Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are buttery, chewy, gooey, and have amazing texture for the ultimate treat!
These delicious Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are the bar form of The BEST Giant Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies.
They’re chewy, gooey, rich and buttery, studded with a generous amount of chocolate chips, and are so easy to make!
Plus, there’s no need to chill the dough before baking the bars, so the recipe comes together rather quickly.
Not too shabby for an impromptu delicious dessert!
Fair warning: it’s near impossible to stop at one. These gooey bars are truly addicting.
No sweat if you follow a keto diet or if you’re dairy-free.
For a dairy-free version, make my Chocolate Chip Paleo Blondies, which use almond butter and coconut oil. For a low carb version, make my Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.
If you prefer using coconut flour, make my Coconut Flour Cookies and you can still bake them into bars if you’d like.
These gluten-free chocolate chip cookie bars have great texture and are such a treat whenever you’re craving a batch of cookies.
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for almond flour cookie bars!
Ingredients for Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars:
Almond Flour: Taking the place of all-purpose flour, we use almond flour or almond meal for these delightful cookie bars! Almond flour results in a chewy texture and a naturally sweet flavor, making the treat taste absolutely divine! You’d never guess it is grain-free.
Almond flour can often be used as a 1:1 replacement for regular flour for gluten free baking. I use Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine Almond Flour but any brand will work. Blanched almond flour, hazelnut flour, cassava flour, and oat flour all work too.
Softened Butter: Unsalted butter brings that iconic chocolate chip cookie flavor to these blondies. It also makes for chewy cookie bars.
You can make them with a dairy-free alternative like coconut oil or vegan butter spread, I have to say, the classic butter tastes the best to me.
Pure Maple Syrup: I love using pure maple syrup to sweeten these cookie bars because it provides a unique rich maple flavor and adds to the chewy texture.
If you prefer using a granulated sweetener such as regular cane sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar, or sugar-free sweetener, feel free to make a 1:1 swap. You won’t need to change anything else in the recipe.
Egg: We just need one large whole egg to help fluff up the cookie bars to that delicious consistency we all love. Bring the egg to room temperature by taking it out of the refrigerator about 10 minutes before baking.
For a vegan option, swap the egg for one flax egg.
A flax egg is 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed plus 3 tablespoons of water. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it resembles the consistency of a beaten egg.
Vanilla Extract: A little pure vanilla extract livens up the cookie bars by providing a lovely warmth.
Baking Soda: Baking soda is the leavening agent here, ensuring everything holds together nicely when sliced.
Sea Salt: A pinch of kosher salt bring out all the individual flavors in the cookie bars so that the whole experience is enhanced. Don’t skip it! If you have coarse flaky sea salt on hand, you can sprinkle the final result with some sea salt.
Chocolate Chips: Use your favorite chocolate chips for the absolute best results! I use dark chocolate chips or semi sweet chocolate chips. Milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, sugar-free chocolate chips and vegan chocolate chips all work.
Optional Additions:
- If you love nutty cookies, add ⅔ cup of chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Swap the chocolate chips for raisins or dried cranberries if you’d like.
Let’s bake a batch this Almond Flour Cookie Bar recipe!
How to Make Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8″ x 8″ square baking dish with parchment paper. Note: you can double the recipe and use a 13″ x 9″ pan if you’d like to make a large batch.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, pure maple syrup, and vanilla extract until well-combined. Note: you can also use a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer instead. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and beat in the egg until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer with the wet ingredients (almond flour, baking soda and sea salt). And mix until a thick dough forms.
Add in the chocolate chips and beat on medium speed until they are well-distributed throughout the dough.
Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared pan and spread it into an even later.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 18 to 22 minutes, or until the cookie bars reach your desired level of doneness and are slightly golden brown around the edges. I do 20 minutes. 18 will result in chewier cookie bars, where 22 minutes will result in crispier edges.
Allow the cookie bars to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Cover the baking pan with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 24 hours.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Freeze any remaining cookie bars in a zip lock bag for up to 3 months.
