With crisp edges and chewy, gooey middles, these vegan & paleo chocolate chip cookies (aka pegan cookies) are so easy to whip up with just a bowl and spoon. You can have them mixed and baked in 30 minutes with 10 ingredients, no chilling time required.
Cashew butter and cassava flour are the secret ingredients that make these cookies undetectably paleo & vegan; they taste just as rich and delicious as classic chocolate chip cookies!
I developed these paleo vegan chocolate chip cookies while experimenting with a gut-healing paleo diet. As a former pastry chef and cookbook author, I wasn't about to let a restrictive elimination diet get in the way of dessert.
This paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe proved to me that paleo dessert recipes could be every bit as satisfying as their gluten/dairy/sugar-infused counterparts. Try it and you'll feel the same way!
I adapted this paleo cookie formula from two favorite gluten-free vegan cookie recipes: almond butter chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat and oats, and tahini oatmeal 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.
I love them so much, I also made 2 more paleo vegan cookie recipes: tahini chocolate chip cookies and matcha chocolate chip cookies.
What I love about this paleo chocolate chip 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 30 minutes.
- 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?
Ingredients & Substitution Suggestions
Flour Power
These cookies use just 2 grain-free flours to build thick and chewy cookies with a classic, soft texture. 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.
- Cassava flour creates a sticky base that makes these cookies thick and chewy.
- If you're not paleo, you can try subbing (by weight) 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, several readers have used almond flour in its place and reported that it worked well.
Other Ingredients
A handful of pantry-friendly ingredients complete the dough.
- 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 almond butter for an earthier flavor, or peanut butter (and they won't technically be paleo). For a nut-free version, make this tahini chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- 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.
- 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%.
- Feel free to use any chocolate you like the taste of instead.
How to Make Vegan Paleo Chocolate Chip 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 cassava chocolate chip cookies ready for your face in about half an hour.
This recipe makes a small batch of paleo chocolate chip cookies – just 9 chonkers. Double or triple the recipe if you need moar cookies!
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 paleo with no weird ingredients (I'm looking at you, egg replacer). The texture is chewy and tender, just like cookies ought to be.
Paleo Chocolate Chip 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 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!
*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.*
Thick & Chewy Vegan Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup (130 g) room temperature, well-stirred cashew butter* (Artisana brand)
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (110 g) maple syrup (preferably dark)
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons (35 g) melted, cooled coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (55 g) cassava flour* (Bob's Red Mill brand)
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (40 g) tiger nut flour or almond flour (Anthony's brand tiger nut flour)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 ounces (115 g) coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate, plus extra for the tops (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 rimless 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 and emulsified.
- 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 2-inch diameter balls of dough (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 pinch of flaky salt.
- Bake the cookies in the top rack of the oven 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, at room temperature, or let cool completely and store, covered at room temperature, for up to 3 days.
Notes
- In place of cashew butter, sub by weight almond butter or peanut butter
- In place of cassava flour, sub by weight paleo AP flour, or sweet rice flour for non-paleo
- measure by weight, not volume
- if measuring by volume, use the dip and sweep (aka scoop and swoop) method
- make sure your oven is the correct temperature by using an external oven thermometer
- bake off a single test cookie to make sure your cookies spread the right amount
- if your cookies spread too much, add more flour or increase the oven temperature
- if they don't spread enough, flatten the dough balls or decrease the oven temperature
- 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.
Laurie says
There is a great book called No Grain No Pain by Dr Peter Osborne you might read. I was "grain free" for years but ate oats, rice, quinoa, buckwheat and all dairy. When I removed those it made a huge difference in my leaky gut, RA and histamine problems. It really is just a mental adjustment and then life just feels like life. Good luck on your journey!
Alanna says
Thank you for sharing your experience with me, that's really helpful! I will check out that book right away. Appreciate the rec!
Lili says
These cookies look so delicious! I love that they are healthier too, definitely my kind od cookies! Also, beautiful photos as always dear Alanna! ❤️
Alanna says
Aw thank you Lili, you're too kind!
Kelly L says
I used almond butter, AP flour, cracked wheat flour and quarter cup of oats... maple syrup and a swirl of molasses. I decided to flip some cookies half way but that was a mistake b/c they are so crumbly.
