These flourless Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies are easy to stir together and the Nutella like flavor is addictive! They’re also gluten free and dairy free and so delectable with a sprinkle of flaked sea salt on top. These cookies are based off the classic chocolate chip cookie, but with more texture and way more flavor. So if you’re a Nutella fan too, you’re definitely going to love these!
The minute I heard about hazelnut flour, I knew exactly what I was going to make with it. It’s totally predictable and not at all unexpected, but chocolate chip cookies have just been begging for this Nutella like upgrade.
And… since chocolate and sea salt is absolutely unbeatable, I sprinkled the cookie tops with a little salty goodness as well. It only took me 3 months of off and on testing before I finally got them right. But here they finally are, and they’re just as addicting as they look!
Chocolate and hazelnut is a tried and true combination, and I personally believe in getting my fix often! In fact, I keep a jar of chocolate hazelnut butter in the fridge for those occasions when I need a pick me up of utmost decadence. But if you have a few minutes on your hands, I recommend baking some of these cookies because the whole house will smell like nutty chocolatey goodness!
Now let’s make these Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies step by step!
These cookies require only a bowl and spoon to make – no mixer needed here. Just stir the dry ingredients together, add the wet ingredients, and bake into perfection!
I wanted to include a picture of the cookie dough, because as you can see it’s a bit looser than a normal cookie dough. But don’t worry because they bake up beautifully every time, (oh and there have been some times… 4 batches of the final version to be precise).
Once they’re puffed in the middle, golden on the edges, and still gooey, sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy.
More gluten free & paleo cookie recipe inspiration:
- Healthier No Bake Cookies
- Double Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies
- Glazed Paleo Sugar Cookies
- Grandpa’s Molasses Sugar Cookies
- Mom’s Snickerdoodle Cookies
Not to sound all food snobby or anything, (because I fear I sometimes sound like I’m on my soapbox) but it really does matter what kind of sea salt you use on these cookies. Flaked sea salt is super light in texture and melts on your tongue with a pleasant hint of sea salt. Coarser types of sea salt take a while to melt on your tongue, and they’re crunchier in texture which can be very overwhelming in desserts.
Once you buy your first bag of flaked sea salt, (sometimes called finishing salt) there’s no going back, and you’ll find all sorts of uses for it. One of my favorite uses for flaked sea salt is a Caprese Salad, or sprinkled over just sliced heirloom tomatoes. I also use it on my Tuscan Style Steak where you’ll find a picture of the exact type I use in case you’re a visual learner like me!
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Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies
- Total Time: 16 mins
- Yield: 22 – 4” cookies 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
These flourless Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies are easy to stir together and the Nutella like flavor is addictive! They’re also gluten free and dairy free and so delectable with a sprinkle of flaked sea salt on top. These cookies are based off the classic chocolate chip cookie, but with more texture and way more flavor. So if you’re a Nutella fan too, you’re definitely going to love these!
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup hazelnut meal, also called hazelnut flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 Teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup blonde coconut sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips, I use Enjoy Life brand
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Flaked finishing sea salt for sprinkling over the cookie tops
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together the hazelnut meal, tapioca starch, baking soda, coconut sugar, and chocolate chips.
Add the melted coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir to thoroughly combine, you don’t need to worry about over mixing with this recipe. The cookie dough will be much looser than a normal cookie dough texture.
Using a spoon, portion out the cookies (2 Tablespoons each), for about 8 per tray.
Sprinkle a small amount of flaked sea salt over each cookie, it’s important to sprinkle all over the surface because that’s how you get a bit of sea salt in every bite!
Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookies have puffed up a bit but are still quite moist/almost gooey in the centers. If you over bake them, they tend to get a cakey texture, so if you like gooey cookies, keep a close eye on them until you get the timing down for your oven.
Notes
It’s important to note that this recipe will not work with almond flour, and so you can exactly replicate these you should know I used Bob’s Red Mill hazelnut meal.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 6 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
I cannot have coconut sugar, so I substituted 1 cup dates and reduced to 1 egg, and the cookies were incredible!! My children are super skeptical of any “sweets” I make because they know I don’t do traditional sugar sources, and they devoured these and called me the “best cook ever” — thank you! It feels so good to be able to bake them chocolate chip cookies again, and feel good about it!
I should clarify that with the date substitution, I blended everything in a food processor and then folded in the chocolate chips. Fabulous
🙂
I’m so glad to hear they like them, I always say that kids are the toughest audience because they just want the ‘real thing’ so to speak! And thanks for writing down your date substitution because we don’t make desserts with coconut sugar often and it’s nice to know this works with dates as well!
