Having my mom here for the last several days was such a treat. I’ve felt a bit like a basket case lately as we’re dealing with some behavioural issues (the munchkin, not the mom!), and having her here made the world of difference. As I’ve written about in my birth story, the presence of other women who’ve been through it before (childbirth, raising a family, etc.) is a comforting feeling. There is strength to be found in hearing someone else’s child-rearing war stories (which are often hilarious in hindsight…seriously hilarious!). Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that everything is going to be ok, despite feeling like you’re doing most things wrong, unable to find solutions to ongoing issues, or worse yet, creating lifelong bad habits. I’m starting to realize that it’s ok not to have an immediate answer, to sift through the highs and lows of parenting, to do my best each day while troubleshooting through it all, and know that in the end love wins. We have so much love and laughter in this house—I have to remind myself not to lose sight of that. When my mom says to me that soon she’ll be grown and past these phases I find myself welling up with tears because I don’t want this time to pass, yet some days I’m at a loss as to how to get through them. “We are given what we’re able to handle,” she reminds me. Parenting is a humbling experience, and I laugh at my former self who had a long list of “things I’d never do as a parent”. Well, that list has been a running joke around here of late.
Cookies have felt so right lately, in every way possible. I’ve gotten lost in the testing of this recipe, probably 12 times in a few weeks (as you may have witnessed on Snapchat and Instagram!), and I’m so thrilled with how they turned out. I can’t even deal with how delicious these are, and how much joy they’ve brought into our lives. Total comfort food, right here.
Here are some things I love about these cookies:
+ They are jumbo (so glad I didn’t go with my original idea—mini cookies…temporary lapse in judgement, clearly.), chewy, and gooey (thanks to big chunks of chocolate and a short bake time) with a crispy edge (aka: my cookie nirvana).
+ They are vegan and gluten-free with a perfect texture…so pretty much unicorns of the cookie world given how amazing they taste.
+ Much like my beloved Crispy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, they have a wholesome base made up of oats and almonds.
+ They are sweetened with pure maple syrup rather than cane and brown sugar (this is a big request I’ve had!).
+ You only need ONE bowl! And everything is stirred by hand—no electric mixer required!
+ They only contain a few tablespoons of virgin coconut oil—there’s no vegan butter to speak of, but the flavour isn’t compromised one bit.
+ They are bursting with gooey chunks of dark chocolate! I started my testing with 100 grams, then tried 125 grams, and finally settled on 150 grams of chocolate in this recipe. Trust me on this one. Normally, I gravitate toward this 70% dark chocolate, but we all preferred a slightly milder bar in this recipe—Camino 55% dark chocolate bars. Feel free to experiment and find your perfect chocolate in this recipe!
+ Arrowroot flour/starch helps bind these cookies rather than a flax egg (some of you requested a vegan/gf cookie without flax due to flax allergies so I’m happy you can enjoy them too!).
+ They are super fun to photograph (hence, the million pictures). Try it yourself and tag them #ohsheglows on social media so I can see!
+ Did I mention they’re the cookies of my dreams? Ok, I’ll stop now.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Jumbo Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Yield
13 jumbo (4-inch) cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These vegan and gluten-free chocolate chunk cookies will blow your mind! The cookie dough is sweetened with pure maple syrup—you'd never know they don't contain any granulated cane or brown sugar (aside from the chocolate, of course). Almond butter, oats, almond flour, and a small amount of coconut oil form the hearty and nutritious base of these irresistible cookies. Prepare yourself for an addiction. We love these warm, but they're also great straight from the freezer or fridge! This recipe is inspired by The Bojon Gourmet.
Ingredients
For the wet ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (120 g) natural smooth almond butter (no subs)*
- 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons (105 mL) pure maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons (45 mL) virgin coconut oil, softened but not hot**
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the dry ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (50 g) gluten-free rolled oats
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (50 g) gluten-free oat flour
- 1/4 cup (33 g) arrowroot flour/starch
- 1/4 cup (25 g) almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
- (150g) 55% non-dairy dark chocolate (about 1 1/2 bars)***
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a very large (approx. 21 by 15 inch) baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, stir together the wet ingredients (almond butter, maple syrup, oil, and vanilla) until completely smooth.