Martha Bains says
I love your cookbook and hope everyone, even if they don't have someone in the house with celiac, buys it. I've loved using it because everything is delicious, even if you don't need to be gluten free. It has options for things that are not as ingredient based as this recipe for those of us who can't find some of the most basic things we need right now. I wish you the best with your health, and encourage everyone to look at your other recipes if they find these ingredients challenging. You are the the best for gluten free baking!
Alanna says
Awwww thank you for saying such sweet things! Yes, I tried to give lots of substitution suggestions since I know people are having a tough time finding the basics right now. I'm so glad you're enjoying Alternative Baker; that really means a lot to me.
deb says
hi! just a comment to let you know that when you scale the recipe up or down, only the volumetric measurements change, not the weights. not sure if you were aware. thanks.
Alanna says
Thank you Deb, that's an unfortunate limitation of the plug-in I'm using. I wish it weren't the case!
Tiffany says
I’m gonna try this recipe with almond flour and tapioca because that’s what I have ... do you think that will work? Also, have you ever used peanut flour? What are your thoughts? Thank you so much!
Alanna says
Hi Tiffany, Hm, you might have to experiment to get those two flours to work. Tapioca is starchier than cassava, so you'll want to use less of it here and add in more almond flour. Always best to bake one test cookie first in case you need to adjust the quantities. Please let me know what you end up trying!
I've never used peanut flour before! It sounds like it would be divine in cookies. Yum.
C says
Made these today and they are PERFECT. I love the texture.
C says
Ps— made with sweet rice, tahini, almond flour
Alanna says
Oh wonderful! I'm so glad those modifications worked!
Trish says
These are easy to make and moist and yummy! I was able to obtain tiger nut flour and put it to prompt use. I ended up with 18 cookies, though and I did make them larger than the 1” you suggested, so I don’t know how that happened. More is better! I really appreciate how you are adapting to your new regimen and giving us such good options to try, too. I look forward to seeing what else you develop. You are so talented!
Alanna says
Aw that's wonderful! Thanks for trying my recipe and for the sweet words, I'm so glad they were a hit! Ok clearly I need to measure more accurately lol! I'll update that size. And if you feel like leaving a star rating, please do!
Trish says
Of course it’s another 5 star recipe! Thank you, Alanna!
Alanna says
Aw I'm SO glad you like them! Thanks a million for the rating and sweet note.
Trish says
I gave out samples to a couple of people and got back comments saying “superb!” & “some of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had”!! Thought you’d enjoy hearing that :-)
Alanna says
Aw amazing! Thank you so much for the feedback!
Katherine says
Amelia made these delicious cookies for us. We found we could order tiger but flour from Giant Through Instacart! Yum!!
Only problem, when it takes 1/2 to piping hot cookies we’re tempted to make them every day.
Alanna says
Awwww that's so cool! Thanks for trying my recipe Amelia! No shame in making a batch a day, haha. They're healthy! ;)
Elisa says
This recipe, along with your Vegan Banana Bread and Vegan Tahini Chocolate Chip cookies are absolutely wonderful. I've made each recipe a few times already. I love that you usually explain why you use certain ingredients and which roles they play.
My partner is vegan and after reading your explanation of how the cashew butter and maple syrup work together and how they help naturally sweeten and raise the dough, I was wondering if you could suggest a ratio of nut butter to maple syrup as a substitute for eggs, that way I could try it out when making your other recipes that would normally require eggs.
Thank you so very much for all of your wonderful recipes.
Alanna says
Oooh that's a great idea! Adding maple syrup to recipes will throw off the sweetness, but I'm curious if using 1 T nut butter and 2 T water in place of each egg could work? There needs to be enough liquid to emulsify the nut butter. What are your thoughts?
Katy Ionis says
I made these using almond flour, tahini and all maple syrup - they were dangerously good!! I missed the note to add extra flour to keep them from spreading too much with tahini so they did turn out large and thin but I baked for about 9 minutes and they were still soft in the middle. I warmed up my wet ingredients to melt the oil and tahini to incorporate them better and they were still a bit too warm when I mixed in the chocolate chunks so the chunks started to melt and I ended up with a marbled cookie with small pockets of chocolate instead of big chocolate chunks - it was delicious that way too!
Alanna says
Gosh that sounds so delicious!! Now I'm dreaming of a chocolate swirled variation of these - yum! Thanks so much for trying my recipe and for the sweet note!
Carly says
These cookies are amazing! I wasn’t able to find tiger nut flour, and couldn’t use the alternatives, so I substituted with pumpkin seed flour. It worked wonderfully, although it does change the taste a bit because it’s a strong tasting flour. I also made my own macadamia butter because that is the only nut I am able to have.
