You'll love that these delicious flourless chocolate chip cookies are low carb, gluten free, and paleo friendly. They have a light texture and subtle nutty flavor.
I’ve been looking for the perfect low carb chocolate chip cookie recipe for a long time. I thought I had found it with the Low Carb Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe which I posted almost four years ago here.
Although that chocolate chip cookie recipe had a great taste, it was a bit complex as it called for almond flour, vanilla whey protein powder, and peanut flour. If the recipe was simpler, it likely would have become my "go-to" recipe for low carb chocolate chip cookies. Sadly, that never happened and the search continued.
I’m a person who likes a nutty cookie so I prefer adding walnuts in with the chocolate chips. My family prefers chocolate chip cookies without nuts so I omit the walnuts when baking regular cookies for them.
After seeing a bunch of recipes for flourless chocolate chip cookies using nut butter, I thought why not make walnuts the base of the cookie dough instead of putting them in at the end. To try out this concept, I purchased an 8 ounce jar of organic walnut butter.
The first batch of cookies made with the walnut butter was outstanding. I knew it was a winner when I couldn’t stop myself from eating the raw dough.
However, each cookie turned out to be quite expensive considering the jar of organic walnut butter was a bit pricey. Looking at the ingredients, I saw that the walnut butter was made with a mix of walnuts and cashews. That’s when I decided I should just make my own nut butter using a mix of organic walnuts and organic cashews.
Non-organic nuts are a cheaper option, but just be aware that they likely contain some nasty chemicals. Walnuts are known to have a lot of pest issues so they are probably the worst nut when it comes to pesticide use. Also, walnuts are very high in healthy fats and are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.
Due to the high fat content, walnuts tend to absorb a lot of the chemicals that are applied to them. Non-organic cashews are usually treated with endosulfan which has been shown to be highly toxic to both humans and animals. Because of these issues, I don’t mind paying a little more for organic nuts.
I had never made my own nut butter before. I’ve always relied on buying pre-made ones in jars.
It wasn’t until I experimented with pre-made walnut butter in this latest chocolate chip cookie recipe that I came to realized how expensive store bought nut butters can be. Even though the cookies were amazing, I wanted to bring the cost down so that readers of this blog would have cheaper options, especially since the all-natural low carb sweeteners are also expensive.
Paleo Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
After trying the flourless chocolate chip cookies first with the prepared organic walnut butter and then with my homemade version, I have to say that I liked the ones with the homemade nut butter much better.
The cookies made with homemade nut butter had a nicer flavor and the texture was more like regular cookies made with wheat flour and sugar. Perhaps it was because the nuts had been freshly ground. Based on these results.
I’m definitely making my own nut butters from now on. It only took about 3 minutes for the nuts to turn into butter in my 14 cup Cuisinart food processor.
I'd love to hear comments from anyone who tries this recipe. For me, it truly was the absolute best low carb chocolate chip cookie I have ever had. Be aware that the cookie dough itself is very addicting.
The more the dough is pressed down onto the baking sheet, the crisper the cookies will be. I used a level medium size cookie scoop for each cookie. Baking time will also affect how crisp the cookie is. Keep it in the oven a little longer if you like a crisp cookie or take it out as soon as the cookies begin to brown for a softer cookie. I baked mine for about 11-12 minutes.
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📖 Recipe
Walnut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – Low Carb and Gluten Free
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups walnuts preferably organic (see Note 1)
- ½ cup cashews preferably organic (see Note 1)
- ⅓ cup low carb sugar substitute or erythritol (see Note 2)
- ¼ teaspoon liquid stevia see Note 2
- ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon cream of tartar ¼ teaspoon baking soda for paleo
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 oz Chocorite dark chocolate bars or chocolate of choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Process walnuts and cashews in food processor until oils released and nut butter is formed. Place nut butter in a large bowl and combine with sweeteners. Add the baking powder, salt, egg, vanilla extract.
- Cut the chocolate into small chunks. Stir chopped chocolate into the dough.
- Using spoon or cookie scoop, drop dough balls onto silicon mat lined baking cookie sheet. Flatten each cookie with fingers to desired thickness (very flat can be baked crisper).
- Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until cookies are browned to desired crispness. Let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
Notes
Low Carb Sweeteners | Keto Sweetener Conversion Chart
Nutrition
Additional Info
Note on Nutritional Information
Nutritional information for the recipe is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts as it has been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Unauthorized use of this material without written permission from Lisa MarcAurele is strictly prohibited unless for personal offline purposes.
Single photos may be used, provided that full credit is given to LowCarbYum.com along with a link back to the original content.
Joy Winston
Are these cookies crisp or soft
Lisa MarcAurele
These are more crisp than soft.
Vera
I made these with all walnuts because I had a lot of them and they're lower carb. I also used a duck egg because that's what I eat, as well as using half erythritol and half golden lakanto, along with about 1/2 teaspoon whole stevia leaf powder. The choloate chips were miniature unsweetened. They were really easy to make! I brought them to a potluck of non-diabetic, non-keto folks and there was competition for seconds! Best of all, this is an extremely satisfying snack with almost no impact on my blood sugar! Oh, and I did use some really high quality vanilla "caviar"...