- Stir the dry ingredients (oats, oat flour, arrowroot, almond flour, baking soda, and salt) into the wet mixture, one by one, until thoroughly combined. The dough will be a bit wet/oily, but this is normal.
- Chop the chocolate into small chunks. Set aside 3 tablespoons (for topping the cookie dough later), and stir the rest of the chocolate into the batter until combined.
- Using a large retractable cookie scoop (or simply a spoon and your hands), scoop mounds of dough (about 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie). Add each onto the baking sheet, about 3 inches apart, as they'll spread a lot while baking.
- Press the remaining 3 tablespoons of chocolate onto the tops of the cookie dough mounds, evenly distributed. (Reshape the cookie dough mounds if they flatten a bit.)
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (I prefer 8 1/2 to 9 minutes for gooey and soft cookies), until the cookies are spread out. If you prefer a crispy cookie, bake for about 12 minutes.
- Cool the cookies directly on the baking sheet for about 5 to 6 minutes. The cookies will be super delicate until they are cooled. Using a spatula, gently transfer each cookie directly onto a cooling rack for another 10 minutes, where they'll firm up even more. (It's normal to have a small amount of oil on the bottom of the cookies due to the almond butter. If this bothers you, simply place them on a couple sheets of paper towel.) Serve and enjoy! Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing.
Tip:
- * It's important to use natural smooth almond butter that has a fairly "drippy" consistency. Be sure to stir it very well before measuring and avoid using the dry/hard nut butter at the bottom of the jar as it's too difficult to mix with the other wet ingredients. Some readers have also said that using peanut butter resulted in cookies that didn't spread out and didn't hold together, so I wouldn't recommend subbing the almond butter.
- ** What is softened coconut oil? During the warm summer months, coconut oil is the perfect "softened" consistency at room temperature; it's neither solid nor completely melted. If you do need to use melted coconut oil, just be sure that it's not hot/warm or it could melt the chocolate.
- *** I prefer Camino 55% dark chocolate bars in this recipe, but feel free to use the chocolate of your choice.
- Tip: These cookies spread out a lot and are fairly thin. If you prefer a thicker cookie you can try chilling the dough before baking. (I haven't tried this yet myself.)
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
COOKIE FAQs:
I posted this recipe to the Oh She Glows Recipe App over the weekend, and I’ve already had some questions about these cookies that I will share here:
Can I sub natural peanut butter for almond butter? Some readers have commented that they tried this swap and it didn’t work out so well. The cookies didn’t spread out and they were very crumbly. So I wouldn’t recommend it.
Can I make these nut-free? I haven’t tried a nut-free version yet, but if I do it will likely involve trying out sunflower seed butter and finely ground toasted sunflower seeds. Obviously the flavour will change a lot and might be overpowering. The cookies might not spread out, too. If you try anything out, please leave a comment and let us know how it turns out!
Can I swap the arrowroot for another starch? Arrowroot flour is a starch and it helps bind these cookies together. I haven’t tested this recipe using another starch yet (such as tapioca or potato starch), so I can’t say for sure. Again, if you try anything out please report back!
Can I make regular-sized cookies as opposed to jumbo? You sure can!
How do you store these cookies? After cooling completely, I typically store these cookies in a zip bag or container in the fridge (where they’ll firm up even more thanks to the coconut oil solidifying) for a few days. You can also store them in a freezer-safe bag in the freezer (likely for up to 1 month, but we’ll probably never be able to verify this).
Thank you for such a wonderful vegan cookie recipe. These look amazing.
I followed the recipe exactly, using runny almond butter, and mine did not spread out at all. They are still tasty but I’m wondering where I went wrong?
I think these are the BEST cookies I’ve ever had. I made them exactly as directed except I used a little less chocolate. They can be soft and chewy or crunchy if you bake them a bit longer. Finally a cookie that tastes great and is actually healthy. Awesome job! thank you ?
Thank you for this recipe. The cookies are amazing. Instead of using plain almond butter, I used Justin’s Hazelnut almond butter from Target.
Hazelnut almond butter sounds delish, Ashley!
