Buttery soft, vegan almond flour cookies are salty sweet, melt in your mouth, bursts of deliciousness. They require only a few simple ingredients and ready in less than 20 minutes.
This recipe for almond cookies will quickly become a family favourite vegan Christmas cookie, or anytime cookie! They’re so simple to make, you can definitely get your little ones to help.
As an added bonus, they are naturally gluten free, using almond flour over wheat.
Plus, they’re free from dairy, although you’d never guess by their buttery soft texture. I won’t go as far as calling them healthy vegan Christmas cookies, but they are definitely more wholesome, compared to store bought cookies.
So if you’re looking for vegan, gluten free Christmas cookies this season, you have got to try these! Or, if you have almond butter on hand, and not almond flour, you may try these Almond Butter Cookies instead.
- Almond flour, of course. You may use blanched or unblanched. Both options work beautifully. Blanched will produce cookies that are slightly fluffier and lighter in colour. Unblanched almond flour will produce slightly darker cookies, but still unbelievably delicious. You may also grind up your own almonds, into flour, if desired. However, if your homemade flour comes out very coarse, you will need extra liquid to make up for that. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water until the batter is sticky and holds when rolling into balls.
- Unrefined coconut sugar. You may sub for brown sugar if preferred.
- Baking powder. Make sure your baking powder is still active, or the cookies may not spread. Baking powder that has been left open for a long time in the pantry can start to lose its effectiveness.
- Salt. I like ¼ teaspoon because I prefer these cookies salty/sweet. If you’re watching your sodium intake, reduce to ⅛ teaspoon instead.
- Pure maple syrup
This almond cookies recipe is simple to prepare. Just gather all your ingredients.
Then mix together all the dry ingredients. (Everything except the maple syrup.)
Then pour the maple syrup into your almond flour mixture. Use a fork to help combine the ingredients and form a somewhat sticky batter.
Now roll your batter into half inch balls, and place on your baking sheet.
Bake until the cookies are lightly golden around their edges, approximately 12-15 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before transferring your almond cookies to a cooling rack.
Can I add any fillers?
Yes, absolutely. These vegan cookies with almond flour make the perfect base for a variety of cookie flavours. Feel free to add some chocolate chips or dried fruit into the mix.
Or, make these a more festive vegan Christmas cookie. Turn them into thumbprints by gently pressing the center of each ball down. Then add some fig preserves, or your favourite jam to the center.
How long do they keep?
This recipe for almond flour cookies is best enjoyed the same day its made. However, the cookies will keep for 1-2 days at room temperature, in a sealed container. Or you may refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Or, if you’re making a batch of Christmas cookies well in advance, you may freeze these for up to 1 month. Then thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
- Grain free
- Gluten free
- Rich and buttery without oil or butter
- Dairy and egg free
- Made using only a few simple ingredients
- Ready in less than 20 minutes
- Perfect for a small batch, but also easily doubled or tripled, as needed
- Completely addictive and delicious!
- Pecan Butter Cookies
- Almond Flour Peanut Butter Cookies
- Healthy Peanut Butter Chickpea Cookies
- Dairy Free Shortbread Cookies
- Vegan Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you tried this recipe, please let me know about it in the comments below. I always love hearing from you! Don’t forget to Subscribe to This Healthy Kitchen to be among the first to get my new recipes! You can also FOLLOW ME on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter to see more delicious food and get all the latest updates.
Buon appetito,
Rosa
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour blanched or unblanched both work (110 grams)
- 2 tablespoons unrefined coconut sugar or brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine the almond flour, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and mix together. Then pour the maple syrup in the same bowl and mix well. Use a fork to help get the syrup combined and keep mixing until you have a slightly sticky batter.
- Roll the batter into half inch balls and place onto your baking sheet, spacing them at least 2 inches apart to allow for spreading. You should get about 9-10 cookies.
- Bake until edges are lightly golden, about 13-15 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Cathy
I doubled the recipe, is that ok? They were not very sticky so I added a little water. Still, the dough didn’t look like your dough. It looked coarse, even though I used superfine blanched almond flour. They tasted a little dry also. I used 2 Tbsp organic brown sugar and 2 Tbsp cane sugar. Any suggestions, as yours looked very good and would like to try recipe again.
