With their deepest, darkest chocolate flavor, you’d never know these fudge-like cookies are made from only 6 simple ingredients. And you won’t find any butter or flour! This is a naturally gluten-free recipe. (And dairy free, if using dairy-free chocolate chunks.)
While my website focuses on traditional baking recipes, I do have a growing selection of naturally gluten-free recipes—those where flour simply isn’t needed. It just so happens that some of my favorite recipes hail from this section of my website. Hello, chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies! Today’s recipe is certainly up there on my list.
Inspired by these flourless almond butter cookies, today’s recipe kicks it up a notch with a double dose of chocolate, thanks to cocoa powder and dark chocolate chunks. They’re ultra-decadent and fudgy, and I have a feeling that you’ll love every bite.
Why You Should Make These Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies
- Simple 1-bowl recipe, ready in about 30 minutes
- Only 6 ingredients
- No-chill cookie recipe like shortbread cookies and snickerdoodles
- Deep chocolate flavor, like double chocolate chip cookies… but without flour or butter!
- Naturally gluten-free recipe
- Dairy-free recipe if using dairy-free chocolate chunks/chips
- Slightly toasty taste from almond butter (and you can absolutely use homemade almond butter here)
- Guaranteed to disappear quickly!
6 Ingredients to Use & Why
You’ll find a pretty standard list of ingredients here:
- Egg: To bind the ingredients; the cookies would fall apart without an egg.
- Brown Sugar: For flavor and structure. You can use coconut sugar instead, which is an unrefined sugar swap that I like to use in my banana muffins, too.
- Baking Soda: For a little lift.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: This will give the cookies their deep, chocolatey base. Cocoa powder is a very drying ingredient, so you’ll only use 1/4 cup (21g). Still, the cookies have a wonderfully chewy and fudgy texture.
- Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks: Because what’s a chocolate cookie without plenty of chocolate add-ins? I use dark chocolate chunks in these cookies, but you can really use whatever type of chocolate add-ins you like best. Dark, semi-sweet, milk, or even white chocolate… if you enjoy it in your chocolate chip cookies, you’ll enjoy it in these cookies. This is optional, but feel free to add some chocolate-coated sunflower seeds (or even sprinkles!) as well. How fun do these cookies look with the colorful sunflower seeds? I found them at Trader Joe’s when I originally published this recipe in 2014.
- Almond Butter: The M.V.P. of this recipe! Not only does almond butter give these cookies a nutty, toasty flavor, it replaces the flour and butter to give the cookie its structure. A jack of all trades!
Let’s Talk Almond Butter
Have you baked with almond butter before? I love it. It’s my first choice when making banana chocolate chip cookies, and I always include these almond butter sparkle cookies on my Christmas cookie trays. Almond butter is also fantastic drizzled on top of whole wheat pancakes.
For today’s dark chocolate almond butter cookies, you can use homemade, natural, or creamy processed almond butter. Keep in mind that the type you use can impact the texture. In my recipe testing, I found that the best texture came from using 1 cup of homemade almond butter, or 1 cup natural organic almond butter.
Prefer peanut butter? You can swap the almond butter for the same amount of peanut butter, or try my recipes for flourless peanut butter chocolate cookies or flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies instead.
Tips for the Best Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies
- No chilling required: Bake your cookies right after mixing the dough. Otherwise, they may have a hard time spreading. I use this medium cookie scoop for perfectly portioned cookies—one of my most-used cookie baking tools!
- Press your dough: To encourage just a bit of spreading, gently press your cookie dough balls before baking. (Pictured above.)
- Underbake your cookies: Bake your dark chocolate almond butter cookies for just 10 minutes. They’ll look soft when they come out of the oven but will set as they cool. I found this to be just the right amount of time to keep the cookies tasting soft and fudgy, not dry and hard.
- Get ready to make a second batch: Whenever I make a batch of these cookies, they barely have time to make it to the cookie jar. LOL.
