I’m relieved to say there is a happy ending to my Apple Butter venture… :D

A very delicious ending.
Thanks for all your helpful comments yesterday! You sure know how to help a gal out. I loved reading everyone’s different methods for making apple butter.
After 4 more hours of slow cooking yesterday morning over medium heat (with the lid ajar), buttery apple bliss happened. The apple pieces all broke down and the sauce turned into a thick & dark butter, no post-blending required. I was a happy girl.
Five pounds of apples made about 1 & 1/4 cup of apple butter. Boy, does it ever cook down! Some of you mentioned that not adding a lot of sugar (I used 1/3 cup Sucanat as opposed to 4 cups white sugar) might prolong the cooking process, so maybe that’s why it took longer for me. It took about 19-20 hours in total.
If I thought I loved store-bought apple butter (Eden Organic has a great no sugar added one), homemade is a gazillion times better! I want to test it one more time before I post the recipe for you guys. I think we might go apple picking this week, so it will be a good opportunity to test it out again! I also want to make peach and pear butter too. I’m hooked. :)

Speaking of testing, I was on a mission to make vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies to bring with us while we visit family this week. I adapted my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and tried out a few different gluten-free flours. I didn’t want to use any weird gums or other ingredients, but keep it as simple as possible.
I made 3 trials:

Trial #1:
I used 1 cup of brown teff flour and 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill almond flour (everything else in my recipe was the same)

No dice. The teff flour gave them a gross sand-like and gritty texture! I have not had much success when using teff flour at all. There is nothing worse than a gritty texture in gluten-free baked goods.
Trial #2:

I used 1 & 1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and 1 cup gluten-free oat flour (I simply processed certified gluten-free oats in my Vitamix until a flour-like consistency)

These are the ‘picture-perfect’ cookie with a great thickness too! The taste was a million times better than using teff flour. The almond flour gave them a very prominent nutty and buttery taste that we all loved. However, I felt that the almond flour was a bit too pronounced in this cookie (over-powering the sweetness) and wanted to reduce the amount slightly.
Trial 3:

…made a classic thin & crisp cookie with a ton of chew.
I used 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and 1 cup gluten-free oat flour.
By just reducing the almond flour by 1/4 cup, the cookie was much thinner, crisp, and chewy.

While I generally love a thicker cookie, these were by far everyone’s favourite! By reducing the almond flour, the sweetness was able to come through much more. We also loved how crisp and chewy they are.

The winning cookie profile:
- crisp yet chewy
- Nutty and strong buttery flavour (thank you almond flour)
- sweet, but not over-powering
- slight ‘taffy’ feel to them from the nut flour
- addicting!
- What they are not: Soft & doughy
Let’s review:

I’m guessing if you wanted a thicker cookie with the sweeter taste of the winning cookie, you could add a couple more tablespoons of almond flour along with a couple tablespoons of additional sugar. I also want to test these again using Sucanat sugar as a sweetener.


Vegan and Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield
18-20 cookies
Prep time
Rest time
10 minutes
Cook time
Total time
Thin, crisp, and chewy. While these aren't your typical soft and doughy cookies, we loved them anyways. The almond flour gives them a taffy/chewy texture and it was hard to eat just one. The cookies firmed up quite a bit by the next day, so I would suggest cooking them a bit less than 12 mins (which was what I did). Adapted from my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Ingredients
- 7 tbsp Earth Balance + 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used organic)
- 1/4 cup organic cane sugar (or use white sugar)
- 1 flax egg: (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup gluten-free oat flour (I processed 1 cup certified gf rolled oats into flour)
- 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour (add 2 tbsp Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour if you want a thicker cookie)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the flax egg and set aside.
- With an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat the Earth Balance and oil until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat for 1-2 minutes until creamy. Beat in the flax egg and vanilla extract.
- Beat in the remaining ingredients and fold in the chocolate chips.
- With wet fingers, shape balls of dough and place on the baking sheet. The dough will be very sticky but don’t worry! No need to flatten the balls down! Bake for about 10-11 minutes until slightly golden along edges. Allow to cool for 5-10 mins. on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.
By the way, I also called Earth Balance and they told me that all of their products are gluten-free. Nice!

