Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-free)
These Vegan Gluten-free Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies are wonderfully chewy with a rich chocolate flavor that is beautifully enhanced by rich molasses. These are strong in flavor and not for the faint of heart. Only serious chocolate lovers here!
Servings: 18 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (112g) blanched almond flour (for a nut-free option, see NOTES below)
- 1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch/flour
- 1/4 cup (24g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon (6g) ground flaxseed
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons (48g)) creamy peanut butter or cashew butter (use sunbutter for nut-free)
- 1 tablespoon (20g) molasses
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120g) dairy-free dark chocolate chips (use semi-sweet if you don't like a dark/bitter flavor)
NOTE
- Just like the title states, these are a dark chocolate cookie, almost bitter. If you do not like too dark of a flavor, make sure to use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and not the dark.
Instructions
- Pre-heat an oven to 375°F and line a dark metal sheet pan with parchment paper. I have found that dark metal pans bake cookies much crispier on their bottoms, versus aluminum pans, where the bottoms don't seem to cook as well.
- In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flaxseed well and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour (or sunflower), tapioca, baking powder, cocoa and salt together and whisk well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Next, stir in the molasses, peanut butter and vanilla into the reserved flaxseed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and fairly thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more almond flour.
- Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop and drop mounds onto the prepared sheet pan spaced 1-2 inches apart. Use fingers dipped in water to press down each cooking in a round patting motion, smoothing the edges into a round shape. The cookies should be about 2 inches wide, about 1/4 inch tall. This will ensure even baking.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until spread out and slightly cracked on top. Be careful about over-baking or they will burn and dry out.
- Cool 5 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack. They will be really soft upon removal but will crisp up beautifully over the next 15 minutes. So, be patient to let them cool and finish cooking fully before eating.
Notes
To make these nut-free: Use raw, unsalted sunflower kernels and grind them up in a food processor into a fine flour and use that in place of almond flour. For this option, increase the flour amount to 1 1/4 cups sunflower "flour", as it tends to be lighter in baking. Use sunbutter in place of the nut butter.