in an even layer into the prepared pan.
• Bake until the top is puffed and shiny and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs, 23-33 minutes. Mine takes 28 minutes in a 9-inch pan; if using an 8-inch pan it might take a little longer.
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Finish

• Pipe with the ganache or other frosting and sprinkle with a little flaky salt if you like to finish.
• Cut into wedges and serve. Bojon appétit!

Notes

Ingredient Subs:

• Swap the butter for vegan butter (such as Miyoko's cultured butter)
• Swap the sugars by weight for coconut sugar and/or maple sugar
• Swap the sweet rice flour by weight for a gluten-free all-purpose blend, such as Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1
• Swap the oat flour by weight for sorghum or teff flours.
• Swap tapioca flour for arrowroot flour. 

Nutrition facts are for 1 of 8 servings of the cookie cake only. 

Nutrition

Calories: 383kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 4gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 12gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 52mgSodium: 251mgPotassium: 199mgFiber: 2gSugar: 28gVitamin A: 390IUCalcium: 42mgIron: 2mg

Making this? I'd love to see!Tag your snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet!