These Vegan Gluten-free Grain-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!
VEGAN DARK CHOCOLATE MOLASSES COOKIES
If you are a fan of dark, rich chocolate, then you are going to love these vegan chocolate molasses cookies!
These vegan cookies are amazing, easy and simple to make. They are only for serious chocolate lovers, as the flavor is strong, due to the blackstrap molasses enhancing the cocoa. These cookies will suit a lot of people, as they are vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, oil-free and a nut-free option.
GLUTEN-FREE BAKING
Gluten-free baking is tricky. There are multiple flours out there to choose from, yet they all yield different textures and results. They all require different amounts and different liquid to flour ratios, and have very different end results. A lot of recipes use eggs in gluten-free baking to make up for the lack of structure and “glue” needed for lightness and to hold the product together.
These cookies took a couple of trials, but the end result even shocked me. These are slightly crispy on the outside, chewy and soft on the inside, and absolutely delicious!
Combining chocolate and dark molasses gives a really rich dark chocolate flavor, almost bitter. So, these cookies are for serious dark chocolate lovers, not the milk chocolate lover.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CHOCOLATE MOLASSES COOKIES
Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined pan, 2 inches apart.
Flatten each cookie into a round shape 1/4 inch thick. Bake 9-11 minutes, until spread and slightly cracked on top.
MORE VEGAN COOKIE RECIPES
- Crispy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pecan Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 5 Ingredient Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Cashew Butter Cookies
Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-free)
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.
Those are beautiful cookies, I love using molasses in various baked goods, they add moisture and intensity of flavor. These will be perfect in the box of cookies I want to give to my vegan friend. You should be proud, they look amazing.
Thank you so much! You’re so sweet. I was so surprised at how delicious they turned out! They tasted like they had butter in them…the almond flour and molasses really gives them amazing flavor! I will be using molasses more often 🙂
I can only think that you enjoy torturing me my friend these cookies look incredible 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Haha! Thank you!
Great job and photos 🙂 They are similar to the recipe I make with the molasses, but different with the flour etc. I will have to make these…… Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Thom!! 🙂 I loved Laura’s chocolate/molasses cake so much, I knew I had to make cookies with those flavors and I also wanted them gluten free which wasn’t easy, took a few trials but the end result was worth it 🙂 Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
They look super delicious Brandi!! Yum!!
Thank you so much Anne!!
Brandi, these look very delicious! I love the peanut butter and molasses. Sound great together! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Thanks Judy! They were wonderful. The peanut butter and molasses made them moist without detecting the peanut butter taste! Happy Thanksgiving to you too!!
Brandi, I love chocolate and molasses. I can’t wait to give this a try! You have a beautiful blog.
Thank you so much! I truly appreciate that! I hope you enjoy them 🙂
I believe you!! These look GREAT!! I love the texture on top and the color screams CHOCOLATE goodness!! Vegan friendly..count me in!!
Aww thanks Brittany!! They turned out fab!
These look sooooo delicious, I’m salivating, and I’d love to be able to make them for my kids but one of them is super sensitive to so many things and it would be a real tease to him if I were to make them the rest of us. I can’t even see a way that I can adapt them for him 🙁 Ooh, maybe I’ll make a batch when he’s staying at his father’s over Christmas
Thank you so much for visiting! I appreciate it 🙂 I’m so sorry to hear your son is super sensitive. These are vegan and gluten free…is he sensitive to almonds?
He can’t have almonds, chocolate, peanuts or molasses unfortunately. I could substitute the chocolate for carob and peanut butter for cashew spread but the almonds, flaxseed and molasses have me a little stumped
Aww poor little guy! That’s a lot of allergies…I’ve never heard of so many! I feel so bad for him. Yeah, I’m afraid swapping all that out would yield poor results. The molasses and almond flour is what gives the cookies their amazing texture and flavor and moisture! Bummer! I’ll keep his allergies in mind on my next cookie creation 🙂
Thanks, that’s so sweet. I don’t get to bake many cookies or cakes because I’m always so busy making all our sauces from scratch and creating meals for the 5 of us…along with dealing with a 17 month old and being pregnant with number 4! Yes, there is something wrong with my brain, I’m a glutton for punishment. I’m not the worlds best baker and just can’t bear the thought of spending so much time on something that is very likely to be a failure, lol. I look forward to your creations 🙂
Maybe this cookie recipe may work? I don’t use almonds, chocolate, molasses, peanut butter, or flaxseed.
http://thehealthyflavor.com/2012/09/04/autumn-maple-spice-cookies/
Omg! You have your hands full! You are so funny! I don’t blame you at all…I can barely and handle one baby! 🙂
These turned out perfectly! I love that they’re gluten-free, all your hard work and experimentation paid off! xx
Thanks so much Barbara!! 🙂
Wow, I want some
🙂
They look amazing!!