Rosa
Hi Cathy, doubling the recipe is fine, as long as each ingredient is doubled accordingly. It sounds like you may have forgot the maple syrup? Unfortunately, you can’t replace the syrup with granulated sugar for these cookies as that’s the liquid binding these together and making the batter sticky. Hope that helps! Let me know if you try them again.
Cathy Householder
Hi Rosa,
I doubled appropriately the ingredients and even the maple syrup. Would sure love to know what went wrong. I’m wondering if the coarseness of the organic brown sugar was a factor?
Rosa
I think it’s more likely too much flour. Did you weigh or measure your almond flour? Weight is always most accurate, but if you don’t have a kitchen scale, you can spoon and level the flour into your measuring cup, rather than scoop the flour from a bag. That said, if your batter still seems dry once mixed, you may add a little extra maple syrup or 1-2 teaspoons of almond milk. (Or another milk). I hope that helps Cathy. 🙂
Judy
So I added more maple syrup (2 tsp) than was in the recipe because I thought it needed to be a bit more wet. Don’t do that cause they burned on the bottom which now makes sense. Sugar burns.
Carolyn Vonvaltier
These are very good and very easy to make. I did need to squish my cookie balls at the 8 minute mark. I also added an extra tsp of maple syrup bc my dough didn’t seem sticky enough. I cooked for 15+ min. They came out great. Yummy treat for sweet salty lovers! Oh. I also added about 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the mix.
Rosa
So glad you enjoyed Carolyn. Thanks very much for the review! 🙂
Amy
These are soo great! I added a few chocolate chips! Thanks for this simple and delicious recipe.
Rosa
Thanks Amy, so glad you enjoyed!
Stephanie
I just made these and they are sooooo tasty! I subbed date sugar (to make it a whole food sweetener) and it came out fantastic! Quickest baking I’ve ever done, too. I will definitely be whipping these up over and over. Thank you for such a wonderful, simple recipe! xx
Rosa
My pleasure Stephanie! Thanks so much for sharing your process with us. Thrilled you enjoyed. 🙂
Becky
I’m curious. Why the maple syrup?
Rosa
The maple syrup sweetens and acts as the liquid ingredient for these cookies. Hope you enjoy.
Angelina
Wow! I’m so impressed with how yummy these turned out with such simplicity! They are a perfect little treat. The dough was a little more difficult to work with so I followed your direction and got my hands wet to help. I made thumbprint cookies with some blackberry jam and then put some chocolate chips in the middle of the others. They were just as you described, a perfect mix of salty and sweet! I also liked how chewy they were! Definitely saving this recipe! I needed something simple. I have a 9 month old so when I want to bake a treat, something quick and on the healthier side is perfect! Thank you!
Rosa
Thanks so much for the feedback Angelina! Thrilled that you and your little one enjoyed the cookies. 🙂
Angelina
I have even passed the recipe on to friends! I don’t let my little one eat the cookies yet- no sugar for her! But my husband really enjoyed them!
Wendy
Delicious cookies! I’ve made them as written and then made a double batch as thumbprint jam cookies. (Photo on my Instagram @livingbyrv ) Everyone loved them.
I like how simple the recipe is and the fact that I can asily scale it up or down for a half or double batch. I use a metal whisk to mix the dry ingredients and to mix in the syrup.
I think dipping the baked cookies halfway in melted chocolate would be an amazing treat for Valentine’s Day!
rosa
Thanks so much for your feedback Wendy! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying these cookies. I love that idea for Valentines Day. 🙂
Kim
In the oven now but they don’t look like they’re “doing” anything (just look raw still) – have 7 minutes left – guess we will see!
rosa
Hmmm…Did you make any substitutions? Is your baking powder still active? Opened baking powder starts to lose its effectiveness after being opened a few months. But feel free to press them down with a fork while baking if they’re not spreading.
Kim
It might be the baking powder! I’m going to try them again next week!!! Will get some new baking powder and let you know!
Kirsten
Mom these are so delicious. Thanks for such a great recipe!
Kirsten
I meant “mmm” (not mom) 😂
rosa
Haha thanks Kirsten. Glad you enjoyed them. 🙂