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These Giant Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies are incredibly chewy with the perfect crisp around the edges and are made with only 7 basic ingredients. This low-fuss cookie recipe tastes just like the real deal, yet it is grain-free and refined sugar-free.
I’ve confessed in the past that I’m a complete lush for a good time, which essentially means I like my sugary treats in epic portion sizes.
So here we are, being rebellious with our sugar intake, consenting to our monster appetite for gooey chocolatey thrills.
I borrowed the concept from my Giant Keto Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies to form these larger than life GIANT Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies.
What we have here are grain-free, refined sugar-free paleo cookies that taste just like the real deal.
The texture? Perfect. The chewiness? On point. The butter flavor? Through the roof. Should we stop at one? Probably. Are we going to? Not looking good.
Let’s talk about the ingredients! They’re basic! You’re probably familiar, and you may just have all of them on hand already.
Ingredients for Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Grass-Fed Butter: The ingredient that makes a cookie utterly irresistible 😉 In order to keep the cookies paleo-friendly, use grass-fed butter, but if you don’t mind using regular butter, go for it! Butter serves as the fat, flavor, and goo portion of the recipe. It is what is responsible for that molten chew on the inside.
Maple Sugar, Coconut Sugar, or Brown Sugar: The sweetener portion of the recipe. I use maple sugar, which is super easy to find online and at natural food stores but isn’t as easy to find at regular grocery stores.
You can also use coconut sugar or regular brown sugar. Brown sugar or regular cane sugar will mean these cookies are no longer technically “paleo,” but that’s fully acceptable in my book. If we’re making cookies, we’re making cookies. 😉
Large Egg: One egg helps fluff up the cookies and keep them held together. I try to bring my egg to room temperature before adding it to the cookie dough so that it plays nice with the softened butter and doesn’t cause any clumping.
Vanilla Extract: Providing warmth and richness, a touch of vanilla extract helps add an aromatic yumminess to any cookie. How to describe it in words? Lovely…optional but definitely encouraged.
Almond Flour: The flour portion of the recipe, almond flour is our paleo-friendly grain-free flour. When mixed with all of the other ingredients, almond flour produces a soft and chewy texture with the perfect outer crisp. You’d never guess these cookies are gluten-free, much less grain-free!
Baking Soda & Sea Salt: Leavening and flavor enhancing! Baking soda helps hold the cookies together in one cohesive unit and also generates that crisp you get around the edges. Don’t skip it or you’ll end up with puddles of delicious goo!
Chocolate Chips: The chocolate portion of the recipe that makes us all swoon! Use your favorite dark chocolate chips or paleo chocolate chips. Or, chop up a paleo chocolate bar.
Recipe Customizations:
- The butter can easily be replaced with ghee or softened coconut oil for those who are lactose-free or dairy-free. I often find cookies made with coconut oil are equally delicious as those made with butter!
- If you want to keep these cookies lower in sugar, you can use sugar-free chocolate chips.
- Prefer baking with coconut flour? Make my Coconut Flour Cookies.
- For paleo chocolate chip cookies that use pure maple syrup, make my Soft Chewy Gooey Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- Substitute the regular egg for flax eggs for a vegan option.
Now that we’ve covered the simple ingredients, let’s make this easy recipe!
How to Make Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Add the butter and sugar to a stand mixer and beat until combined and fluffy. Note: you can also use a large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer.
Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
Scrape the sides of the bowl again and add the remaining dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips. Beat on high speed until everything is incorporated and a sticky dough forms. Beat in the chocolate chips.
Use the rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl again to ensure all of the ingredients are mixed together very well.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours before baking. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Measure out ⅓ cup of the dough and place it on the lined baking sheet.
Repeat for remaining cookie dough (there should be 7 balls of dough total). Note that the dough will spread during the baking process so be sure to leave ample room between balls of dough.
Bake for 8 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies reach your preferred level of done-ness. Small cookies need 8-10 minutes for a chewy chocolate chip cookie. Large chewy cookies will need 10 to 11 minutes on the dot and crispy edges will require 13 to 15, until golden brown.
Remove cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing the cookies from the cookie sheet. They will be delicate for the first 10 minutes out of the oven.
Storage Options:
- Room Temperature: Store in an airtight container on the counter for up to 2 days.
- Refrigerator: Store in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months in a large zip lock bag.
That’s it! A pretty standard approach to otherworldly deliciousness! I hope you love these soft and chewy yet crispy buttery dollops of chocolatey goo as much as I do!
More Epic Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes:
- Flourless Almond Butter Cookies
- Gluten-Free Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- 6-Ingredient Peanut Butter Chickpea Cookies
- Fudge Brownie Cookies
- Gluten-Free White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Finally, chocolate chip cookies are sized appropriately 😉
Easy paleo chocolate chip cookies, let’s go!
Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 stick*
- ⅓ cup maple sugar**
- 1 large egg
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups finely ground almond flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips***
Instructions
- Add the butter and sugar to a stand mixer and beat until combined and fluffy (note: you can also use a mixing bowl and an electric hand whisk).
- Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl again and add the remaining dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips. Beat on high speed until everything is incorporated and a sticky dough forms. Beat in the chocolate chips.
- Use the rubber spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl again to ensure all of the ingredients are mixed together very well. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours before baking. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Measure out ⅓ cup of the dough and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat for remaining cookie dough (there should be 7 balls of dough total). Note that the dough will spread during the baking process so be sure to leave ample room between balls of dough.
- Bake for 11 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies reach your preferred level of done-ness. Chewy cookies will need 10 to 11 minutes on the dot and crispier cookies will require 13 to 15.
- Remove cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing the cookies from the cookie sheet. They will be delicate for the first 10 minutes out of the oven.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate and comment below!
Delicious. What do you think about replacing some of the almond flour with hemp powder? To reduce carbs.
Hi Courtney! I haven’t tried this myself, so it’s difficult to say how the cookies would turn out. I imagine they could be fairly crumbly since hemp powder is much lower in fat. If you’ve tried swapping out almond flour for hemp powder in the past with success, I would say it’s worth a try, but it would be a bummer to run the experiment only to have them not turn out.
If I make them smaller, would I need to make any adjustments besides the time in the oven?
Smaller cookies will need about 8-10 minutes. You could do a test run on one cookie using your preferred size, and adjust as needed too! Happy baking!
Could I substitute apple sauce for the butter?
Hi Kate! The best replacement for the butter is coconut oil. Applesauce won’t provide the fat or the structure needed for the cookies to turn out. Happy baking!
This cookie is amazing!!! My non-paleo friends loved them too. The addition of a little sea salt sprinkled over the tops was spectacular! This is hands down a favorite dessert.
Great success! I’m thrilled to hear you and your friends enjoyed the recipe! It was my goal to make it just as great as normal cookies, so I’m happy to hear this feedback 🙂
Yum! Althought the texture might be the same, could I use 1/4c pumpkin & 1/4c coconut oil to cut back on the fat? Can’t wait to male these!
Hi Ki! I love that idea! I think the cookies will turn out a little crumbly with the pumpkin substitution, but I think they will still taste great 🙂 Happy baking!
The cookies taste very good, but they fall apart. I followed the recipe exactly. What should I do?
Hi Kathryn! Out of curiosity, what brand of almond flour do you use?
It sounds like some additional flour might help. I would add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of almond flour and see if that helps. You can also add a little tapioca flour (1-2 tablespoons to start) and that will add some starch to the dough, which should also improve the texture as well. Let me know what you end up trying!
Help if you can. I made a double recipe today and tested just now. Mine are so fragile and melt in your mouth and im afraid will just crumble once off the sheet. I did them vegan with earth balance butter and flax eggs but followed the rest. Any suggestion of what to add before I bake the rest? Another flax egg maybe? Some oats? Open to ideas and hoping for a fix!! TIA!!
Hi Suzi! Grain-free vegan desserts are tough because the lack of starch in the flour makes getting the right consistency nearly impossible without eggs. I would add 2 to 5 tablespoons of tapioca flour or arrowroot flour to get some starch in there. If you don’t have tapioca flour then cornstarch, gluten-free all-purpose flour, or potato flour work too. I would say adding more almond flour would help but it isn’t going to resolve the issue of the lack of binding agent. The flax eggs are the reason why the chocolate chip cookies aren’t holding together, so I wouldn’t add any more flax eggs 🙂 Let me know what you try and how the cookies turn out!
Can I substitute Swerve sugar substitute for the maple sugar? If so, should I use white granular or brown sugar (substitute)?
Hi Lea Anne! I actually have a keto version of this recipe that uses sugar-free sweetener. Here it is!: https://www.theroastedroot.net/giant-chewy-keto-chocolate-chip-cookies/ xo
Hands down the BEST cookie recipe I have had to date. I have made it as written and made it with Truvia brown sugar and Monk Fruit. It was okay with the Truvia brown sugar but had a cooling aftertaste which is not great. I have, baking in the oven, this recipe with Monk Fruit sweetener and it tastes wonderful! This recipe is my go to! Thank you.
I’m so happy to hear you enjoy it, Sarah! Thanks so much for sharing! xo
Good heavens, these are incredible! Thank you!!!
Wahoo! I love them too. Thanks so much for the sweet note, Lucy! xoxo