The next time you need a quick chocolate cookie fix, keep these dark chocolate almond butter cookies in mind!
More Flourless Recipes (GF)
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Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: about 14 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These 6-ingredient flourless dark chocolate almond butter cookies are so good, you won’t miss the butter and flour!
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup (250g) creamy almond butter, at room temperature*
- 1/2 cup (90g) lightly packed light or dark brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup (21g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup (180g) dark chocolate chunks or chocolate chips
- optional: 1/3 cup chocolate candy-coated sunflower seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg until beaten. With a big spoon or silicone spatula, or using an electric mixer, mix in/beat on medium speed the almond butter, then the brown sugar, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Beat/mix everything together very well. Depending how thick your almond butter is, you’ll have to use some arm muscle! Fold in the chocolate chunks until combined.
- Scoop the dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each (I use this medium-size cookie scoop), onto prepared baking sheets and arrange 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough mounds with the back of a spoon. If you find the cookie dough balls are a little oily from the almond butter (mine usually are) blot each with a paper towel. If using the sunflower seeds as pictured above, press several into the tops of each cookie dough mound before baking.
- Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and that’s expected. For firmer cookies, bake for 12 minutes.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature, if desired, before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Natural Cocoa Powder: Do you know the difference between natural cocoa powder and dutch-process cocoa powder? Use natural in this dough.
- Almond Butter: You can use homemade, natural, or processed almond butter; however, the type you use will slightly change the texture. I found the best, smoothest texture was with 1 cup of homemade almond butter or 1 cup all-natural, organic almond butter. Be sure to stir in any excess oil on top of the natural brands, and get it completely mixed in. You can use crunchy almond butter, but the cookies will be a little crumbly.
- Can I Use Another Nut Butter? Yes, you can use other nut butters such as peanut butter, cashew butter, or try sunflower seed butter for a nut-free option.
- Adapted from King Arthur Baking
Keywords: chocolate almond butter cookies
I just made these and used Swerve Brown Sugar alternative instead of real brown sugar. (So they are totally sugar-free!) I also added shredded coconut. They turned out great! Very fudgy and extremely chocolatey! The only thing is… they didn’t flatten out into discs at all as they cooked, they remained remained the ball shape I formed them in. Wonder why?
★★★★★
Hi Eva! Sugar alternatives can bake differently than sugar. You can try flattening them a bit with your palm before baking next time.
I made these today. The dough was a little crumbly and sandy, but otherwise turned out great. I used mini M&Ms so they were not GF, but they look festive. Using my 1.5 Tbsp scoop, the recipe made 18 cookies for me. I will make again with GF chocolate covered sunflower seeds when I can find them for a friend with celiac disease and hope they hold together a bit better next time. Perhaps a creamier almond butter will make the difference. I used Justin’s Honey Almond Butter. The taste is fantastic and I’m not even a chocolate lover.
★★★★★
These are delicious! I used natural peanut butter, had less than 1/4 cup cocoa and had to chop up a dark chocolate bar to make 1 cup of chocolate. I dropped back the brown sugar a bit as well.
Thank you for your recipes and website, I will be visiting again and again for recipes. It’s such a lovely site to search through, no annoying pop ups and things that keep it from loading properly. The recipes print nicely as well.
★★★★★
I made these yesterday. They are SO yummy. I used sugar free chocolate chips and added a bit of pure Stevia to the batter. I also added a bit of vanilla extract. This will definitely be a favorite. By the way, I think my biceps are still popping from that workout (mixing the batter)!
★★★★★
I loved the flavor of these so much, but mine came out very crumbly. Not sure why. But, will try again soon, because they were so yummy.
Would cashew butter work also? Really want to try this!!
Hi Emily, I can’t see why not! Be sure to stir in any excess oil on top of the natural brands, and get it completely mixed in. Otherwise, your cookies will spread. Let us know how they turn out!