For my first ever blog post on Mulberry & Thyme, I wanted to do something big. So I created this recipe for all the people who are searching high and low for a recipe for gluten free dairy free chocolate chip cookies that are actually, really, truly good — not just “sure, I guess, considering…” good. You’d think this would be easy to do, right? Oh, no.
This recipe was a labor of love that was many years in the making. But I was motivated. I do not eat gluten or dairy because of an autoimmune condition. And I was tired of all the FOMO I was feeling watching others eat their ooey, gooey, fantabulous chocolate chip cookies. (What do you call it if it’s not just a fear, but also a reality? ROMO?)
I can still remember checking into a DoubleTree hotel on a family vacation some years ago (which my husband loves because of their beds and their cookies) and morphing into the middle-aged mom equivalent of a pouty 5 year old… I had realized that I wouldn’t be able to join my family members in eating warm cookies wrapped in their little paper pouches. How can something so small be so heartbreaking? Of course on the outside I tried to carry on like the mature person I was supposed to be, but on the inside? That melting face emoji, 100%. And serious ROMO.
How This Recipe for Gluten Free Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Came to Be
When I gave up gluten and dairy in 2017, the first recipe I tried to make was the chocolate chip cookie. Even though I arguably love other cookies more, it was this classic that I wanted to recreate in a gluten free and dairy free form. I thought, if I can make the classic chocolate chip cookie, then all will be well.
But ugh, my early attempts were so discouraging, tasting nothing like what a chocolate chip cookie should taste like. Those early recipes often consisted mainly of almond flour (??) or even worse, coconut flour, and included the slimy weirdness that is xanthan gum. My initial chocolate chip cookies resulted in grainy, crumbly, sandy, unappealing results. The whole experience was all so disheartening that I gave up gluten and dairy free baking altogether.
Years later, I discovered my favorite gluten free all purpose flour blend and dairy free butter, and I was reunited with my love of baking once more. But I never returned to the chocolate chip cookie recipe until I got the idea to start this blog.
To develop this recipe, I tried so many iterations: different sugar ratios, temperature settings, and bake times. I had to create a spreadsheet to keep track of it all. My teenage son served as my chief tester, along with my husband and neighbors. I was surprised by a few of the winning details (like the 325°F baking temp). I hope you enjoy the final version!
Essential Ingredients
Gluten Free Flour Blend: Steve’s Cake Flour Blend from Authentic Foods
Um, GF flour blends are soooo not interchangeable. I have tried so many things over the years: the popular blends you see in the stores, the recipes that have a million flours and starches… I tried making my own blend, and I even resorted to weighing my ingredients. Everything was highly unsatisfactory.
Then one day I read a recommendation from a professional pastry chef (Patricia Austin, in her book Pâtisserie Gluten Free: The Art of French Pastry) for a gluten free flour blend from an online shop called Authentic Foods. The flour blend, Steve’s Cake Flour Blend, is ground until it is “superfine,” which helps avoid the graininess you often get in gluten free baking. It also includes two kinds of plant fiber in lieu of xanthan gum. Unlike other blends that you can pick up at the local grocery store, you have to order it online, but to me, it’s so worth it. I’ve never looked back.
Dairy Free Butter: Miyoko’s Creamery European Style Plant Milk Butter, Salted
In my house growing up, margarine was not considered to be proper food (perhaps one step above Vaseline), such was my mom’s love for butter and disdain for anything that came in a plastic tub. When I was younger, I used to joke that there was no way I would survive if I had to give up dairy (oh, the irony). So the prospect of replacing butter in my baking seemed impossible. But then I discovered Miyoko’s Plant Milk Butter (the kind that is packaged in a block like butter, in the yellow box: Salted European Style) and all was right with the world once again. I think it’s because they culture the cashews, so there is some sort of umami flavor present in their dairy free butter that many plant-based spreads lack.
Quality Chocolate: Guittard Chocolate Chips
My vote is for Guittard, all day every day. Their chocolate is vastly superior, in my opinion, to the other grocery store offerings. It can get expensive, so whenever I see a sale, I buy as many bags as possible. I like the red bag (Extra Dark, 63% cacao), but you could definitely conduct some fun taste tests to determine your favorite.
Espresso Powder: King Arthur Baking Company Espresso Powder
This one is optional (but trust me, a good idea). One of my favorite secret ingredients in any chocolate dessert is a smidge of espresso powder. If you use just a bit, you can’t taste any coffee flavor, but it really amps up the complexity and richness of the chocolate flavor. Yum!!
Key Techniques
Brown the Butter
Browning the butter adds a caramel flavor that really takes these gluten free dairy free chocolate chip cookies to the next level. Another perk: no more need to bring the butter to room temperature!
Chill for Just a Few Minutes
Chilling does improve the batter, but who’s got the time (or self control) for chilling for hours — or worse, overnight? When I am baking cookies, 99% of the time it is because I want to eat them… NOW. So I recommend popping the batter into the freezer from just 5 minutes while you chop up your chocolate bar or tidy your kitchen, giving the dough just enough time to firm up a bit.
