Thick & Chewy Vegan Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies {gluten-free, grain-free, & naturally sweetened}

With crisp edges and chewy, gooey middles, these vegan & paleo chocolate chip cookies (aka pegan cookies) are easy to whip up with just a bowl and spoon. You can have them stirred and baked in under an hour, no chilling time required. You won’t believe they’re plant-based, dairy-free, egg-free, grain-free, gluten-free, and refined sugar-free because they taste just as rich and delicious as the classic. 

As I mentioned two posts ago, I’m doing a nutritional protocol with Alison from Food By Mars. This involves cutting out grains, dairy, legumes, and eggs for a few months while I hopefully get my gut and immune system back on track. But I’ve never let a little thing like a restrictive elimination diet stop my from baking, and I’m certainly not now. I’ve got so many delicious recipes to share with you, I can’t wait!

These paleo chocolate chip cookies are adapted from two favorite gluten-free vegan cookie recipes: almond butter chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat and oats, and tahini maple chocolate chip cookies. Missing these favorites, I decided to adapt a grain-free version. After testing the recipe 6 times, I finally got these gooey pillows of grain-free chocolate chip cookie love. And we cannot get enough.

Flour Power: Tiger Nut & Cassava Flour Cookies

I’ve taken this elimination diet as an opportunity to play with new-to-me ingredients, especially flours! This paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe uses two grain-free flours: cassava and tiger nut. Both are derived from tuber vegetables.

While cassava is light in color and has a mild flavor and texture, tiger nut flour feels and tastes more like a nut flour (think almond or hazelnut). Neither are based on nuts or coconut, which means you can make these cookies nut-free (using seed butter in place of cashew butter) and/or coconut-free (using ghee in place of coconut oil, in which case they wouldn’t be vegan).

Most paleo cookie recipes that you find online use almond flour, but I love the soft, chewy, pillowy texture that cassava and tiger nut flour add here. But if you don’t have these two flours on hand, I’ve given substitution suggestions below.

For more tiger nut flour recipes, I love this article on Food52 by Alice Medrich. For more cassava flour recipes, I’m eyeing a bunch on Otto’s Naturals and these cassava tortillas from Snixy Kitchen. And I’ve got more recipes coming up that use these flours, so stay tuned for cassava crackers, grain-free vegan brownies, and paleo banana bread!

Easy Gluten-Free Paleo Cookies

This recipe comes together with a bowl, a whisk, and a spoon or spatula in a matter of minutes. There’s no chilling required, meaning that you can have a batch of warm, gooey grain-free chocolate chip cookies ready for your face in about half an hour.

Small-Batch Vegan Grain-Free Cookies

This recipe makes a small batch of chocolate chip cookies – just nine chonkers. Since this recipe is egg-free, it’s easy to scale up or down.

Paleo Vegan Cookie Ingredients & Substitution Suggestions:

• Cashew butter forms the base of these cookies. I use Artisana raw cashew butter, which you can find at many healthy foodie stores or order from Thrive. Or make your own. Try subbing tahini for a nut-free option (you may need to add more flour to keep them from spreading too much), almond butter for an earthier flavor, or peanut butter (and they won’t technically be paleo).
• Maple syrup provides sweetness and moisture. I prefer a dark maple syrup, the darkest you can find. It adds caramel notes that makes these taste more like classic chocolate chippers.
• Just 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar adds brown sugar notes and gives the cookies a golden hue. Substitute an additional tablespoon of maple syrup if you don’t have any on hand, or try organic dark brown sugar if you don’t mind a touch of  the refined stuff.
• Coconut oil adds richness. Substitute ghee if you like for a non-vegan version.
• Vanilla adds sweet floral notes.
• Cassava flour creates a sticky base that makes these cookies thick and chewy. If you’re not paleo, you can try subbing sweet rice flour or all-purpose flour (gluten-free or not, depending on your dietary needs).
• Tiger nut flour adds tenderness, earthy flavor, and promotes browning. I tested these with all cassava flour and they weren’t nearly as good as the tiger nut version; they were pale, pasty, and bland. If you don’t have any tiger nut flour on hand, try subbing almond, hazelnut, or chestnut flour. You could also try an earthy whole-grain flour if not paleo, such as oat, teff, or buckwheat.
• Baking soda promotes spread and browning.
• Fine sea salt sharpens the flavors, and flaky salt on top adds addictive crunch.
• Dark chocolate is the most important ingredient, of course! I’ve been using Hu Kitchen chocolate, which is sweetened with coconut sugar and has a cacao mass of 70%.

Magic cookies: Why this vegan / gluten-free / grain-free cookie recipe works

Nut butter and maple syrup magically combine to do what eggs and sugar normally would in a traditional cookie dough: sweeten and lift the dough. The proteins in the nut butter combine with the liquid in the maple syrup to trap air pockets, working with the leavening to aerate the dough in the oven. The result is an effortlessly vegan and gluten-free cookie with no weird ingredients (I’m looking at you, flax eggs and egg replacer). The texture is chewy and tender, just like cookies ought to be.

