Gluten free chocolate cookies made with chickpea flour! They’re surprisingly excellent, with a nice texture and a nice chocolate flavour. Obviously healthy-ish, lightly sweetened with maple syrup, but definitely a treat.
With the new recipe update, they are very much like flourless brownie cookies, and the texture is significantly improved. There are still some notes to keep in mind with these (mostly with chickpea flour and liquid) so take a look at the notes section below if it’s your first time making the cookies.
Because I don’t follow a gluten-free diet, I really aim to get the perfect texture on any GF recipes I share – if it’s not as good or better than a spelt version, it isn’t posted. These are really, really good.
If you don’t want to buy chickpea flour just for this, I have several recipes on OE that use it – sweet potato latkes, strawberry rhubarb crisp, and you can always make socca. It’s great for binding and thickening, and works well in veggie burgers (like in these black bean meatballs) and sauces.
One reader, Tina, commented: “I recently got a grain mill and used freshly milled chickpeas for this recipe. This was amazing. Not too crazy sweet, but delicious! Great recipe, thank you!!”
Another reader, Correne, said: “I am in the process of making my 3rd batch of these in under a week. I CANNOT believe how perfect they are! My daughters and I are ‘grain free’ – so having a treat like this has us over the moon!! Thank you so much!!”
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Chickpea flour: this can be found with South Asian foods either at the grocery store, in specialty shops, or online. It will be marked as chickpea, gram, besan, or garbanzo flour.
- Cocoa powder: use either cacao or baking cocoa, either work here. Cocoa makes a richer, darker cookie. Make sure you’re using cocoa and not cocoa drink mix – there shouldn’t be any sugar, milk solids, etc. in the ingredient list.
- Vanilla: I use vanilla powder because extract is prohibitively expensive here. Use a teaspoon of extract in place of the vanilla powder and whisk it in to the liquid ingredients. No vanilla? Use cinnamon or another spice you like instead.
- Maple syrup: for this recipe, maple syrup, honey, and date syrup can all be used interchangeably in the same amounts. Maple syrup will make a very slightly less sweet cookie and honey is rather sweeter, so it’s a good way to adjust based on your sweet tooth without adding to the ingredients. I particularly like date syrup in these.
- An egg: I haven’t successfully made these without egg, but you can try these vegan chocolate tahini cookies for a good alternative. There are some comments laying out vegan options (e.g. using a chia egg) but since this isn’t a vegan website and I haven’t found the vegan versions satisfactory, I don’t have a tried and true sub.
Step by Step
1. Mix the dough: whisk the dry ingredient to break up any clumps, then mix the wet ingredients in.
2. Add chocolate: stir in the chopped chocolate to incorporate. Don’t worry too much about over-mixing.
3. Transfer: scoop the cookie dough out onto the prepared baking sheet, about two tablespoons each, for nine cookies.
4. Bake: bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are cracked and the edges are just firm to the touch.
Recipe Notes
Chickpea flour varies pretty significantly from brand to brand and it’s important to take a good look at the texture of the cookie dough after mixing. It should be just like regular cookie dough in consistency and very glossy in appearance.
If the dough is dry, which will be the most common issue, then add a tablespoon of non-dairy milk, mix, and add more if needed, mixing between each addition. If it’s your first time using chickpea flour then it may be worthwhile to use a slightly lesser amount of flour and add more as needed to get the same texture as pictured above.
Don’t be tempted to reduce the amount of coconut oil – they texture is poor with a lesser amount. I know it’s a bit high for one of my recipes but these are very well worth it.
How to Store
Storage: keep in a sealed container at room temperature for 3-5 days.
Freezing: place fully cooled cookies in an airtight container and freeze for up to three months.
Expert Tips
- Line the sheet: these do stick a little to the baking sheet, so I recommend lining over greasing for this recipe.
- Don’t taste the raw dough: the chocolate covers up the chickpea flour taste completely BUT it’s very important not to taste the raw dough and try to avoid smelling it, too. Wet chickpea flour smells awful and you might be tempted to toss it if you taste it before baking.
- Don’t over-bake: if over-baked, the cookies will be dry and cake-y, so err to the side of under-baking if unsure.
- Mix the oil and syrup: this helps to cool the coconut oil down further in case it’s still warm and prevent any egg scrambling, so you don’t have to wait for the oil to cool.
- Use room temperature ingredients: I keep my eggs on the counter and always forget to mention this, but it should be at room temperature for this recipe for the best results. To quickly bring an egg up to room temp, submerge it in warm water for five minutes.
More Gluten-Free Desserts
Vegan Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Almond Flour Brownies
Chocolate Hazelnut Tart
Almond Chocolate Chunk Cookies
If you make these Chickpea Cookies or any other dairy-free cookie recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.
Double Chocolate Chickpea Flour Cookies
Description
Ingredients
- 110 grams (¾ cup) chickpea flour besan/gram flour
- 25 grams (¼ cup) natural cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon vanilla powder or 1 teaspoon extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 80 grams (⅓ cup) coconut oil, melted
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) maple syrup or honey
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 100 grams (½ cup) dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, vanilla, and salt.110 grams (¾ cup) chickpea flour, 25 grams (¼ cup) natural cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon vanilla powder, ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- In another dish, whisk the coconut oil and maple syrup, then add the egg and whisk again until fully combined.80 grams (⅓ cup) coconut oil, melted, 80 ml (⅓ cup) maple syrup, 1 large egg
- Stir the coconut oil mixture into the flour mixture, mixing until no streaks of flour remains. Stir in the chocolate to evenly incorporate.100 grams (½ cup) dark chocolate, chopped
- Scoop the dough, around 2 tablespoons per cookie, onto the baking sheet. Flatten each cookie slightly with your palm (wet your hands to prevent sticking).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the tops are cracked and the edges are just firmed. Don’t over-bake.
