Last Updated on February 26, 2026 by Deliciously Organic Editor
I finally landed on the gluten free chocolate chip cookies recipe I’ve been trying to make for years. These cookies are lightly crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle. They come together fast, bake in about 11 minutes, and they’re made with simple gluten free pantry staples.
The best part is that these gluten free chocolate chip cookies can also be nut free, dairy free, and egg free. If you’ve been looking for a cookie recipe that works for allergies and still tastes like a real cookie, this one’s for you.
Ingredients you’ll need
Here’s what makes these gluten free chocolate chip cookies work so well.
Unsalted butter or palm shortening
This gives the cookies a soft center and helps them hold their shape. Use palm shortening if you’d like to make a dairy-free cookie.
Coconut sugar and honey
Coconut sugar gives a deep, caramel flavor. The honey adds a little chew and helps with browning.
Coconut flour, tapioca flour, and arrowroot flour
This trio gives you the best texture. Coconut flour keeps the cookies tender, and tapioca and arrowroot add that classic chew.
Egg or gelatin egg
You can use a regular egg, or you can use a gelatin egg if you need the cookies to be egg free. I like giving you both options.
Grass fed gelatin
This is the binder that helps these gluten free chocolate chip cookies hold together even when you do the egg free version.
Chocolate chips
I love Enjoy Life chocolate chips because they’re allergy friendly and taste great.
How to make gluten free chocolate chip cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and adjust the rack to the middle position.
- Place the palm shortening or butter, coconut sugar, and honey in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on medium high for 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix in the egg.
- Sift the coconut flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, sea salt, baking soda, and gelatin into a mixing bowl.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.
- Stir in the vanilla and chocolate chips.
- Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper.
- Bake for 11 minutes. Serve warm.
What is the Best Gluten-Free Flour Blend for Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I use a combination of coconut flour, tapioca flour and arrowroot flour as the base. Then I use unflavored, grass-fed gelatin or egg to bind the ingredients. I know there are a lot of gluten-free blends out there, but most are too grainy or have an off-putting taste.
I’ve been using this combination for years and no one ever knows it’s gluten free!
Can Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Be Egg-Free?
Yes! In this recipe, you can substitute the egg for a gelatin egg. You actually can’t even taste the difference!
What are the Best Chocolate Chips to Use?
When it comes to chocolate chips, I love using Enjoy Life Chocolate morsels. You can purchase these at your local health food store, Amazon, or Thrive Market.
Can I use almond flour?
Almond flour won’t work as a simple swap in this recipe.
These gluten free chocolate chip cookies are built around coconut flour, tapioca, and arrowroot. Almond flour acts very differently, so the cookies can spread too much and turn greasy or crumbly.
Storage and freezer instructions
There are two easy ways to store gluten free chocolate chip cookies, and both work really well.
Freeze the dough before baking
This is my favorite method because you can bake a few cookies at a time.
- Scoop the dough into balls and place them on a cookie sheet.
- Cover and freeze until firm.
- Transfer the frozen dough balls to a glass container and keep them in the freezer.
To bake from frozen, place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 14 – 15 minutes.
Store baked cookies
Once baked, store the cookies in a cookie jar or airtight container for 4 to 5 days.
FAQ: Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Can I make these gluten free chocolate chip cookies egg free?
Yes. Use a gelatin egg instead of a regular egg. The gelatin helps bind the dough so the cookies still hold together and stay chewy.
What is a gelatin egg?
It is a simple swap for an egg. You mix unflavored gelatin with warm water, let it thicken, then stir it into the dough. It helps the cookies bind without eggs.
Do these cookies taste like coconut?
Not really. Coconut flour does not taste strongly like coconut once it is mixed with the sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips.
Can I use almond flour instead?
Not for this exact recipe. Almond flour changes the texture and the cookies will spread differently. If you want an almond flour cookie, it is best to use a recipe written for almond flour.
Why did my cookies turn out dry?
This usually happens when coconut flour is over measured. Coconut flour is very absorbent. Spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off. Also make sure you bake them for 11 minutes, not longer.
Can I freeze the dough?
Yes. Scoop the dough into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet, then store in a glass container. Bake straight from frozen at 350 degrees for about 14 to 15 minutes.
How do I store baked cookies?
Store them in a cookie jar or airtight container at room temperature for 4 to 5 days.
Can I make the dough ahead of time?
Yes. You can make the dough and keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days. Let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes before scooping if it feels too firm.
What chocolate chips work best?