Have a great Friday cookie monsters!
I love the side by side comparison of the cookies with different flours, and the oat/almond combo sounds delish. Apples haven’t quite reached us yet this season, but the minute they do, I’m all about the apple butter!
These are seriously picture perfect! I can almost taste the “chew” factor through the screen. If I didn’t have apple cake and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies already in the house I’d be making these this afternoon!
You are wonderful!! I feel like you do all the hard work, and we readers benefit. :) Thank you so much!! Have a great weekend.
Angela, Have you ever used coconut flour in any of your gluten free recipes? I bought a package of it the other week and have no idea what to do with it. By the way, I will try these cookies…they look terrific! Love your site!
I’ve tried using coconut flour a bunch of times and hav not had success. I find it very crumbly and dry. I think the key is to use only a small amount and then use other flours in combination with it.
Coconut flour and teff flour are very high fiber, so they tend to really dry out a recipe (especially coconut) or make it too gritty. It’s best to use only a tablespoon or two of cocnut flour. For more ideas on using Coconut or almond flour, check out Elanas Pantry.
Brown rice flour (especially if it is very fine) and a little almond meal is a great tasting combo that I use in almost everything GF that I bake. Sweet rice flour is great too, but you don’t get the nutrition.
Gluten Free Girl is a great resource for baking ideas gluten free and whole grain and also without gums. I love how many resources are out there compared to when I went gluten free!
Thank you Toni!
I love a chewy cookie! These look great :)
Have a great weekend Angela!
So glad the apple butter turned out, I can’t wait for the recipe. I’ve been craving a good chocolate chip cookie, maybe I’ll bake up a storm tonight!
Looks awesome…I’m definitely baking some cookies soon! Good thing about the cooler temp–no fear about turning on the stove!
Yes I agree! It’s nice to be able to turn on the oven again and not have a hot flash :)
Everything sounds amazing -the apple butter and ALL the cookies :) I do have pretty much all sweet teeth, so I think I may try the recipe w the extra almond flour… But the texture of the winning recipe sounds so perfect… I’ll probably do that one and then go from there ;)
I just got the latest issue of Yoga International magazine, and they’ve got a really good looking vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that I want to try. It’s made with sunflower butter, coconut oil, flour and oats. It’s called Happy Hippie Cookies – I love that name :0)
oh that sounds great!
I made your original Vegan Chocolate Chip cookies last week and they quickly disappeared. Asked hubby yesterday what kind of cookies he wanted me to make “The ones you made this last time. They were awesome”. That is a huge compliment, as he is SO picky! They will be a regular in my house.
Glad you both enjoyed them! They didn’t last long here either ;)
ooh yummy those cookies look amazing I definitely like a thicker cookie so maybe ill follow your additional almond flour & sugar suggestion! have a great weekend.
So glad to hear you eventually got your ‘happily ever after’ with the apple butter! :P I wanted to comment, but I had no suggestions! Only well-wishing, which – as nice as it is – doesn’t do too much good in times of crises!
Chocolate chip cookies… Yum. I haven’t yet met a person who doesn’t like them, though it is quite funny how we all like ours in different ways! I love soft, warm ones where the chocolate chips are still slightly gooey when you bite into them. Not really a fan of crispy ones. I’d give these a go, though almond flour doesn’t seem to agree with me… Guessing there’s no food substitute! Oh well. Congrats on cookie-making success. :D I love reading about how you have different tasting trials! Really feels like it shows a tiny bit of the process of coming up with a great recipe… though obviously sometimes you create amazing ones just on the spot (e.g. that Olive Oil Pasta with Walnuts, Lentils, and Red Peppers)!
Have a great Friday!
Sounds like we went through similar trials + testing this week! I’m longing for a cookie and must try these out! I made oat based trail mix cookies awhile back that turned out well, but really an “authentic” cookie. I have yet to attempt chocolate chippers! –It always astonishes me when fruit recipes [jams/fruit butters/etc] call for SO much sugar.
glad the apple butter turned out great! and all three trials of cookies look delicious and I absolutely love the last picture! :-) haha
I’ve been making apple butter in the crockpot for a couple yrs now and giving it away as gifts. It is wonderful and makes the house smell so good. This summer I also tried blueberry butter and strawberry/rhubarb butter, which I highly recommend. Check out recipes at the great Food In Jars blog.
Will do, thanks!
I made your pumpkin butter in my slow cooker last night and am obsessed. I feel the need to butter everything! I want to use the pumpkin butter as a glaze so I think I’m going to tackle GF donuts this weekend.
And as a gluten-free girl I like a blend of oat, almond and sourgham flours.
Glad you like the pumpkin butter. It’s great swirled into oatmeal too :)
I’m wondering if you could help me out. I’ve been experimenting with almond meal, as well. My husband would like to lower his cholesterol a bit, and decided to try to eat cheerios regularly. Meanwhile, we very much love chocolate chip cookies. I’ve been trying to create one with just good fats (olive oil) and mostly oat flour. My last try was edible, but did not pass the husband test. Do you have any thoughts on how to do this?
I’m made some vegan cookies before with olive oil and it yields a very crisp & thin cookie (at least in the recipes I tried). I would guess that you’d need to increase the dry ingredients and maybe decrease the fat (use maybe 1/3 cup oil?). Maybe I can try to test that out with this recipe at some point!
I am powerless to any cookie recipe. And vegan to boot?! Quick question–would regular oats (still processed into a flour) mess up the recipe at all?
Nope they will have the same outcome (but of course won’t be certified gluten free)
So thin and crispy!! Ahhhhh those cookies look great Angela! The almond flour would be such a tasty addition. Thanks for doing the dirty work of trying the 3… It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it ;)
If you make pear butter make sure the pears are soft first. Usually a week on the counter will do it.
Thanks for the tip :)