I’m so excited to try these! I have Celiac and am intolerant to almonds so have been looking for a chocolate chip cookie that I can enjoy once in a while! I ground up my own raw hazelnuts – will that still work? Also, I have everything but the tapioca starch? Is there something I can substitute for that? Thanks so much!
I’m not sure if grinding your own hazelnuts will work the same because I’ve never tried it, but I don’t see why not (you just never know with gluten free baking). You might be able to substitute arrowroot starch for the tapioca, but the tapioca starch is what gives it a chewy chocolate chip cookie texture so it’s definitely worth seeking out. I buy the Bob’s Red Mill brand, and it’s available at our regular local grocery store and at Natural Grocers if you have one of those. I hope you enjoy the cookies, their flavor is reminiscent of Nutella, and I have a hard time not eating them all! Be sure to let me know how it goes and if you have anymore questions!
I just realized the spread in my cookies must be due to high altitude.
Anyway, making them again! They’re still fantastic as pan cookies.
I’m not sure what your altitude is, but we’re at just over 3,000′ if that helps at all. I’m glad that you enjoyed them anyways!
I love this recipe! I have made it at least half a dozen times now. The only thing is that I can never get the cookies to set; they spread and become pan cookies. Still, they’re excellent. Thanks!
That’s kinda weird that they spread out so much because I’ve never had that happen, it’s could be a difference in ingredients, be sure to use hazelnut meal which soaks up much more liquid than other nut meals and flours I’ve used. You could also try using just 1 egg if you have extra large or jumbo eggs. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe though, it’s one of my favorites!
Sorry I used almond meal not flour. In general almond and hazelnut meal are interchangeable, especially in cookies, the gritty texture is the same the only difference is flavor. I absolutely love both of them. Like I said my problem was EGGY flavor nothing else, it took 12 min to bake them because of where I live and probably my oven. My husband also mentioned eggy taste. If I will try to make them one more time I’ll definitely use only one egg. This is just my opinion. We are all different and have different taste, and that is amazing, because otherwise world would be boring!
Maybe the egg flavor has to do with the size of eggs because I haven’t had any eggy flavor at all. We get local eggs which might be a bit smaller, so hopefully going with just 1 egg will do the trick. I’ve never tried these with almond meal, but I do know when I tried almond flour as a substitute it was an unqualified disaster! I really hope you your second time goes better! 🙂
Unfortunately this cookies did not work for me. I was super excited to make them, the way they look on your pictures and ingredients list sounded amazing. I used almond flour insted of hazelnut, but the problem was not in that. I think two eggs are way more than needed, They smell and tasted like eggs, even vanilla extract didn’t help. The cooking time for me was 12 min. I really wanted to love them but I can’t. Probably need to modify recipe, but experimenting with hazelnut or any nut flour is super expensive…
The recipe calls for hazelnut meal which is a lot different than almond flour, I’ve actually tried these with almond flour and it doesn’t work at all. I’ll make a note in the recipe not to substitute almond flour, and I’m sorry your variation didn’t turn out. I tested these cookies 6 times before I published the recipe, and I have full confidence if you follow it that they will turn out. As a side note, I used Bob’s Red Mill hazelnut meal in my recipe in case you’d like to try it again! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you’d like to make something with almond flour you might try my Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars! 🙂
Dang it Kari! I’ve been holding off on making these because I knew the hazelnut meal would be pricey. Why do they have to be so delicious? Thanks for another amazing recipe.
I promise hazelnut meal is worth a splurge every once in a while!
Okay, it’s been over 2 (more like 3 years) since I’m been tempted to make cookies. All I do is eat them all, so I stopped making them. But these are going to get done. I never heard of hazelnut flour and am going to put it on my grocery list. And the flaked sea salt, never had that either. I guess I need to get out more! Love the Enjoy Life chocolate chips too, can you believe I found 3 bags on clearance at my local grocery store?
You’re lucky, I rarely can even find them on sale! I’m the same way too with cookies, I just eat them until they’re gone, which is why all my recipes are formulated for 2 dozen or less because I get in less trouble that way!
This is why I love you.
People underestimate the taste and power of hazelnuts, which are one of my very favorites. So seeing this recipe here today was so exciting! I have to go buy groceries later, so I’m add all this to my list. I’ll follow up and let you know how it works out!
Of course we would both be crazy about hazelnuts being we have such a close food connection! 🙂 I absolutely love hazelnut gelato too, so I really should get in gear and get a recipe out for that as well!
Where was I during all this cookie taste testing? I will have to make these for myself!! They sound excellent.
These cookies, even my failed attempts got eaten up almost as soon as they came out of the oven! Hope you enjoy them!