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    Home / Recipes / Cookies

    Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

    By Lisa MarcAurele · Jun 12, 2020 · 45 Comments

    3.2K shares
    Jump to Recipe

    You'll love that these delicious chocolate chip walnut cookies are low-carb, gluten-free, and perfect for paleo baking. They have a light texture and subtle nutty flavor.

    stack of chocolate chip walnut butter cookies.
    Article Index
    • Why you'll love it
    • Ingredients
    • Tips
    • Instructions
    • ️ Serving suggestions
    • Variations
    • FAQS
    • Related recipes
    • Recipe

    Why you'll love it

    This is one of my favorite low-carb chocolate chip cookie recipes, and it will be yours, too! They taste as good as my first low-carb, gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, but these are grain-free and flour-free.

    If you enjoy nuts, then you will like these cookies! I added 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.

    In order to make these flourless chocolate chip cookies, I used nut butter as the base.

    The first batch of cookies made with walnut butter was outstanding. I knew it was a winner when I couldn’t stop myself from eating the raw dough. Keep reading, and I'll share the entire recipe with you!

    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.

    This is the absolute best low-carb chocolate chip cookie I have ever had. Be aware that the cookie dough itself is very addicting.

    Ingredients

    If you have ever made peanut butter cookies, then you probably already have these ingredients in your pantry.

    If not, it's really easy to find everything you need to make delicious dairy-free and grain-free paleo cookies.

    Walnuts and cashews

    cashew and walnut butter in jar with nuts.

    Non-organic nuts are cheaper, 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.

    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 is highly toxic to humans and animals. Because of these issues, I don’t mind paying a little more for organic nuts.

    Sugar-substitute

    I used both liquid Stevia and a granulated sugar substitute. This guide to low-carb sweeteners will help you make the best decision.

    Baking powder

    This is what gives the cookies a bit of lift. If you leave it out, the cookies will be terribly flat.

    Salt

    A bit of salt makes the sweet flavors sweeter and the nutty flavors nuttier.

    Egg

    This is the emulsifier, keeping all the ingredients together.

    Vanilla extract

    Use pure vanilla extract to give the cookies a deep and rich flavor.

    Sugar-free chocolate

    chopped low carb chocolate chips.

    Add your favorite dairy-free or sugar-free chocolate chips to the cookies too.

    Please note: Check out the recipe card at the bottom for a full list of ingredients used to make this low-carb recipe.

    Tips

    • Use a cookie scoop. It's important to keep the cookies the same size, so they bake evenly.
    • Prevent sticking. Add a sheet of parchment paper onto the cookie sheet to prevent the cookies from sticking.
    • Keep the cookies dairy-free. If it is important to keep the cookies dairy-free, use dairy-free chocolate.

    Instructions

    This is one of the easiest chocolate chip cookie recipes you can make. Here's a bit more about how I made them.

    Process the nuts

    Add the cashews and walnuts to your food processor. Process them until they release their oils and form a nut butter.

    cashews and walnuts in food processor.
    nuts processed into butter spread.

    Mix ingredients together

    Combine the nut butter with the rest of the ingredients. Mix them until they are well combined.

    Add cookies to the cookie sheet

    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.

    cookie dough circles on lined pan.

    Bake the cookies

    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 my chocolate chip walnut cookies for about 11-12 minutes.

    chocolate chip walnut cookies on plate.

    ️ Serving suggestions

    These paleo chocolate chip cookies are so high in protein that you can eat them for breakfast, along with a bulletproof coffee or your favorite sugar-free latte!

    If you really enjoy the combination of chocolate and walnut, serve these cookies with a few pieces of keto chocolate walnut fudge.

    Sugar-free chocolate truffles are another chocolate recipe that will satisfy your sweet tooth.

    Variations

    There are many different ways you can make these chocolate chip cookies. If you make any changes, please let me know in the comments!

    • Add cinnamon. Sprinkle some on top of the cookies or add cinnamon to the cookie dough to give them a spicier flavor.
    • Use almond butter. Any type of keto-friendly nut butter will work in place of walnut and cashew butter.
    • Make it taste richer. Use dark chocolate chips in the cookies to enhance the rich flavors.
    cookies on plate.

    FAQS

    Here are some questions people often ask about making low-carb chocolate chip cookies. If you don't see your question in this list, please leave it in the comments.

    How do I use baking soda instead of baking powder?

    If you don't have baking powder, you can replace it with ½ a teaspoon of cream of tartar and ¼ a teaspoon of baking soda.

    Can I use a brown sugar substitute in these cookies?