Thank you…they were pretty tasty 🙂
Brandi, these look delicious! Thanks for the idea of combining molasses and chocolate. Do you think I could make my own tapioca flour in my food processor? I tried once with millet and it never reached a flour-like consistency.
Thank you so much!! They compliment each other incredibly, I was so surprised! Hmm, I’m not sure if it would get smooth enough which it definitely needs for this recipe, depends on the power of your processor. The tapioca flour is important for the rise and browning and texture in these specific cookies. You can certainly try though and see if you are able to get a really fine powder. My processor works great on some nuts and oats but not everything. The good news though is tapioca flour (not starch) is pretty cheap…much cheaper than other flours. Let me know! 🙂
I absolutely love the description of these. Texture can make or break a cookie (literally! ;)). I can’t wait to try these! And I love cacao nibs! : )
Thank you Raechel! The texture is wonderful on these! I hope you enjoy them! 🙂
Wow they look fabulous! I really want to get more into vegan baking so I am planning to start stocking my cupboards with more vegan/GF items asap! Started with some coconut oil yesterday, so excited 🙂 I made these fig newtons from My New Roots over Thanksgiving with my almost vegan cousin and they were soooooo good.
What would you recommend as basic baking staples if I wanted to start baking vegan? I already use flax, chia seeds and almond milk a lot, but like you said, there’s so many different kinds of flours and thickeners and stuff, I don’t even really know where to start!
Hey Erika! Thank you so much!! Vegan is one thing, but gluten free is a whole other world, lol! It takes a lot of trial and error and time. For vegan baking, I like to use spelt flour, almond flour, coconut flour, rice flours etc. I have about 10 different flours. I would recommend getting comfortable with vegan baking first before gluten free because combining the two can be a little overwhelming since you don’t use eggs or any glutens. Gluten free flours all yield such dramatically different results and in different amounts. Check out the recipe I just posted today…notice the flours I use for the shortbread. Id definitely get almond flour. Also, I like to use coconut milk (from the carton, not can) because it has less of a taste so it is great for universal baking. I also use maple syrup or coconut sugar as sweetners because regular white sugar and honey are not vegan. I’m actually gearing towards all liquid sweetner because they are healthier.
I also use pumpkin or baby food or veggie and fruit purees in place of eggs and for moisture and to cut down on oils. Check out these…
http://thehealthyflavor.com/2012/08/20/chocolate-chip-covered-cherry-muffins/
I use dark cherries for moisture and “eggs” in my chocolate muffins and they are so moist and my non-vegan friend LOVED them! Please let me know of any questions…I’m more than happy to help 🙂
Wow, thank you so much!! Actually, I suppose I’m not as interested in GF as I am in vegan (at least at the moment :)). Those muffins sound SO good. One last question: do you ever use agave when baking? I tried subbing it for sugar in a recipe once and the ratio I used must have been totally off because they were NOT good. And then I started reading about how it’s actually worse/equivalent to sugar because it has a lot of concentrated fructose and immediately turns into fat in your body. But I never know what to believe these days!
Did you increase the dry ingredients some to make up for the extra liquid of agave in the recipe? Maybe that’s why they didn’t turn out, or what happened, were they too sweet or not sweet enough? I actually don’t use agave very much, except in my granola recipes where a sticky sweetner is needed. I prefer maple syrup and use it ALL the time. Agave is much sweeter to me so I usually just use small amounts and stick with maple syrup or coconut or Turbinado sugars. I’ve heard conflicting hings too about agave but who knows…everyday somebody says something new about a product, lol! I think if your just using it here and there anyways, no harm 🙂
Hmm they definitely just weren’t sweet enough, but I probably just didn’t use the right ratio of agave. But anyway, thanks! You helped me decide to invest in some spelt flour and make my own almond flour/meal for my next forays into vegan baking. We’ll see how it goes 🙂 Thank you so much for all the tips!!!
Oooh Brandi! What a beautiful combination of great fine flavours! I love the added cacao nibs here, for extra crunch! 🙂 Yummmm!
Thank you Sophie! Yes, the crunch is awesome..they turned out fabulous!!