- Cool the cookies for ten minutes on the pan before removing and cooling completely on a rack. They’ll keep in an airtight container for at least three days and freeze well.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
This post was originally published in February 2018. It has been updated with improvements to the recipe, and new photos and text, as of October 2020.
I added coconut flakes and it made them like a slice of German Chocolate cake. Delicious!
Great idea!
These cookies were alright but did not turn out like the picture. Followed the recipe exactly except I substituted maple syrup for honey. The dough was very runny and the tops did not crack at all, resulting in flat, dry cookies. They tasted okay, not very sweet, but I was pretty disappointed by the texture.
Hi Maggie, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you. I can’t think what might have happened to make the dough so runny – it should be the thick texture shown in the step-by-step photos. Maple syrup shouldn’t cause that issue but maybe there was a problem with the chickpea flour? I’m sorry I can’t be of more help without more information. I’ve seen other readers have a problem with the dough being runny when using egg replacers but you said you didn’t change anything so that can’t be it. Update: after further testing I’m sure this is due to using the wrong type of cocoa, and the recipe has been re-tested and updated with that in mind.
Can I sub avocado oil for the coconut oil?
Hi Natalie, some readers have tried this and said that it does work, but there’s a change in texture. I’ve never tried it but it should be okay.
A great recipe and such a treat for family! I substituted equal amount of apple sauce for the oil and used Bob’s Mills Egg replacer for the egg, and they turned out wonderfully. Mine were flat rather than cracked on top and the dough was runny, but they look and taste wonderful. Thanks for posting!
Made these tonight, followed exactly except I added a teaspoon of coffee powder and chopped nuts, lovely cookies, looked just like the picture and have a lovely soft texture with a crunchy outer “shell”. I always think you can slightly taste coconut oil, but it’s not overpowering
I recently got a grain mill and used freshly milled chickpeas for this recipe. This was amazing. Not too crazy sweet, but delicious!
Great recipe, thank you!!
Also, I forgot to ask – agave syrup instead of maple syrup? Is that a direct sub, or do I need to use more or less?
Can I use unsalted butter instead of coconut oil? I don’t want to purchase extraneous ingredients which I won’t really use.
Hi there, other readers have commented that they’ve made the cookies with butter and that they turned out pretty well, but with a slight change in texture. I’ve never tried them with butter. Regarding agave, it’s only about a third as sweet as maple syrup, so if you use it, the cookies will be much less sweet. I wouldn’t recommend increasing/reducing the amount, though, as you’ll really change the texture of the cookies then.
This is a good cookie. The texture is cake like in a good way. I had reduced the sugar by 20g and subbed a bit of applesauce for oil. I should have used full sugar, this is not overly sweet (I had homemade caramel to top them with to compensate). The applesauce worked and the percentage could be increased.
Thank you! A local gf vegan bakery makes a cookie like this that I could not find a recipe to replicate it with. If you ever want to experiment more with this I saw in their ingredients they use applesauce and flax seed…. Maybe to solve the excessive oil and no egg issue? But either way these are a home run!
I kept waiting for the tops to crack but it started to burn on the edges instead and it’s cooked right through.. still tastes good. The only thing i did was use less honey and was a little short of coconut oil so I added clarified butter.
Changes to the recipe, especially reducing sweetener, will cause problems here. If you want the recipe to look like the cookies pictured, it needs to be followed exactly as outlined in the post.
I’ve never used chick pea flour before but was given some and want to use it up. I find the flavour of the chick peas still comes through – perhaps it is an acquired taste, but i will look for other recipes to use the rest. These will get eaten but a little icing helps.
Tops didn’t crack, flavor good, maybe my oven temp a problem, more cake like than crunchy
My 1st dessert recipe using chickpea flour. Astonishingly delicious. OMG. Thank you!!
I am in the process of making my 3rd batch of these in under a week 🙂 I CANNOT believe how perfect they are! My daughters and I are ‘grain free’ – so having a treat like this has us over the moon!! Thank you so much!!
I honestly cannot believe how good these are. I genuinely have never been mind blown by a cookie recipe. I love that there is no refined sugar in these cookies & the fact that the ingredients are simple too. I overbaked the second batch so they were a little more cakey, but they were also delicious.
I need to use up chickpea flour and ran across your cookie recipe. I also had a little bit of almond flour to use, so I first used that, then supplemented the rest of the flour with chickpea. Other than that I followed the directions exactly as written. These are a delicious soft cookie. I baked mine for 10 minutes, and that seemed to be the perfect amount of time.
I made these vegan with a flax egg and melted vegan butter with maple syrup and vanilla extract. Unbelievable. We ate the whole batch I’m one sitting and will definitely make again.
I made these as directed. I would not have guess they were healthy, they tasted amazing. I used the date syrup and they were the perfect amount of sweetness. I might just have eaten some of these for breakfast the next day.
Wow! These cookies came out great! Your recipe was spot on and I LOVE that you provide weights for the ingredients. It makes it so much easier to get consistent results. Thank you for giving this gluten free girl a delicious treat 🙂