I like Enjoy Life chocolate chips because they are allergy friendly and melt well. You can also use chopped chocolate for bigger melty pockets.
More favorite gluten free dessert recipes
If you love these gluten free chocolate chip cookies, here are a few other gluten free desserts you might enjoy making next.
- Gluten-free brownies
- Almond flour blondies
- Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream
- Homemade mocha marshmallows
If you make these gluten free chocolate chip cookies, leave a comment and tell me how they turned out!
PrintThe Perfect Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
- Prep Time: 17 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: Makes 16 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons butter (or palm shortening for dairy-free), melted and cooled for 15 minutes
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut sugar or organic cane sugar
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 1 large egg (or 1 gelatin egg for egg-free)
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup tapioca flour
- 1/3 cup arrowroot flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon unflavored, grass-fed gelatin (reduce to 1/2 teaspoon if using the egg-free option)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup Enjoy Life chocolate chips or chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and adjust rack to middle position. Place butter, sugar and honey in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on medium-high for 2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and mix in egg.
- Sift coconut flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, sea salt, baking soda and gelatin into a large mixing bowl. With mixer on low, slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture. Stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. Let dough sit for 10 minutes.
- Using a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. Bake for 11 minutes. Serve.
But what about if you can’t have nuts or coconuts?
Please see the headnote, where I give an alternative recipe for those who can’t eat nuts of coconut. Hope that helps!
Yay! So excited about this recipe! We do love your almond flour grain free chocolate chip cookies, but sometimes crave a less nutty, more flour-y cookie. I love how simple this recipe is and that there isn’t a ton of ingredients needed. Will it work fine to use coconut oil or butter in place of the palm shortening?
Thanks!
Jess
I haven’t tested it, but I think 8 tablespoons (you’re reading that right – it’s 1 tbs. more than the palm shortening) of unsalted butter would be a great substitute.
Yes – 8 Tbsp butter is the perfect sub – that’s what I used when I made them last week. Oh my are these cookies good! Best gluten-free cookie I’ve ever had – really! Thank you for yet another 5-star recipe! Confession – I let my 19 month old have one. It was her very first “real” dessert. She definitely approved! And here she thought bananas were as good as it got 😉
I’m definitely recommending this recipe to anyone who bakes gluten-free!
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback! 🙂
Hey Jessica
Just wondering if you tried this recipe with the coconut oil? If so how did it go?
Thanks
Tamara
I don’t know a lot about grain-free eating. What does the gelitan do?
The gelatin and egg bind the flours since there isn’t any gluten.
This is brilliant!
🤯 No gum, use gelatin, just wow.
Thank you, from a mom who needs to make grain free, nut/seed free goods for a birthday kid with arginine sensitivities.
You’re welcome!
Just me… Can I try something else for the gelatin? Like possibly agar flakes? I just didn’t know how important of an ingredient it is and if just for binding, etc.
The gelatin binds the ingredients and is very important to the recipe. I haven’t tested anything else, but you could give agar agar a try.
Xanthan gum is a binder, so 1/8 tsp should work. You may need to use more, though.
Can palm oil shortening be used in place of regular Crisco shortening in other baking recipes?
Not that I know of. Crisco has hydrogen forced into the fat making it solid at room temperature.
I replaced crisco with coconut oil to make my family’s favorite Snicker Doodle Cookies with great success. They actually like them better. The coconut oil actually gives a really nice flavor to the cookies, too! I haven’t used crisco in years, for ANYTHING :o)
Good to know!
How could I replace the sugar with honey or maple syrup?
Can I replace the egg with more gelatin mixed with water? I’ve read that 1/4c water with 1T gelatin equals an egg… would that work in place of the egg? We can’t eat eggs right now, sadly.
THanks!
I haven’t tried it, but it sounds like a good idea! I would add the extra gelatin with the dry ingredients and add the water when you’re supposed to add the egg. If you let the gelatin bloom in the water, like many recipes recommend, it might not completely blend into the dough. If you try it, let me know how it goes! 🙂
What is the best way to store gluten free cookies so that they do not get chewy?
The good thing is that these gf cookies, don’t get as chewy as others! I also like to store them in a glass container with the lid ajar. This way the air isn’t trapped, making the cookies soft.
Has anyone tried this with an egg replacer? I have a friend that would love this recipe, but her son can’t have eggs. Thanks!
I’m amazed that you can take three essential cookie ingredients out of a recipe and still make it look and sound irresistible! Pinned! 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
Can I substitute the sugar with honey or maple syrup?