For the almond flour — does it specifically need to be almond flour (i.e., the light-colored, blanched kind), or is almond meal (i.e., just ground up almonds) ok too?
Hey Melissa, Great question! Almond meal is a little different than almond flour, in that it has a slightly coarser consistency; it’s not as finely ground and it uses the skins of the almonds. (As well, as you noted, it isn’t typically made from blanched almonds, whereas almond flour is.) You may find almond meal yields cookies with a slightly different texture than you’d get with the almond flour. I haven’t tried this recipe with almond meal myself, but if you decide to experiment with that swap, I’d love it if you’d report back. You can also check out my Crispy Peanut Butter Cookies on the blog and there’s a similar recipe in my first book, both of which use almond meal. :)
I made these and used bob’s red mill gluten free 1-1 flour and they didn’t spread at all…. don’t recommend using that. I will be retrying tomorrow with a different flour!!
Thanks for reporting in, Jessica! I hope the cookies spread out a bit more with whatever flour you tried the next day. I’d love to hear!
I don’t think I took into enough consideration just how much these would spread….LOL, I pretty much made a giant cookie! With that said, it wasn’t pretty, but the flavors were great. Guess I’ll try again!
These look soooo yummy!! Will definitely give it a go :)
These are amazing! I’m waiting for the second sheet of them to come out of the oven and I’ve already eaten two! I think I oversalted them a little bit they’re so awesome I don’t even notice it! I’m obsessed.
Peanut butter worked beautifully, can sub desiccated coconut for almond flour too
Hi! Thanks for the recipe :-D
Can we omit the arrowroot?
Hi Nina, The arrowroot is a starch that helps bind these cookies together. I haven’t tested this recipe using another starch yet myself, but a number of readers have tried swapping in other starches like tapioca, potato, and corn starch and had success. Hope that helps!
Alrighty thank you
I’ve been putting off making these for months, holding them out as a figurative carrot for myself for getting stuff done.
Today I decided that because a) it’s my birthday, b) it’s a crummy one given the events happening in nearby DC today, and c) I’m home from work due to said events, it was time to make them. I’ve learned to follow your recipes to a T since they really don’t need tweaking, which goes against my usual cooking and baking approach.
Trader Joe’s creamy salted almond butter worked perfectly, and I suspect their raw almond butter would work as well. I cut chunks from their Pound Plus chocolate bar and these cookies are AMAZING! So glad I finally made them. Now, to figure out a way to keep from eating half of them before taking my twin sister some tonight…
Also, thanks for the Android app! So thrilled I can get it now!
Hi I was just wondering if there was a substitute for the oat flour as I cant seem to get it here in my local shops in Ireland?
Laura, you can just take oats and grind them up in a food processor or coffee grinder. That’s what I do and it works great!
Yum! These are so delicious!!
You’re amazing. This is my go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. After making such drastic changes to my diet I didn’t think I’d ever be able to enjoy them again, and although I prefer to be oil free, an exception is made for these cookies.
The only thing that would be better is white chocolate macadamia nut, I suppose I can just swap out the chocolate chunks ?
Yum, if you try that swap, please let us know how it goes!
This recipe was great! Thank you for posting it.
I used buckwheat flour instead of the oat flour and it worked perfectly. I actually find them a little sweet, so next time I’d use a little less maple syrup.
I’ve made these twice now and they are awesome! Thanks so much for this great recipe Angela!
These were absolutely fantastic!!!!! Your recipes are amazing. Thank you!! :)
Aw, thanks, Melissa! I’m glad the cookies were a hit.
So happy I found this recipe! These are seriously the best cookies I have ever had! The maple syrup in place of cane sugar/any other kind of sugar is brilliant, I don’t get a sugar high and then crash after having one of these cookies.
I’m glad you found it too, Lindsay! :)
I loved these! I made them with sunflower butter and honey instead of maple syrup and they turned out amazing and gooey and yummy!
I’m happy to hear those swaps turned out so well, Karina! Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic recipe, my guests LOVED them! Thank you :)
Made a few swaps, since I prefer to use what I have in the kitchen.
Used agave instead of maple syrup and corn starch (50gram) instead of arrowroot.
Worked just fine :)
So glad to hear those swaps worked out well, Inez! Thanks for sharing.