And that’s it! A grain-free dessert recipe that will instantly become a family favorite!
If you love cookie bars, also try my Paleo Lemon Poppy Seed Blondies and my Paleo Carrot Cake Blondies.
It’s a cookie bar kind of life!
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter 1 stick, softened
- ⅓ cup (80ml) pure maple syrup*
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups (160g) finely ground almond flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup (180g) chocolate chips**
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8" x 8" square baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, pure maple syrup, and vanilla extract until well-combined. Note: you can also use a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer instead. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and beat in the egg until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer with the wet ingredients (almond flour, baking soda and sea salt). And mix until a thick dough forms.
- Add in the chocolate chips and beat on medium speed until they are well-distributed throughout the dough.
- Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared pan and spread it into an even later.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 18 to 22 minutes, or until the cookie bars reach your desired level of doneness and are slightly golden brown around the edges. I bake mine for 20 minutes. 18 will result in chewier cookie bars, where 22 minutes will result in crispier edges.
- Allow the cookie bars to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I am dairy free and allergic to coconut. Would I use the same amount of olive oil, or less?
Hi Sherry! I haven’t tested the recipe using olive oil so I’m not too sure how it would turn out. If I were to try it myself, I would use the same amount. That said, I would hate for you to go through the process of making the cookies only to have them not turn out. If you’re okay with taking the risk, feel free. Otherwise, I’d try to see if someone else has an almond flour cookie recipe using olive oil to verify it will work out 🙂
I needed to use honey to replace the maple syrup and it was wonderful! Maple syrup would be really tasty, too.
I’m thrilled you enjoyed the cookies with honey, Barb! This is helpful to others who want to make the swap too! 🙂
Can you replace the butter with avocado oil or olive oil? I am dairy free.
Hi Sheri! I would use softened coconut oil 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Excellent recipe didn’t have an egg used egg whites , worked out perfectly so tasty
Amazing! Thanks for sharing, Brenda!
What a treat! I reduced the butter to 3/4 of a stick and the maple syrup to 1/4 cup because I thought the original was a little too sweet and oily for my taste. Added some chopped walnuts. Delicious recipe, easy to make and lots of options to modify. Thanks!
My pleasure, Denise! Thanks so much for sharing your changes 🙂
I tried this recipe and when I pulled it out of the oven, the edges are brown and the center is really giggly. Is that normal? I’ve never baked with almond flour before so maybe it’ll set as it cools?
Hi Tiffany! The center shouldn’t be very jiggly – If it’s only a little jiggly it’s probably fine to let it cool but if it’s noticeably jiggly I would put the bars back in the oven. I’d cover the pan with aluminum foil so that the edges don’t continue browning and I’d bake at 350 for another 5-10 minutes or until the center looks like it has firmed up. Let me know if you have any other questions! xo
Hi there,
Do you have this recipe in measurements of g’s or oz’s please!
Hi Liz! I just added the weights in grams. Hope you enjoy the cookie bars! xo
I tried this recipe and everyone in the house love it!
It seems this will be my new favourite recipe from now on for my Keto dieter husband and well everyone, non-keto kids. 😂
I used coconut sugar replacement for maple syrup and adjusted the sweet. It’s great!! Thank you Tina for sharing this recipe.
Aww I love hearing that! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xo
I can’t have butter, and I’m learning to cook differently. Can I use ghee instead of the stick of butter in this recipe? Ty
Hi Deborah! Yes, you can replace the butter with ghee 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
Do you have to use a stand mixer?
Hi Melanie!
You can use a mixing bowl and an electric mixer or just a spoon 🙂
These were fantastic. I didn’t have maple syrup, so I used the same amount of dark brown sugar. Will definently make these again. I love the different options for chips, peanut butter and Cinnamon will be my next bake😘
That’s so great to hear, Tina! Thanks so much for sharing – this is super helpful to others who want to try the recipe using brown sugar. I also love the idea of using peanut butter chips or cinnamon chips! Yum!