Gluten free baking has been my nemesis until recently. I love that you’ve figured out how to make it work for you! Question for you, my bag of tapioca starch says “flour” on it as well. It comes from Bob’s Red Mill. I thought they were the same thing?
Awesome job on the cookies! So yummy!
Thank you Somer! Yes, I’ve built up quite a collection of gluten free recipes now…I’m creating a page dedicated to gluten free recipes since I have so many now. It’s been quite fun…and frustrating lol, in the kitchen experimenting with all of these different flours, but learning what each one can do truly is making me a better baker than I imagined. I have at least 10 different flours in my fridge, lol, but they all really do make a tremendous contribution to a quality baked good, when combining them effectively.
Oh, and I’m so glad you mentioned that! I wasn’t thinking when I typed that…I was thinking of potato starch/flour which in that case they are definitely different. I just fixed it!
Oh good! I thought I was doing something wrong with the flours 😉 I don’t have any issues at all with gluten, but so many of my friends do. Its really nice to be able to bake them treats that don’t come out terribly like my first vegan and gluten free attempts. I’ve had bitter, crumbly, oily… you name it. It’s tough!
I just made these. I am not a vegan, but was looking for a cookie recipe with most of these ingredients. The only changes I made were using a whole scraped vanilla bean instead of the extract, and using an egg instead of the flax meal. I also used about two tablespoons of honey in with my maple syrup because I was just short on the maple syrup.
Because I used that egg, the dough came out more like a batter. I greased my muffin tin, poured in the batter, and baked at the same temp in the recipe. They took maybe 12 minutes or so, and I got 12 perfect, chocolately, chewy little brownies. These are delicious!
Wow Michelle! Thank you so much for the awesome feedback! I’m so happy to hear they work as brownies too, that is awesome. Thanks so very much for taking the time to let me know. Sounds deeelish!!
A molasses lover’s dream!!! These were amazing! We ran out of flax seed the other day, so I used chia seeds instead (I ground some and left the rest whole) – they were delicious! Toddler-approved, too! 🙂
Thank you so much Mandy for the wonderful feedback! I’m so glad you both loved them so much!!
These sound delightful! I’m super excited to try them, but I’m wondering if anyone has tried to make a non-GF version and what they used? While I’m not gluten free, I’d still make them to recipe except that I used up the last of any of my GF flours last week and I won’t be getting more yet. But the cookies sound so amazing I really want to try them and have a huge bag of all purpose flour >_<.
Hi Christina! Actually, I wouldn’t recommend using all purpose flour, it performs completely different than the almond flour and tapioca flour, which would result in a much drier and different cookie. The almond flour and tapioca is what gives the cookies their amazing, chewy texture. SO, I would just wait until you get more almond and tapioca flour, so you can enjoy the cookies to their fullest! 🙂 Let me know when you make them!
Don’t think, just make these! I was in a “stress-baking” mood last week and decided to throw these together. My nature is to complicate all recipes but yours start out so uncomplicated and it’s just perfect for me!
I tried my best to follow the recipe to the letter but I’m one of those people who just can’t not add my own spin 😉
I ran out of maple syrup so I used half maple + half amber agave. Added a heaping teaspoon of instant espresso powder to help bring out that chocolate-y deliciousness. Threw in a teeny splash of almond extract. My chocolate chips of choice were Trader Joe’s semisweet chips. After forming and slightly flattening the cookies I sprinkled them with coarse sea salt and chilled them in the fridge for an hour. Then baked for exactly 9 minutes and they are still just perfect even a week later! My dad finished off the remaining two last night. I love how chewy they are with that yummy molasses flavor in the background.
They received rave reviews from my mom’s gluten free coworker, two of the gals at my job (skeptical of vegan foods), and my dad. I loved them! Will definitely make these again and again.
You are SO awesome, thanks so much for the amazing feedback on the cookies!! I’m super thrilled everybody loved them so much!! Adding sea salt sounds SO good!!! YUM! 🙂
These cookies were tasty, but I cooked them 10 minutes and they didn’t firm up much. Guess my batter was too wet and should’ve either cooked longer or added more almond flour. If you have a weight measurement, that might help me…I tend to have a light hand with flours. My omnivore family still ate them up! 🙂
Hi Marlene! Thank you so much for making them! The weight measurement can slightly vary due to the almond flour brand but you want between 112 to 120g. Everybody else has had success in them baking up well, so it may be like you said, in the weigh your measuring..I always measure by scooping out the flour with the cup and lightly pat it down and then level off with my finger…or the weight measurement should give you great results