Lisa MarcAurele
Thanks for sharing! I love using duck eggs for baking as they do give a better rise.
Haza
Can I just use Monkfruit sugar?
Lisa MarcAurele
You can. See NOTE 2: Any sweetener equivalent to about 1/2 cup of sugar can be used in place of both sweeteners listed.
Michelle
These are delicious! I used pecans instead of cashews and walnuts because those are my husband's favorite. Even my super-picky daughter liked them!
Lisa
Thanks for sharing! I like pecans better too!
Susan
How many cups of nut butter do you use should you decide to use the store bought?
Lisa
I believe it's about half so you'd need roughly one cup of butter to replace the 2 cups of nuts.
Joy
Are they soft or crispy???
Lisa
They are crisp.
Phyllis Powers
Unsweetened chocolate?
Lisa
AKA baking chocolate.
Jill
Ok I have started to bake with stevia in the raw. Can I just use this instead of the sweater and the drops.
Lisa
You can, but you might want to check the ingredients in Stevia in the Raw. Last time I checked, the filler wasn't low carb friendly.
Ayat
Hi Lisa!
The cookies are awesome, thank you so much. I made them twice already and they were a hit! I made them with a walnut/almond mix one time and a walnut/cashew mic the second time and both were superb.
On both occasions I only had 12 cookies each and your recipe says 28 serving! Did I do something wrong?
Thanks!
Ayat
Lisa
I'll have to redo them to see. I may have doubled the amount. I know I used a standard size cookie scoop.
Lucy
Hello, not sure where I went wrong but I did everything as directed down to the organic walnuts and cashews, my cookies spread like crazy overlapping one another, used the spilat mat and all, not sure what happened
Lisa
It sounds like too much oil released from the nuts. I processed the nuts just until the butter formed.
chrissie
do you have any tips for what to do if too much oil is released? add some almond flour and another egg? I blended the nuts until they just turned but as I'm working with the dough and the oil is separating I can tell these won't hold together.
Lisa
You can add some coconut flour. That typically helps absorb any extra oil.
chrissie
I added almond flour because I don't care for the taste or texture of coconut flour. They stayed together but there was way too much sweetener for my taste. I used even less erythritol than called for and even omitted the stevia and had the extra almond flour and it was still WAY too sweet for me. I love all your other recipes though and you can't win them all!
Lisa
There's no coconut flour in these cookies. It's a flourless cookie made with nut butters so I'm not sure why you'd add almond flour. Sweet is a personal preference and this is an older recipe when I liked things more on the sweeter side. I always use about half or less of the sweetener these days.
Susan Osborn
These do sounds delish! Do you think it would be possible to substitute almond butter? I have a non-walnut fan.
Lisa
Yes! Any nut or seed butter can be used.
Susan
Trader Joes has a 12 oz. Jar of mixed nut butter(pecans, walnuts, hazel nuts, brazil nuts, cashews) . I used that whole jar, sukrin gold sugar in place of other sweetners. Other ingredients were the same. Turned out yummy.
Karen
Since this seems to go back to a 2014 recipe, are you now using different sugar substitutes and if so, what would you suggest and how much, please?
Thank you!
Ydanisy
Did you use raw nuts or roasted?
Lisa
I used raw nuts. Roasted should work too, though.
Louise
I found that when using truvia, cutting back 50% on sweetener was more than enough sweetness. Will definitely go into my "go to" recipe file.
Lisa
I've cut back on sweeteners by almost half over the last year.
Helena Angelina
Hey Lisa, I looove the look of these...walnuts rock!
Lisa
Yes they do!
Judy
Hi. If I want to use premade nut butter, how much should I use?
Lisa
An 8 ounce jar of premise nut butter can replace the nuts. I used that amount with the first batch I made and it was perfect.
Chanandeler
Just made them, they're awesome... I can imagine them with nut junks too... the walnut taste is the best part! Thank you for the recipe - it's going in my top 10!
Lisa
Thank you so much for the feedback! I have personally made these cookies at least a half dozen times. Glad you enjoyed them as much as I do.
Carolyn
Hey Lisa! Glad to see you are back to blogging!
Lisa
Thanks Carolyn! It feels good to be back after the much needed break.
Dita
These look wonderful.Can't wait to make them. I am wondering -- you say a serving is 3 cookies, but the nutritional info is for 1 cookie. So per serving it is 3.3 NET CARBS. Is that correct?
Lisa
Yes. The nutritional value provided at the bottom is per cookie as some may only eat one and others may eat half a dozen. So a 3 cookie serving has about 3 Net carbs.
Leslie
These look yummy! I think I'd like the texture of them. They look like the consistency of oatmeal cookies. Yum! Thanks for sharing & happy Saturday!
Lisa
Definitely give them a try. There's a lot of flexibility in the recipe to adjust to taste.