These vegan and gluten free chocolate crinkle cookies will blow your mind. Not just because of the chewy, rich, deeply chocolatey flavor, but because of the simple minimal ingredients, and almost zero prep work. The fact that these cookies spread perfectly and contain no flour and no egg, still has me shook to this day.
These chocolate crinkle cookies are so deeply cacao-filled that they taste like biting into a cup of hot chocolate (thus the name, of course) and they don’t include any flour or any kind of flour replacement. When you boil it down, these cookies are mostly almond butter, sugar, oil and flax egg. Making them super easy to combine and relatively easy to bake.
The rest of the blog post details how to make them, but you can also skip to the recipe using the “Jump to Recipe” button below the title!
Table of contents
Ingredients for these vegan and gluten free chocolate crinkle cookies
The ingredients are listed out by weight and cups, but I always recommend going by weight if you can. Here is everything you need for this chocolate crinkle cookie recipe:
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds, 8 grams
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3/4 cup almond butter, 180 grams
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar, 112 grams
- 2 tbsp neutral oil like sunflower, avocado or canola
- 1/3 cup cacao powder, 25 grams
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar, for rolling
What makes these chocolate crinkle cookies crinkle?
Coating any cookie in sugar will lead to a crinkled top. This is because the sugar dries out the exterior of the dough, while the interior retains its moisture, causing the cookie to expand and then crack.
Crinkle cookies are known for their cracked tops due to their powdered sugar coating, but these tops can also be achieved with granulated sugar (think Snickerdoodles) or cocoa powder.
The only case of cracked top cookies without a sugar coating is for cookies that don’t contain egg or flax egg, and this is due to structural differences. You can get a cracked top chocolate chip cookie by using my trademark cookie recipe here!
How to make this vegan and gluten free chocolate crinkle cookie recipe
Here’s the step-by-step!
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- First whisk together the flax meal and water to create a flax egg. Set this to the side to let it thicken.
- In a large bowl, add together the almond butter, coconut sugar, neutral oil, cacao powder, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt. Add in the flax egg when it has thickened. Mix very well to make sure that all the ingredients are equally combined.
- Roll the cookie dough into 8 equal sized balls and generously toss each one in the powdered sugar. You want them to be heavily coated so that the sugar doesn’t disappear into the dough!
- Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and press down the tops slightly, this will help them spread evenly. Add more powdered sugar on top before baking.
- Bake at 350F for 14-16 minutes, or until they have spread and cracked.
- Let cool on baking sheet and serve whenever!
Looking for other holiday cookie recipes?
Here’s the whole round-up for 2021!
And that’s everything for this gluten free and vegan crinkle cookie recipe!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories, and I’m so excited to see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you!
Hot Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds 8 grams
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3/4 cup almond butter 180 grams
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar 112 grams
- 2 tbsp neutral oil like sunflower, avocado or canola
- 1/3 cup cacao powder 25 grams
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- First whisk together the flax meal and water to create a flax egg. Set this to the side to let it thicken.
- In a large bowl, add together the almond butter, coconut sugar, neutral oil, cacao powder, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt. Add in the flax egg when it has thickened. Mix very well to make sure that all the ingredients are equally combined.
- Roll the cookie dough into 8 equal sized balls and generously toss each one in the powdered sugar. You want them to be heavily coated so that the sugar doesn't disappear into the dough!
- Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and press down the tops slightly, this will help them spread evenly. Add more powdered sugar on top before baking.
- Bake at 350F for 14-16 minutes, or until they have spread and cracked.
- Let cool on baking sheet and serve whenever!
Hi Justine! If I wanted to use an egg instead of flax, would it be one egg for the recipe? Thanks!
I haven’t personally tested it, but based off of volume I would recommend one egg and one egg yolk!
Delicious and so easy! Thank you!
So glad you liked it!
I didn’t have all the ingredients, but they still came out delicious! I used crunchy almond butter instead of creamy, and it gave these cookies a great Mexican wedding cookie vibe. Also used almond extract instead of vanilla. Looking forward to making these again both with the changes and the recipe as written!
Oooo either way sounds delicious! I’m so glad you made these!
Hi Justine, if I want to use a scale to make every cookie the same size, around how much should each one weigh?
Thank you! Xoxo
Hey there! It should be about 45 grams per cookie without the powdered sugar, with the sugar it varies but will be around 50 grams!
these were very easy to make and came out super delicious 🙂
I am so glad you liked them!