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.
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).
I really wanted to use this recipe to make a big cookie pizza for a July 4th picnic. Any advice on bake time and should I maybe double the recipe? Thank you, these are the best cookies!❤
Hey Krissy, Oh this is such a great question! I made a giant cookie last year, but I can’t recall for the life of me which of my cookie recipes I used or how long I baked it for. I’m so sorry! I remember it worked great though. lol. My guess is that it would require around 20-25 minutes baking time, but it’s just an estimate as I really can’t recall now. If you try anything please let us know how it goes.
I made these & subbed SOOM tahini for the almond butter. They turned out unbelievably amazing!
omg I’ve been wanting to try this!! Thank you for reporting back!
Thank you Angela!!
I made these last night and brought them into work for Cookie Day and I won the “Most Awesome Cookie” Award! So yummy:)
Aww congrats!! haha. I’m so happy to hear this :)
Can I cook these in advance and freeze them? Got a Wild Women Retreat coming up soon, and would love to offer these to our wild women.
Hey Helen, your Wild Women Retreat sounds too fun! Yes, you can definitely bake the cookies in advance and store in the freezer using a freezer-safe bag for up to 1 month. I’d love to hear what the group thinks if you try them out!
Hi Angela,
I love your recipe! Would you be willing to develop more with date syrup/paste as the only sweetener instead of sugar or maple syrup?
Thank you
Nancy
Hi Nancy, I’ve been wanting to try date syrup actually…thanks for the encouragement! I wonder if it would swap in okay for maple syrup in some of my recipes?
I made these last night and they are amazing! My almond butter had small chunks, but it still worked great! I baked them for 9 minutes and they were so perfectly chewy. This is my new favourite cookie recipe.
Hi Shawna, I’m so happy these are your favourite cookies! And glad that they still worked with small chunks of hard almond butter. :)
I started making these, realized I only had steel cut oats (sad), so subbed in extra flour…may not have been the best idea. They turned out good, but look nothing like the picture. They didn’t spread at all. The taste is good though and I love not using added sugars. I will definitely try again with the actual ingredients :) Thanks so much for the recipe!!
Hey Lindsay, I’m glad you enjoyed them even with your modifications! Sorry they didn’t spread out though. :) Can’t wait to hear what you think when you try them again.
Just stoping by to thank you for this amazing recipe. It’s genius! It’s how a cookie should be: goey in the inside and crispy on the edges. And yet it’s healthy! I feel no guilt eating them with all the goodness inside. This is truly the unicorn of cookies :D And just so easy to make!
I love so much that your recipes use the healthiest ingredients in them :)
I now want to try your other cookies recipes from the OSG Every Day (love the book btw) but I keep coming back for this one every time haha
Can’t thank you enough for this recipe – and all the work you do promoting a plant based diet!
Much success always!
Hey Larissa, Aww thank you so much for the sweet note! I really appreciate all of your support :)
Hi Angela! These are my families and well pretty much anyone I make them for FAVORITE cookies! The first time I made them they came out 100% perfect and since then they have never spread out as well or been as googey. I’m thinking it’s the almond butter. What brands have worked well for you? I do my best finding an all natural smooth one but when I get home and open it up it’s never as drippy as I want. I miss desperate to have them perfect again and I’ll order the almond butter if needed. Thanks!
Hey Amy, I can relate to your almond butter struggles! Mine tend to settle a great deal while sitting in the pantry. One trick I use when I’m desperate is to scoop the entire jar into the food processor and let it run for a few minutes. It’ll become so drippy and perfect for recipes. I hope this helps and that you get back to that first perfect batch! ;)
HI Angela, I wanna try these babies. they look delic question, I buy fresh almond butter ground from raw almonds at my health store.can I use that? and for your almond butter choc chip cookies in the cookbook, it says to ground almonds to make almond flour .can I just sub almond flour (prebought)instead of grinding the almonds? much quicker :) tnX A BUNCH. your recipes have been great!!
Sue
Hey Sue, I’m so happy you love the recipes! I think fresh almond butter should work as long as it has that “drippy” consistency I mention here—try to avoid the harder bits that can form in the bottom after it sits. :) And you can absolutely use pre-bought almond meal instead of grinding your own. Just make sure it’s almond meal (which is ground almonds with their skins) and not almond flour (which is ground skinless almonds). I hope that helps, and I’d love to hear what you think of the cookies!
