How To Make Crispy Chocolate Cookies 

This easy gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate cookie recipe is your perfect basic recipe. It’s very easy, following the classic cookie technique of mixing dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Then combining the two, rolling into cookies and baking just for 10-12 minutes (with desserts the quicker the better). 

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It’s gluten-free and dairy-free, without tasting like it. 
• It’s egg free, so great for egg allergies or for eating the dough if you don’t like the thought of eating raw egg. 
• They last for a whole week, sitting on the counter (if they don’t get eaten before that). 
• They are low in sugar, and if you use an erythritol based sweetener like Lakanto, they are entirely sugar-free. 
• They are delicious and something for everyone to enjoy.

Ingredients For Crispy Chocolate Cookies

Almond Butter

One of my favourite ingredients, I can eat it from the spoon! Almond butter is simply made of ground up almonds, and ideally you should look for one with only almonds as the ingredients. Or almonds and salt are fine too.

Buckwheat Flour 

Buckwheat is a naturally gluten-free pseudograin (meaning it looks, acts and tastes like a grain but isn’t) that provides a beautiful simple nutty flour for these cookies.

Coconut sugar

Coconut sugar is a delicious caramel like deep brown sugar made from the evaporation of coconut sap. This ingredient (while super delicious) is still sugar – read my sugar philosophy here. Despite this, I’ve used only three tablespoons to keep the overall sugar content of these cookies low. 

Erythritol based sweetener for a sugar free alternative 

Raw cacao powder is an incredibly powerful ingredient made from unroasted cacao beans (where chocolate comes from). It contains magnesium and offers a deep chocolate flavour to these cookies. If you don’t have this, you can use baking cocoa instead. 

Coconut Yoghurt

The coconut yoghurt in this recipe offers some lift and binding, which is especially important since we aren’t using egg here. This step is not to be skipped. Look for a coconut yoghurt without added sugar or preservatives. I love the Coyo “Greek” Coconut Yoghurt.

Dark Chocolate

The dark chocolate in this recipe only goes on top of the cookies after baking, and not in the actual batter. This step isn’t necessary to the recipe but it does offer a little extra sparkle and pizzazz. You can use any chocolate of your choosing, but I recommend an 85-90% cacao block as this is very low in sugar, and also mostly dairy-free. 

How To Melt Chocolate 

Melting chocolate is not as simple as it seems, because it can easily burn or separate. There are a few different ways of doing it. Purists will use a double boiler which is simply a bowl sitting over a pot of gently simmering water, on the lowest heat). This is a great option and I promise it is far less intimidating than it seems. This method allows the chocolate to melt without burning as there is no direct heat   

The other method of melting chocolate is in the microwave. But to do this without burning the chocolate, there is a special process. First you have to break the chocolate into equal pieces and place in a ceramic bowl. Then you only put it in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, and you stir between each. The first two sessions may feel like nothing has melted, but this is an important step. 

Then you want to make sure that you take it out just before it is completely melted, so there will still be a few small chunks of chocolate. Continue to stir and the residual heat of the bowl and the chocolate will melt the rest. This helps to prevent the chocolate from overheating. Once melted, I like to leave the bowl sitting for 4-5 minutes before I drizzle it. This helps to thicken it slightly. 

What Chocolate Is Sugar Free? 

Every time I post a chocolate recipe that uses real chocolate, especially because I’m known for sugar free recipes, there’s some confusion around using chocolate. I use 90% dark chocolate, which although contains some sugar, it’s so negligible that it barely counts. I consider 90% dark chocolate sugar free. You can also use 85% for a slightly less bitter option. Bonus that chocolate at this percentage is generally dairy-free too!