Quinoa Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan, Gluten Free, Sugar Free)

I managed not to eat half the batch straight out of the oven. <so proud>

Okay, you guys. I've been on a search for an easy, vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free chocolate chip cookie recipe for years. A cookie that wouldn't be dry and hard as a dog biscuit, but would have that buttery-soft-crumbly inside texture with a slightly crisp outside.

I have also been interested in learning to bake with quinoa flour for months, but life has been so insanely, um, insane for the past year that I just never got around to it.

My wait has ended. I found a quinoa cookie recipe that I could build from, modify, and tweak out, and here is my finished recipe of chocolate chip cookie perfection, or at least as close to it as I have ever been able to get in the Vegan Gluten-Free Sugar-Free World.

This cookie has the best texture and nutty, buttery flavor of any I've made in at least 3 years (since I quit sugar, white flour, oat flour, and wheat flour.)

Also, it's reasonably easy to make and doesn't require 59 jillion ingredients. (Those of you who do alternative baking know what I mean!)

I like 'em salty and sweet, so you might need to adjust my sweetener combo and/or salt amount to suit your taste.

Why yes, they DO taste as good as they look.

Quinoa Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Vegan, Gluten Free, and Sugar Free)

1 flax egg (1 TBS ground flaxseeds + 3 TBS water)

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

6 TBS Golden Lakanto monkfruit sweetener (or other granulated 1 to 1 sugar substitute of your choice)

1/2 tsp stevia powder OR 1/2 tsp English Toffee flavored stevia

2 TBS almond butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup quinoa flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 + 1/8 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup vegan stevia-sweetened (or unsweetened) chocolate chips

1-3 TBS water, to moisten dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix up the flax egg in the bottom of a medium-sized bowl, and let sit while you melt the coconut oil on the stove. Whisk flax egg, oil, golden Lakanto, stevia, almond butter, and vanilla together and set aside.

Mix the four dry ingredients in a small bowl, then add to the wet ingredients in the larger bowl and mix well. The dough may be somewhat crumbly and dry, but go ahead and mix in your chocolate chips before adding a tablespoon or two of water to make it come together. It needs to be wet enough for you to scoop with a large spoon without it falling apart.

Scoop by heaping tablespoon-sized balls, roll them in your palms a bit, then evenly space them apart on a nonstick baking sheet (or on parchment paper.) They will expand and rise a tiny bit, but not spread flat and wide like "real" chocolate chip cookies. You should get between 12 and 15 cookies. Flatten slightly, then bake for about 12 minutes, until barely starting to brown around the bottom edges. Don't overbake or they may get too dry.

Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, and then move to a wire rack if desired. Or just start devouring them warm off the cookie sheet after the five or so minutes. They'll be moist, buttery, and yummy-delicious either way!

Storage and re-heating suggestion: These store ok in the fridge for a few days, and they become a little hard and dry, like most alternative-flours/sugars baked goods do. I suggest reheating the cookies when eating the leftovers to restore that fresh-from-the-oven texture and taste. To reheat: turn your oven on to 350 degrees (don't preheat oven,) wrap cookie(s) loosely in tinfoil, and place in oven (either on a cookie sheet or use tongs to place tinfoil packet directly on oven rack.) Set a timer for 15 minutes, and load the dishwasher and/or make coffee or tea while waiting. Cookie(s) should be warm, soft, and ready-to-enjoy when the timer goes off. (Note: if you fully preheat the oven to 350 first, definitely shorten the warming time unless you want the cookies to get really hot and probably melt all the chocolate chips completely.)

I recommend a glass of iced decaf coffee with almond milk and stevia as a side. :)

And why not sit down with a good book while you’re at it...my health nut heroine Karly in Sweet Barbarian would totally be into these cookies for sure!

I'd definitely bake cookies for him anytime.