A dry sugar is best, as the liquid sweetener will change the texture of the cookies.
I wonder how a combination of palm shortening and butter would be to get the butter flavor, but more of the stability that shortening provides….
Your link to the grass-fed gelatin takes you to the porcine gelatin. Is this the one you recommend or do you use the beef gelatin (the one in the red canister marked kosher)?
Made these last night…YUM! I added 1 teaspoon vanilla and subbed 3 tablespoons butter out for 3 tablespoons of the palm shortening for a more buttery flavor. Also I ran out of coconut sugar so had to use 2 tablespoons sucanat in them. For some reason these changes made the cookies go pretty flat…BUT NO COMPLAINTS. They tasted amazing and were CRISPY! We’ve missed crispy cookies that dunk well in raw milk! We will try these again the same way to get the flatter cookie to use for ice cream sandwiches to take camping this weekend. Thank you!
I’m not sure if I did something wrong but the dough came out pretty wet. They were still great though, the kids kept saying “those cookies were really good mom!”
Hmm…they shouldn’t have. Did you make any substitutions?
Nope, no substitutions. But it wouldn’t be the first time I screwed up a recipe lol. We will definitely make them again so I’ll have to make sure I’m not distracted and we’ll see how they turn out!
Made these tonight. Kids loved them! The coconut flour wasn’t over powering in flavor. I used refined coconut oil in place of Palm. The refined oil doesn’t have the strong coconut flavor. Also, added a teaspoon of vanilla. What a wonderful treat when avoiding grains.
I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Love this recipe…thanks! If I were out of arrowroot, could I just use 2/3 c. Tapioca instead?
You can, but the cookies won’t have the same texture. But they will still taste great! 🙂
I think it’s safe to say that this recipe is fool-proof — I hesitate to admit this but, being new to paleo baking, I substituted the palm oil with coconut oil, the egg for ‘egg substitute,’ and because I read my measuring cup wrong I added too much of the flours. The egg substitute I used called for 2T water so I assumed this wasn’t a problem but when the batter didn’t even turn moist I added more coconut oil thinking that its solid consistency was the reason the batter wasn’t working out. I likely ended up with about 12T coconut oil.
I eventually had to revisit this post because I thought that the comment in the headnote about the substitute recipe using peanut butter was referring to this recipe and I had somehow managed to leave out an ingredient. In addition to learning that I wasn’t reading it correctly, I also learned how to properly use egg substitute (thx for the heads up, Sara).
Clearly, I wasn’t very single-minded when making this but despite my best efforts, I made some pretty awesome cookies! Even added carob chips (my temp AIP diet is forcing me to take roads less traveled). In short, thanks for posting this — I really needed it! And now that I know what I’m doing… 🙂
These were okay but I actually want a chewy chocolate chip cookie.. I was originally making civilized cavemans chocolate chip cookies but I don’t tolerate almonds anymore. Any suggestions to make this recipe sweeter and chewy?
You could add a bit more honey and bake them a minute or two less.
I left out the gelatin because I didn’t want a chewy cookie, and these came out delicious (although I also added a bit more sweetener 1/3 c each of coconut nectar and xylitol, and some vanilla and a bit of stevia). They were fragile, I’m going to try them again with the gelatin. Big hit with the kids! Great recipe, thanks!!
Ohhh so nice! I left them in too long and they were crunchy, which made them even tastier
Hey! These cookies were delish-but they crumbled into a million pieces. Any idea what I could do to get them to hold a shape? Thanks so much!
I’m not sure why that happened. Did you make any substitutions? What brand of gelatin did you use?
Hi there, mine fell apart too, can’t hold one in my hand. The only sub I used was butter.
Butter and palm shortening can’t be substituted 1:1. I would use at least 9 tablespoons of butter in place of the palm shortening.
I did use over 8 Tablespoons of butter. What else should I have done?
These are awesome! I love how they have a slight crisp to them and not completely soft like most paleo cookies. Thank you!
I’m going to try these with 1 tbs of grass fed gelatin with 1/4 cup water to replace the egg as the previous person suggested.
Thanks again!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
I made these cookies today. I used butter instead of palm shortening, maybe that’s reason they spread out a lot and came out totally flat and not crispy. I was going to use suet that my husband bought but I realized, after defrosting, that it was not rendered.
They are not bad and my son ate them with not complains but definitely not looking like yours, Carrie.
I’ll try again with suet or the palm shortening.
I also converted everything in weights, it’s so much more painful and random to me baking with cups. Carrie, if you use weights, does this look right to you?