These cookies are soft and delicious, and my husband who has no food intolerances is happy to eat them.
Alanna says
I'm glad you were able to use ingredients that work for you! Thanks for sharing your variations with me.
Slinky says
This is an excellent and extremely easy recipe to follow. I made a batch for the first time using all the ingredients except for subbing almond butter and avocado oil with delicious results. The chunks of chocolate (I used Guittard) are particularly irresistible along with the notes of nut butter, vanilla and maple syrup. Can’t wait to make some more!
Alanna says
Aw thank you so much for the kind note and review! I'm so glad you liked the recipe and that those substitutions worked well. I love all of those flavors together too!
Katherine says
"just nine chonkers"
It's nice to hear the Alanna voice :)
Alanna says
Haha thanks Katherine! The struggle is real!
Caitlin S says
Alanna - I LOVE your recipes and this was another winner! Thank you for this wonderful recipe for our grain free, dairy free, egg free family. Baking these was a perfect snow day activity with my two year old... though I did have to fight him off the dough to get any actually into the oven. :)
Alanna says
Aw I'm so glad you all loved them (and managed to get some baked, haha)! Thank you for trying my recipes and for the kind words. If you feel inspired to give the recipe a star rating, it would be so appreciated because it helps other people find and try my recipes too. Hope you enjoy the snow this weekend!
Carly says
This recipe is great! Usually my family gets apprehensive/terrified when I tell them I’m making a paleo baked goods recipe, but this one they all loved! I’ve made it several times with almond butter and cassava flour with almond flour. Will eventually get tiger nut flour and tahini butter. Thank you!
Alanna says
Haha I know how that is! I'm so glad they were a hit despite their paleo nature. Thanks so much for the rating and kind note, I really appreciate it!
Erica Mikesh says
Mind blown. Thank you. I’ve had these in my to make list for ages and will now be making them on repeat.
Alanna says
I'm so glad you love them!! Thanks so much for trying the recipe and for the kind note!
Joelle says
Love these!! I used no stir peanut butter so I think the batter may have been a little thicker and not spread as well. I was making these last minute for a gathering so I did not bother to test bake. Next time I may flatten them a little before baking. . They were delicious and kid and parent approved. This recipe is my new, go to, chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Alanna says
Awwwww this makes me so happy! I'm so glad everybody liked them. I need to try these with peanut butter and see if I can tweak them to spread more. Maybe decrease the flour a little? Can't wait to cook and bake together again soon!
Antonia Sattler says
Would tapioca flour be fine INSTEAD of tigernut flour? Curious.
Alanna says
Hi! I wouldn't sub tapioca flour for tiger nut as the two are very different. I've given some substitution suggestions in the post, copied here for your ease:
"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."
LMK what you try!
Christy says
You’ve done it again - another amazing recipe! I prefer these to regular chocolate chip cookies any day!
Alanna says
Woohoo! I'm *so* glad you like them!
Antonia Sattler says
Is it safe to use tapicoa flour with the cassava flour?
Alanna says
Hi Antonia, Do you mean can you substitute tapioca instead of cassava? They're not quite the same because cassava flour is the whole root and contains fiber, whereas tapioca is just the starch. I'd recommend making the recipe as written if you can!
Antonia Sattler says
Would tapioca flour instead of almond flour be fine? As in the same amount that is said for almond flour. So the combination of cassava flour and tapioca flour?
Alanna says
I think that would be overly dry and chewy. Is there a different flour you could use?
Antonia Sattler says
I have tried cassava flour and almond flour, they taste amazing, reminded me a bit of subway cookies! I cant seem to find tigernut anywhere in my country (NZ). Would these still be fine to be stored in a pantry etc?
Alanna says
I'm so glad you like them! Yes I think they should store well for up to a week or so.
Antonia Sattler says
What is the recommend way to store these?
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
I like to store them in a container at room temperature.
Kassandra says
These are amazing 🤩🤩
I love these !!
Thank you for the recipe
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
I'm so glad you love them! Feel free to give a star rating if you're so inspired - it helps other people find the recipe! :)
cc says
hi there! how should i substitute the flours? by cup or by grams? for instance the tiger nut to almond flour and cassava to sweet rice flour?
thanks!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Great question! It's always safest and most accurate to sub flours by weight if you can. Please let me know how they turn out!