Use a Lower Baking Temp
The votes were unanimous: 325°F won the day, creating a softer cookie.
Fully Bake and Cool the Cookies
Some recipes online advocate for taking the cookies out while they’re still underbaked. Maybe this works better in the world of gluten? But no one liked the results when I tried this. So I advocate for taking the cookies out when they are starting to be golden around the edges but still too soft to pick up. Then allow them to sit on the hot cookie sheet for a full 10 minutes before removing them, which allows them to bake just a tiny bit more but at a slower rate. After the 10 minute rest they will be firm enough to pick up but still soooo soft.
Freeze the Extra
Freezing the dough balls you don’t need to eat right away is a pure genius move for two reasons. 1) Freezing actually makes the cookies a smidge better, if you can believe it. 2) There are few things better in life than remembering that you have cookie dough balls in your freezer, just waiting to be turned into warm, delicious, ooey, gooey cookies. (Plus you will impress your impromptu guests to no end if you just pop a cookie sheet in the oven and serve up a plate of freshly baked cookies in less than 30 minutes!)
Helpful Tools
Cookie Scoop
I resisted buying a cookie scoop for a long time, thinking they were for wusses, but I don’t know what I was thinking. They are so awesome. (Who knew that I was experiencing a tiny bit of stress each time I scooped out some dough using a spoon? Was it too much? Too little? Now I stress no more.) I use the size 40 scoop from this set for this recipe.
Mixer
I use my trusty red Kitchen Aid mixer (purchased in 1999!), as I always do when I bake, but a mixer is optional for this recipe thanks to the melted butter.
So that’s it! I can’t wait for you to make these delicious little guys. If you’ve tried every crappy almond flour recipe under the sun only to conclude that your days of mouth-watering cooking eating were behind you, well, you have an exciting afternoon in your future. Remember to use the right ingredients, and enjoy. And leave a comment to let me know how it goes!
Gluten Free Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- cookie scoop size 40 / 2 tablespoons (optional)
- mixer (optional)
Ingredients
Wet
- 1 cup dairy free butter (strongly recommended: Miyoko’s Plant Milk Butter, European Style Salted)
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil (virgin, unrefined)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 eggs (large)
Dry
- 3 cups gluten free flour blend (strongly recommended: Authentic Foods Steve's Gluten Free Cake Flour Blend)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (recommended: King Arthur Espresso Powder)
Mix-Ins & Toppings
- 2 cups dairy free dark chocolate chips (recommended: 11.5 ounce bag of Guittard extra dark)
- 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate (optional, two possibilities: Trader Joe’s 70% Peruvian Bar or Guittard Bittersweet Wafers)
- flaked salt (optional, a possibility: Maldon Sea Salt Flakes)
Instructions
Brown Butter
- Begin to melt the dairy free butter over medium heat.
- Stir periodically until the liquid begins to foam.
- Cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring frequently until amber and aromatic.
- Turn off the heat, and stir in the coconut oil.
- Set the pan aside to cool.
Prep
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Take the eggs out of the refrigerator and set on the counter.
- Measure out the dry ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. Stir to combine, and set aside.
- Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Make the Dough
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer (a wooden spoon and some arm strength is also OK!), mix the sugars, maple syrup, and vanilla for 30 seconds or so. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Once the melted butter mixture has cooled to room temperature, mix it into the sugar mixture. (Slightly warm is also OK, but it shouldn’t be hot to the touch.)
- Add the eggs; mix for about 1 minute.
- Add the dry ingredients; mix until combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Place the bowl in the freezer or fridge for approximately 5 minutes; meanwhile, chop the chocolate bar or wafers (if using).
Bake the Cookies
- Scoop the dough into balls using a medium cookie scoop (size 40 / 2 tablespoons), scraping off any extra dough against the side of the mixing bowl. (If you don’t have a cookie scoop, just use a soup spoon.)
- Place 12 cookies per cookie sheet, leaving an equal amount of space around each cookie so that it can spread out a bit as it bakes.
- If you would like, top each cookie with 1-2 pieces of broken chocolate bar and a few flakes of salt.
- Bake at 325°F for 14 minutes or until the cookies are just barely showing signs of starting to be thinking about turning golden around the edges. (They won’t be totally done at this point, which is OK—they will finish baking on the cookie sheet as they cool.)
- Place the cookie sheet on a rack to cool, and set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and place them on the rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- The recipe makes 39 cookies.
- Store in an airtight container; they should stay soft and yummy for several days.
- If you don't need the whole batch right away, freeze dough balls for future use:
- Scoop the extra dough onto a smaller cookie sheet (or anything that can fit in your freezer), placing the dough balls close together.
- Freeze the dough balls until hard (for a few hours or overnight), then place the dough balls in a Ziploc bag.
- Whenever you want fresh-baked cookies, bake the frozen dough balls directly from the freezer, using the same technique as above, but add one additional minute (or so) to the baking time.
- The cookies are even a tiny bit better after freezing, which is a bonus. Plus, it is pure genius to have frozen cookie dough balls in your freezer; you can go from zero to cookie heaven in just under 30 minutes!