I used
113 g butter
105 g coconut sugar
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 large egg
40 g coconut flour
44 g tapioca flour
44 g arrowroot flour
1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon unflavored, grass-fed gelatin
chocolate chips to taste
I made these again with palm shortening and, as expected, this time they hold the shape well. I also decreased slightly the sugar to 95 g.
Also, I froze some of cookies from the previous batch, made with butter and baked from frozen, they didn’t go flat. So if anybody prefers butter consider freezing you cookies.
They are really delicious, funnily enough my son prefers the flat, chewy cookies, from first batch made with butter.
This is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe! I used unsalted Kerrygold butter and they came out perfect. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Just made these for the hundredth time. They come out perfectly every time. This time I used the gelatin egg option and only arrowroot (instead of both arrowroot and tapioca, because that’s all I had). Still amazing. Definitely the best everything free cookie recipe that I’ve found. Thanks, Carrie!
Thanks so much for letting me know! 🙂
Hi,
can I use whole cane sugar instead of coconut sugar? I can’t get my hands on coconut sugar here in France.
Can’t wait to try these as I haven’t had any cookies since the end of the holiday. Loved the grain-free peanut butter cookie recipe that you put up, they were amazing and my guests couldn’t believe they were grain-free! I am also enjoying your latest cookbook that I got for Christmas. Thanks for all the great recipes!
Followed the recipe exactly and loved them! Thank you!
So I made these again and with a tweak – success! The first few out of the oven had the same issues I had before. Too dark and didn’t flatten out AT ALL. I added some extra honey to the rest of the batter and turned the oven down 25 degrees. Perfect! They came out looking like toll house!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Finally a great tasting chocolate chip cookie that my 6 year old can eat!
He is gluten free but not completely grain free, and I didn’t have the exact ingredients on hand, so I made some modifications… I used butter instead of palm shortening, for the flour I just used 1c of the GF flour that I had on hand (in this case it was half Namaste Perfect Flour Blend and half Gluten Free Mama’s Almond Blend), and I added vanilla because I am of the opinion that you can’t make cookies without it 🙂
I love that these spread like a “normal” chocolate chip cookie, and the texture was amazing. My son was over the moon because they look and taste so much better than the last batch I tried. He was fine with those, but these blew them out of the water so he asked me to make only these from now on.
**I used all butter and I didn’t have any of the problems that others did with the cookies over spreading and becoming flat. Maybe it was because of the different flours that I used?
I just made these. With a couple of changes. I didn’t have palm shortening so used the 8tbsp butter your suggested in the comments. And then i couldn’t find my arrowroot flour. I was half way through making them so had to improvise and used some cornflour i had.
Even with those changes they turned it beautifully. Very tasty. Nice and crisp. I’ll definitely try them as written.
The Only change i will make us to make them smaller. They turned out a bit big for my liking. But that’s just personal preference.
Hi, I’m new-ish to your site & am loving the info I’m finding. I was excited to try this recipe, and what do you know, you are exactly right! These are a delicious, “normal-tasting” chocolate chip cookies! I’m new to gluten-free so I always test my new recipes out with people who are not gluten-free to get a real opinion & everyone that tried one said they were good, not just for a gluten-free cookie, but just for any cookie! Thanks so much for a FABULOUS recipe!
Oh, I did use butter, 8T, & it was excellent.
We just made these for the second time.
These cookies are amazing. They are light and decadent and so close to the conventional version.
Followed the recipe, but added 1 tsp of vanilla and only had mini chocolate chips (Enjoy Life) so we added 1/2 cup.
Love that they are nut free.
They are so good, you need to double up the recipe! With the original quantities we were able to make 14 cookies. YUM!!!
Have you ever tried this as a large cookie cake? My daughter wants one for her birthday. I am just wondering if you think this would work out? I have made these several times as regular cookies they are awesome!
Just made these exactly according to your recipe and they are amazing!! Thank you!
Made these & they were delicious! I couldn’t get my hands on unflavored gelatin powder, so I used collagen peptides. They turned out great, but just wondering if this is ok to use in place of the gelatin? Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! The gelatin acts as a binder for the gf flours, so I’d use that next time. The cookies were probably more crumbly than they were supposed to be. 🙂
I’d love to make these but wonder if I can use straight gluten-free flour instead of the three different kinds of flour? King Arthur or Bob’s…
Am open to suggestions!
I haven’t tested this recipe with subs, so I don’t know what would lend the exact same texture and flavor.