This chocolate almond chewy cookie is the ultimate comfort food. Soft and gooey, just like a good cookie should be. A delectable double dose of chocolate with cacao powder and dark chocolate chips—double yum! This is your sweet tooth fix. The best part? These delicious cookies are vegan and gluten-free. Amazing huh? I love a little something that checks off many different diets, but it, of course, has to taste good too. This chocolate almond chewy cookie recipe has it all. These are cookies you can bring practically anywhere for everyone to enjoy. Warning—they will be gobbled up very quickly!

Almond-licious

These cookies were inspired by my all-time favorite peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. They follow the same dough philosophy, just with a couple of ingredient swaps. Instead of oats, these have almond flour. Instead of coconut, these go bold and add lots of cacao powder. Did I mention we are the household of chocolate fanatics? The result is a delicious dark chocolate chewy cookie. So good it’s hard to have just one. Plus, as far as cookies go, these are about as healthy as it gets. I don’t want to sugarcoat things—these do have a whole cup of sugar. But in addition, they contain flax, almond flour, almond butter, and cacao. All good, quality ingredients that are nutritious for your body. Compared to a basic cookie recipe: flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and I’d say it’s an improvement!

Flax Seed Goodness

Flaxseed is a true superfood. Loaded with fiber, both soluble and insoluble, it is super good stuff for your gut health and aids in smooth digestion. Additionally, flaxseed is a great source of plant-based omega-3s. Flaxseed is so beneficial for our health that Michael Greger, MD, recommends 1 tablespoon of flaxseed per day in his daily dozen. Healthline states that regularly consuming flaxseed may lower the risk of cancer, cholesterol, blood pressure, and may help stabilize blood sugar levels. Adding flaxseed to your diet can also help you to feel fuller and aid in weight loss. I really try hard to add as much flaxseed to foods as possible, but hitting that 1 tablespoon per day recommendation isn’t always easy! Hiding ground flaxseed in bake goods is my favorite way to sneak more in.

Fiber-full

Did you know that 90-95% of Americans are deficient in fiber? Additionally, because so many of us are deficient in fiber, when we do consume it, we tend to experience negative side effects like bloating, gas, and diarrhea. Increase your fiber intake gradually to avoid these uncomfortable, temporary side effects.

Once you are meeting the recommended daily 25-38 grams of fiber, your whole digestive system will operate so much more smoothly, goodbye constipation and bloating. Eating a fiber-rich diet is probably the most beneficial and noticeable change I’ve made for nutritional health. Our Paleolithic ancestors consumed a whopping 50-150 grams of fiber every day! Just thinking about that much fiber makes 25-38 grams per day seem so much more doable.

Flaxseed Catch

In order for your body to access all the nutritional goodness of flaxseed, it must be ground up. The tough outer husk (shell) of the flaxseed can’t be broken down by your body. In order for your body to easily absorb the nutrients of flaxseed, grind those little seeds up! I usually grind flaxseed in the coffee grinder. No need to rinse the coffee grinder out afterwards, I don’t mind a little flax in my coffee!

Ground flaxseed spoils more quickly than the whole seed. I like to keep ground flaxseed in the refrigerator and try to use it up within a couple of weeks. Although it should stay fresh in the refrigerator for 3-6 months.

Cacao Vs. Cocoa

Time for food semantics! Cacao is the name of the plant, and unroasted (raw) beans are called cacao beans. Cacao powder is the raw beans finely ground into a very bitter, delicious powder. To make cocoa powder, cacao beans are roasted and then ground into a powder. Dutch-processed cocoa powder is processed using baking soda, which greatly decreases the nutritional value of the cacao. Did you get all that? You can use cocoa powder in this recipe, but I highly recommend using cacao powder. My favorite cacao powder is Navitas Organic Cacao Powder. You can sometimes find it in a super-sized bag at Costco, but it’s readily available at Whole Foods or Royal River Natural Foods here in Maine. Great, now that we’ve cleared that all up, let’s get baking!

How to Make Chocolate Almond Chewy Cookies

This is a two-bowl, no mixer style cookie dough recipe. By that, I mean you will mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl and all the dry ingredients in a separate, larger bowl. Then you’ll add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and give it one good final mix. That’s it! No mixer required.

To start, preheat the oven to 350°.

Then make a quick flax egg, in a medium-sized mixing bowl, add the ground flax and water. Mix it together with a spatula and set it aside for about 3 minutes. This is our super-easy vegan egg replacer. This is the beginning of your wet ingredients bowl.

Mix the Dry Ingredients

Next, get a larger bowl. Add the almond flour, sugar, cacao powder, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips. Mix it all together until evenly combined.

Mix the Wet Ingredients

Shift back to the bowl with your flax egg—the wet ingredients. Add the almond butter, molasses, and vanilla extract. I love to use homemade vanilla extract in this recipe, so good! Mix the ingredients together with a spatula. This usually requires smashing of the almond butter to slowly incorporate it into the liquid mixture. Once all the wet ingredients have reached an even, smooth consistency, pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Scraping down the sides of the bowl of the wet ingredients to not leave any ooey goodness behind.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, just until there is no more dry patches in the dough. It does take a little elbow grease; you’ve got to work for those cookies! Then scoop teaspoon-sized dough balls onto a baking sheet. I love to use silicone baking sheets on my baking trays for easy clean up and to ensure the cookies don’t stick. Pop a full tray of cookie dough balls into the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes. Let the cookies cool for at least 10 minutes after removing them from the oven before attempting to remove them from the baking sheet. I know, it’s so hard to wait! Pro tip—these are ooey gooey cookies; they need a couple of extra minutes to set up after cooking, or else they tend to fall apart. After patiently allowing for cooling, these delicious cookies are ready to enjoy. Yum!

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