What I love about this cookie recipe:

• One-bowl – just a whisk, spatula, and bowl are needed to make this easy cookie recipe
• Magical – the recipe seems like it shouldn’t work, but it does, beautifully!
• Fast – this recipe satisfies cookie cravings in under an hour
• Eggless cookie dough – meaning you can eat the dough straight from the bowl, no holds barred. I’m not even a raw cookie dough person, and I find it super addictive.
• Friendly for many diets – grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, paleo, vegan, refined sugar-free, and with nut-free and coconut-free suggestions.
• Flavor – cashew butter, dark maple syrup, and coconut sugar give these cookies rich, butterscotch notes in the dough, which wraps around loads of dark chocolate chunks, all kissed with flecks of flaky salt. What more could you want in a cookie?

Paleo Blondies

To turn these into paleo bar cookies, spread the batter into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper on all sides. Bake until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Let cool, then cut into squares.

Paleo Cookies, now and later

Mix up a batch of these healthier, easy paleo cookies, pour a glass of cold plant milk to wash them down, and share them, warm from the oven, with a quarantine buddy. Or to delay gratification, scoop the dough into balls and chill them for later. Then you can have warm cookies in just a matter of minutes whenever the mood strikes.

Happy baking!

More Vegan Paleo Dessert Recipes:

• Vegan No-Bake Chocolate Tart
• No-Bake Vegan Lemon Tart with Berries
• Vegan No-Bake Grasshopper Pies in Jars
• No-Bake Vegan Brownies with Hazelnuts & Ganache
• Paleo Pumpkin Pie {vegan, no-bake, raw}
• Raw Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake

More Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:

• Soft and Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate Ginger Cookies
• Vegan Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Tahini and Maple
• Thick and Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Gluten-Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Teff Flour
• Vegan Gluten-Free Almond Butter Cookies with Buckwheat and Oats

*Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram,  Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this vegan paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe, I’d love to see. Tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet  and  #bojongourmet.*

5 from 3 votes

Thick & Chewy Vegan Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

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With crisp edges and gooey middles, these vegan paleo chocolate chip cookies are a snap to make. You won't believe they're plant-based and free of dairy, eggs, grains, gluten, and refined sugar. I’ve given substitution suggestions below, but I have not tested these myself. I’ll update the recipe when I do! For now, if you’re trying a substitution, I would advise baking off a single test cookie, that way you can adjust the remaining dough if need be (i.e. add more flour if the cookies spread too much, or flatten the dough balls if they don’t spread enough). If you try these with tahini, I think you’ll need an additional tablespoon or two of cassava flour to keep them from spreading too much.

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 12 minutes

Total: 27 minutes

Servings: 9 cookies

Author: The Bojon Gourmet

Ingredients

• ½ cup (130 g) cashew butter, at room temperature (such as Artisana; or try tahini, almond, or peanut butter)
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (110 g) maple syrup, at room temperature (preferably dark)
• 1 tablespoon (8 g) coconut sugar (or 1 tablespoon more maple syrup)
• 3 tablespoons (35 g) melted coconut oil (or try ghee if not vegan)
• 1 teaspoon GF vanilla extract
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (55 g) cassava flour (or try sweet rice or AP flour if not paleo)
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (40 g) tigernut flour (or try hazelnut or almond flour, or oat, buckwheat, or teff flour if not paleo)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 ounces (115 g) coarsely chopped vegan bittersweet chocolate, plus some extra chunks for the tops (preferably 70-75% cacao mass)
• flaky salt such as Maldon, for sprinkling

Instructions

• Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 375ºF. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the cashew butter, maple syrup, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla until smooth.
• Place a strainer over the bowl and sift in the cassava and tiger nut flours with the baking soda and sea salt. Stir to combine, then stir in the chocolate chunks.
• Scoop 1-inch diameter balls of dough (about 3 tablespoons or a #24 spring-loaded ice cream scoop) onto the prepared cookie sheet, spaced 2-3 inches apart. Top each cookie with a chunk or two of chocolate and a tiny pinch of flaky salt.
• Bake the cookies until golden and puffed, with the edges beginning to set and the centers soft, 8-12 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet at 8 minutes for even baking.
• Remove the cookies from the oven and slide them, parchment and all, onto a cooling rack. Let them cool as long as you can stand it. Enjoy warm from the oven, or let cool completely and store, covered at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

Notes

Make ahead: Make the dough as directed, then let sit until firm enough to scoop (or chill for a few minutes). Scoop into balls, place the dough balls on a small baking sheet lined with parchment, and chill until firm, about 1 hour. Transfer the cold dough balls into a container and chill for up to a week or so. When you’re ready to bake, just plop the dough balls on a cookie sheet as directed, top with flaky salt, and bake. You can also freeze dough balls for up to several months.

Nutrition facts are for 1 of 9 cookies. 

Nutrition

Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 133mg | Potassium: 169mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 6IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 2mg

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