Would the recipe work by subbing the oat flour with more rolled oats instead?
Hey Rachelle, I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for sure, but my guess would be that using more rolled oats would change the texture of these cookies quite a bit. If you have a high-speed blender or food processor on hand, you can make oat flour from rolled oats at home simply by blitzing it until fine. I hope that helps, and I’d love to hear how it goes if you do try any subs!
Hi Angela
Can virgin and refined coconut oil be interchanged ? Was just gonna buy refined so for other recipies I don’t taste the coconut. . Is it better to have both in stock ? What’s your top 3 favorite brands by the way :) tnx a bunch. Exciting to make these soon
Hey Sue, Yes you can absolutely interchange them if you prefer refined’s more neutral flavour. :)
Made these tonight and they were soooo delicious !! Chocolate in every bite. You are an amazing baker. !!
Still new to all the GF And DF cooking , so it’s great to have people like you to learn from ?
Question though … the coc oil starting solidifying in the batter as I was mixing. Is that normal or Is it due to the cold maple syrup that I added. ?
And does storing them in fridge make them harden ? As they are sooo perfect right now, don’t wanna mess with that!! Love chewy cookies
Tnx
Hey Sue, so glad you love them! Yes you are right that cold maple syrup will make the oil harden…it’s best to use room temperature ingredients whenever baking with coconut oil. :) And if you chill them in the fridge they will harden up due to the coconut oil firming as it chills. I hope this helps!
Hi Angela (or fellow Oh She Glows readers)!
I’m a recent vegetarian turned vegan. Can you tell me what brand of chocolate you use? The dark chocolate I have found either still contains traces of milk or is incredibly bitter.
Thanks!
Hi Katie,
I use Green and Blacks Organic most of the time (I’m that weirdo who LOVES the 85%…it’s an acquired taste!). For cookies though I prefer to use their 70%. I think the label may state that they use equipment shared with milk products though.
Ok, I know you said no subs for almond butter but we have an almond and hazelnut allergy here (all other nuts and legumes are okay!). Do you think I could sub for cashew butter?
Hey Leah, Hmm I haven’t tried it with cashew butter so I can’t say for sure! If you try anything I’d love to hear how it goes :)
These cookies are AMAZING. Great both fresh and frozen. I also replaced the chocolate with raisins in a batch for my dad and he said they were even better than the chocolate (I respectfully disagree). The batter is also a treat in itself. Thank you SO much for this recipe!
haha oh I bet a mixture of chocolate chunks and raisins would be to die for! Mmmm. I’m so glad you enjoy the recipe so much. They are my go-to cookies lately.
My cookies ended up really dry for some reason :( I measured quite accurately so I’m not sure what happened.
Hey Rosslynd, I’m so sorry to hear the cookies came out dry! I wonder could the almond butter have been the culprit – was it nice and runny or firm and dry? Or maybe the cookies were baked too long? Sometimes ovens run hot. I would suggest baking a couple minutes less next time and making sure the almond butter is runny and soft. :)
These are the best chocolate chip cookies!! Better than what I made for years before going gluten free.
Im not vegan so I added an egg. Also desiccated coconut and walnuts and dark chocolate chips.
Thank you!!
These are too sweet for me is there anything I can do to cut down on the syrup? I tried to add less but then the dough was too dry. I tried adding coconut oil but then they just spread too thin.
Hi there Angela <3
Just wanted to let you know that my family and I LOVE these cookies! The taste of the dough is incredible, then combined with the dark chocolate chunks- amazing.
I made 2 batches of cookies and here is what I found:
1) The first batch I made with a nut butter mix (the nut butter was made of peanuts, almonds, chia seeds, cashews, etc) and replaced the arrowroot flour with tapioca starch. I found that the cookies still grew in size but were very delicate (could not hold strong without breaking)
2) The second batch I made with the same nut butter mix, however, I used regular arrowroot flour. The cookies did not spread in the oven, but held stronger!
Regardless, the cookies tasted amazing either way. I'll definitely have to try the recipe with almond butter only (as per your recipe suggestions) to see how they turn out :')
Thank you for the amazing recipe Angela! These cookies are truly a keeper.