Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut Flour (Dairy and Gluten-Free)

These coconut flour chocolate chip cookies are modeled after the classic Joy of Cooking recipe but made gluten and dairy-free thanks to coconut oil and coconut flour. They have crispy edges, a chewy center, and that deep caramelized sugar flavor that brings me right back to childhood!

gluten-free chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour on a wire rack after baking

When I was growing up, my mother and I did a lot of baking, and the majority of it was from the classic tome, The Joy of Cooking. I made the classic chocolate chip cookie recipe so many times that I had it memorized. We would often add oats and different mix ins for variety, but every batch still began by creaming the butter with light brown and granulated sugar, before adding the eggs, lots of vanilla extract, flour and baking soda.

ingredient shot for coconut flour chocolate chip cookies

As you know, when I reinvent classic baked goods to be gluten-free, I try to rely on only one flour to keep things easy and simple. This dairy-free chocolate chip cookie recipe with coconut flour achieved my perfect childhood cookie!

One thing to note when making coconut flour cookies is that the flour is much denser than regular AP flour or gluten-free cup-for-cup flours on the market. When swapping it in a recipe (see my coconut flour banana bread, for example), coconut flour tends to use exactly halve of a generic flour’s cup measurement. So don’t be alarmed by how little flour is in this gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe—a little goes a long way.

Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour step by step:

creamed coconut oil and sugar with raw egg in a bowl — Beat the dairy-free coconut oil with the two sugars.

wet ingredients for chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour in a bowl — Beat the dairy-free coconut oil with the two sugars.

To make the cookies dairy-free, the butter is replaced with coconut oil. Pay attention that whatever you buy is solid at room temperature, which means it will cream like a butter. Refined versus unrefined or expeller-pressed doesn’t matter as much—just look at what’s happening in the jar.

If you’re looking for a low sugar cookie, this recipe isn’t it! Since we are replacing both the dairy and the gluten, I’ve kept the sugar ratios true to a classic chocolate chip cookie to get the texture I was looking for.

More sugar means it’s a sweeter cookie, yes. But the combo of granulated sugar and brown sugar also means a thinner, chewier cookie with crisp edges and a deep caramel flavor. This is not a light, cakey mound of a cookie. For that type of texture, try this gluten-free skillet chocolate chip cookie!

You are welcome to reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup each of cane and light brown sugar, just note that they won’t spread as much or get as crispy.

And speaking of thin and crispy…

gluten-free chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour on a sheet pan after baking

hand holding one coconut flour chocolate chip cookie

Tips for baking chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour:

You don’t need to flatten the cookies—place them on the sheet pans in balls or scoops.
Use two sheet pans as these dairy-free chocolate chip cookies really spread.
If any of your cookies bake into each other, use a ring cookie cutter or glass to reshape them into a circle while still warm. Just encase the cookie in the glass (face down on the sheet pan) or using the ring mold and spin it around a few times in a wheel motion.
It’s important to let the cookies cool completely on the pan and not to move them until firm. Especially if you don’t like a crisp and snappy cookie, and choose to under bake these, they will require cooling to firm.

Read on for these delicious dairy-free chocolate chip cookies with coconut flour!

With health and hedonism,

Phoebe