    Traditional chocolate chip cookies use brown sugar for a caramelized flavor. I substituted the brown sugar with liquid stevia and a low-carb sugar substitute for a similar effect.

    Is coconut sugar keto-friendly?

    Since coconut oil and coconut milk is both low-carb, you might wonder if coconut sugar is also low-carb. No, coconut sugar is not keto-friendly. Neither is maple syrup nor cane sugar.

    What are some types of keto-friendly flour?

    These cookies are made without any flour at all - they don't need it. Other types of keto cookies are made with either finely ground almond flour, coconut flour, or almond meal.

    How do you keep choc chip cookies soft?

    The best way to keep chocolate chip cookies soft is to store them in an airtight container with a piece of keto-friendly bread on top.

    tall stack of chocolate chip walnut cookies.

    Related recipes

    If you enjoyed this grain-free chocolate chip cookies recipe, here are more easy keto dessert recipes you should make next. They are all perfect whenever you are searching for an awesome cookie recipe.

    • Keto Chocolate Cookies are rich and chewy and filled with sugar-free chocolate chips.
    • Gluten-Free Ginger Snaps have an irresistible ginger flavor and a crunchy texture that is perfect for dipping into a glass of almond milk.
    • Keto Low-Carb Snickerdoodles Cookies are crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and a total crowd pleaser.
    • Gluten-Free Cream Cheese Cookies are high-fat and have the most amazing texture - they are perfect for the holidays.
    • Coconut Butter Cookies have a delicious brown butter flavor and soft baked texture.

    Follow us on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, and INSTAGRAM for even more tasty keto-friendly recipes!

    Recipe

    stack of chocolate chip walnut butter cookies.

    Walnut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – Low Carb and Gluten Free

    4.29 from 7 votes
    These delicious flourless chocolate chip cookies are low carb, gluten free, and paleo friendly. They have a light texture and subtle nutty flavor.
    Prep Time:10 mins
    Cook Time:12 mins
    Total Time:22 mins
    Course: Dessert, Snack
    Cuisine: American
    Print Pin Review Recipe Save Recipe View Collections
    Servings: 28 cookies
    Calories: 67

    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
    US Customary - Metric

    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

    8 ounces of prepared walnut butter can be substituted for nuts.
    Any sweetener equivalent to about ½ cup of sugar can be used in place of both sweeteners listed.
    Use a cookie scoop to keep the cookies the same size, so they bake evenly.
    Add a sheet of parchment paper onto the cookie sheet to prevent the cookies from sticking.
    If it is important to keep the cookies dairy-free, use dairy-free chocolate.

    Low Carb Sweeteners | Keto Sweetener Conversion Chart

    Nutrition

    Serving: 3g | Calories: 67 | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.001g | Cholesterol: 6mg | Sodium: 45mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.3g | Vitamin A: 10IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg

    Additional Info

    Net Carbs: 1 g | % Carbs: 6.1 % | % Protein: 12.1 % | % Fat: 81.8 % | SmartPoints: 2
    Values
    Array
    (
        [serving_size] => 3
        [calories] => 67
        [carbohydrates] => 2
        [protein] => 2
        [fat] => 6
        [fiber] => 1
        [saturated_fat] => 1
        [polyunsaturated_fat] => 3
        [monounsaturated_fat] => 1
        [trans_fat] => 0.001
        [cholesterol] => 6
        [sodium] => 45
        [potassium] => 69
        [sugar] => 0.3
        [vitamin_a] => 10
        [vitamin_c] => 0.1
        [calcium] => 13
        [iron] => 1
    )
    

    Notes 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.

    Copyright

    © LowCarbYum.com - Unauthorized use of this material without written permission 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.

    First published October 25, 2014. Last updated August 9, 2022, with new images and additional recipe information.

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    Related Posts

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Joy Winston

      June 17, 2019 at 1:40 pm

      Are these cookies crisp or soft

      Reply
      • Lisa MarcAurele

        June 17, 2019 at 2:56 pm

        These are more crisp than soft.

        Reply
    2. Vera

      April 05, 2019 at 5:43 pm

      5 stars
      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"...

      Reply
      • Lisa MarcAurele

        April 06, 2019 at 7:10 am

        Thanks for sharing! I love using duck eggs for baking as they do give a better rise.

        Reply
        • Lacy

          October 28, 2022 at 9:08 pm

          4 stars
          Holy cow, these are DELICOUS! I used Brown Sugar Besti and caramel stevia drops, and Bake Believe stevia-sweetened dark chocolate chips. These cookies are just the right amount of sweet to calm the craving without getting a blood sugar spike. I’ve dabbled in many nut butter-based cookies and frankly, they always disappoint. This is my unicorn diabetes-and-weeknight-treat-friendly unicorn cookie.

