Cashew Butter Cookies (Vegan, Gluten-free)
These Cashew Butter Cookies with chocolate chips are vegan, gluten-free and oil-free! They only require 8 ingredients, 1 bowl and require only 10 minutes prep! They are crispy on the outside and moist and fudgy on the inside!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (112g) superfine blanched almond flour
- 5 tablespoons (40g) superfine oat flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 tablespoons (20g) coconut sugar (optional for a sweeter cookie, I used it)
- 6 tablespoons (96g) RAW cashew butter, with no added oil/sugar (SEE NOTES)
- 2 tablespoons (30g) unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup (80g) pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
- I use this scale.
Instructions
- First, you will need to make the cashew butter, unless you have a store-bought one that has no added oils/sugar/. Or if you already have a batch made, you can make them right away. See NOTES at the bottom if you don't want to use cashew butter. If making the homemade cashew butter, make sure to let it cool off before making the cookies, otherwise it will melt the chocolate chips.
- To a large bowl, add the almond flour, oat flour, baking powder, salt and coconut sugar (if using). Whisk very well, breaking up any lumps.
- To the same bowl, add the cashew butter, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Stir for a few minutes until it comes together into a sticky and thick, cohesive batter. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, as the batter will be too sticky to roll into balls right away. Alternatively, you can prep this batter the day before,
- After chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a pan with parchment paper.
- Use a cookie scoop and form about 1 1/2 tablespoons worth balls, 14 total, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced 2 inches apart.
- Press each cookie down with your fingertips to 1/4 inch thick. They should retain their round shape well, but piece and smooth any edges back into the round shape as needed. If the cookies are sticking to your fingers, dampen them lightly with water.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes, just until the edges are turning a light golden brown. These will quickly go from baked and golden to burning on the bottom. They are done when they are puffed up some and the edges are just a light golden brown. See pics above. If you chose to chill your batter overnight, they will take closer to 10-11 minutes, possibly.
- Cool on the pan just 5 minutes and transfer to cool completely on a cooling rack. Devour! Store cooled cookies in a sealed container or ziplock bag.
Notes
- This recipe was created specifically based on using cashew butter. If you don't want to use cashew butter, then make the recipes linked within the post that use almond butter or peanut butter that are based on this similar recipe. Those were designed for those nut butters, so make those as opposed to subbing with this one. Each nut butter performs differently in baking because of oil contents.
- For the cashew butter, it must be raw cashew butter that has no added oil/salt/sugar and isn't roasted. Roasted cashew butters in the store tend to have added oil and are much, much oilier than raw cashew butter. That will not work in this recipe and will cause the cookies to overly spread into a mess. I make my own raw cashew butter at home in 5 minutes since it is so easy and because it's so hard to find raw cashew butter in the stores. You can find how to make raw cashew butter here.