    3. Haza

      February 15, 2019 at 11:07 am

      Can I just use Monkfruit sugar?

      Reply
      • Lisa MarcAurele

        February 15, 2019 at 3:58 pm

        You can. See NOTE 2: Any sweetener equivalent to about 1/2 cup of sugar can be used in place of both sweeteners listed.

        Reply
    4. Michelle

      June 24, 2018 at 3:28 pm

      5 stars
      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!

      Reply
      • Lisa

        June 24, 2018 at 8:23 pm

        Thanks for sharing! I like pecans better too!

        Reply
        • Susan

          October 31, 2018 at 4:31 pm

          How many cups of nut butter do you use should you decide to use the store bought?

        • Lisa

          November 01, 2018 at 9:59 am

          I believe it's about half so you'd need roughly one cup of butter to replace the 2 cups of nuts.

    5. Joy

      January 28, 2018 at 11:10 am

      Are they soft or crispy???

      Reply
      • Lisa

        January 28, 2018 at 5:20 pm

        They are crisp.

        Reply
    6. Phyllis Powers

      December 08, 2017 at 10:29 am

      Unsweetened chocolate?

      Reply
      • Lisa

        December 08, 2017 at 12:51 pm

        AKA baking chocolate.

        Reply
    7. Jill

      October 22, 2017 at 10:02 pm

      5 stars
      Ok I have started to bake with stevia in the raw. Can I just use this instead of the sweater and the drops.

      Reply
      • Lisa

        October 23, 2017 at 9:13 am

        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.

        Reply
    8. Ayat

      September 24, 2016 at 9:09 am

      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

      Reply
      • Lisa

        September 24, 2016 at 11:33 am

        I'll have to redo them to see. I may have doubled the amount. I know I used a standard size cookie scoop.

        Reply
    9. Lucy

      August 17, 2016 at 9:07 pm

      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

      Reply
      • Lisa

        August 18, 2016 at 6:33 am

        It sounds like too much oil released from the nuts. I processed the nuts just until the butter formed.

        Reply
        • chrissie

          December 19, 2017 at 2:44 pm

          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

          December 20, 2017 at 4:33 pm

          You can add some coconut flour. That typically helps absorb any extra oil.

        • chrissie

          December 22, 2017 at 9:16 am

          1 star
          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

          December 22, 2017 at 12:49 pm

          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.

    10. Susan Osborn

      August 12, 2016 at 6:39 pm

      These do sounds delish! Do you think it would be possible to substitute almond butter? I have a non-walnut fan.

      Reply
      • Lisa

        August 12, 2016 at 9:03 pm

        Yes! Any nut or seed butter can be used.

        Reply
      • Susan

        October 31, 2018 at 6:15 pm

        5 stars
        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.

        Reply
    11. Karen

      May 27, 2016 at 1:21 pm

      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!

      Reply
    12. Ydanisy

      May 26, 2016 at 10:25 am

      Did you use raw nuts or roasted?

      Reply
      • Lisa

        May 26, 2016 at 10:45 am

        I used raw nuts. Roasted should work too, though.

        Reply
    13. Louise

      May 20, 2016 at 10:24 am

      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.

      Reply
      • Lisa

        May 20, 2016 at 12:13 pm

        I've cut back on sweeteners by almost half over the last year.

        Reply
    14. Helena Angelina

      July 26, 2015 at 6:45 am

      Hey Lisa, I looove the look of these...walnuts rock!

      Reply
      • Lisa

        July 26, 2015 at 8:31 am

        Yes they do!

        Reply
    15. Judy

      May 20, 2015 at 9:48 am

      Hi. If I want to use premade nut butter, how much should I use?

      Reply
      • Lisa

        May 20, 2015 at 9:57 am

        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.

        Reply
    16. Chanandeler

      December 03, 2014 at 5:37 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • Lisa

        December 03, 2014 at 6:03 pm

        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.

        Reply
    17. Carolyn

      October 30, 2014 at 11:26 am

      Hey Lisa! Glad to see you are back to blogging!

      Reply
      • Lisa

        October 30, 2014 at 11:55 am

        Thanks Carolyn! It feels good to be back after the much needed break.

        Reply
    18. Dita

      October 26, 2014 at 4:38 pm

      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?

      Reply
      • Lisa

        October 26, 2014 at 11:33 pm

        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.

        Reply
    19. Leslie

      October 25, 2014 at 2:25 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • Lisa

        October 25, 2014 at 5:10 pm

        Definitely give them a try. There's a lot of flexibility in the recipe to adjust to taste.

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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