These 1-bowl flourless double chocolate chip fudge cookies are soft, chewy, and wonderfully fudgy made using a quick and easy recipe! Plus, these vegan chocolate cookies are egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and healthier than regular cookies!
Fudgy, Gluten-Free, Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cookies
Even after a holiday season full of baking, I’m nowhere near done yet- and this time, I’m craving chocolate. I’ve already posted several vegan desserts to tempt your chocolate cravings, including this Chocolate Pudding and Chocolate Salami (an easy no-bake dessert). I’ve recently even posted some vegan cookie recipes, including these Vegan Snickerdoodles. Now here are some chewy, decadent flourless chocolate fudge cookies.
These double chocolate chip cookies use cocoa powder and dairy-free chocolate with a little espresso powder and a pinch of salt for depths of chocolatey flavor to die for. Combine that with gluten-free sunflower (or almond) flour, coconut oil, a nut/seed butter, baking powder, and a chia egg, and you have dense, fudgy vegan chocolate cookies that are still surprisingly healthy in comparison to store-bought options.
Eat them alone or with a glass of your favorite plant-based milk for a refreshing, sweet treat. If you’re in a large household – make sure to hide some of these cookies, or else they may all be gone before you know it!
Best of all, this vegan chocolate cookie recipe is super simple and requires just 10 ingredients, one bowl, and less than 30 minutes of your time. Then it’s just up to you to try not to eat them all in a single sitting!
The Ingredients & Substitutions
- Ground sunflower seeds*: Or any nut flour of choice, e.g., almond meal, almond flour, etc. Please do not use coconut flour, though, as it’s too absorbent.
- Chia egg: A combination of ground chia seeds (or flax seeds) and water. This is a wonderful option when making any cookies without eggs.
- Sugar: I used cane sugar, but you can also use regular sugar or brown sugar. Use coconut sugar/ date sugar for refined sugar-free cookies. I haven’t tried low-carb sweeteners like Xylitol, Erythritol, or monk fruit in this recipe, but they might work.
- Nut/Seed Butter: Feel free to use peanut butter (that’s what I used), almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, etc.
- Cocoa powder: Or cacao powder if preferred, though the flavor will change slightly.
- Espresso powder will enhance and add depth to the chocolate flavor in these gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies.
- Vegan chocolate chips: Or chocolate chunks. Certain chips won’t melt – in comparison to roughly chopped chocolate, so the texture will vary.
- Coconut oil: You can use melted vegan butter or vegan margarine instead of coconut oil. You can most likely also leave it out completely, and use a little more nut/seed butter of choice.
- Baking powder: Will affect the texture and lift of the vegan chocolate fudge cookies for a slightly more ‘cakey’ texture.
- Vanilla extract: For additional flavor.
- Salt: Will enhance the chocolate flavor.
*I grind sunflower seeds in my electric coffee/spice grinder to make sunflower seed flour. A blender works too, but you can also use store-bought sunflower seed flour.
For the full ingredients list, measurements, complete recipe method, and nutritional information, read the recipe card below.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cookies?
Please measure all ingredients in grams (use my written measurements) on a kitchen scale, if possible.
Step 1: Prepare the chia egg
- In a small bowl, combine the ground chia seeds (or ground flax seeds) and 1/4 cup of water. Stir to combine and set aside.
- Also, preheat the oven to 350 °F/175 °C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 2: Mix the cookie dough
- In a medium-sized bowl (or food processor), add the ground sunflower seeds (or almond meal), cane sugar (or granulated sugar of choice), cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder. Then mix until there are no lumps.
- Add nut/seed butter of your choice, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and the chia seed mixture. Stir (or blend, if using a food processor) until combined.
- Finally, add the dairy-free chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks) and mix with your hands until you achieve a smooth dough.
Step 3: Shape & Bake the chocolate fudge cookies
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each weighing about 50 grams) and roll each piece into a ball.
- Place the cookie dough balls on the prepared parchment paper and flatten them with your hand. Bake in the oven for 14-16 minutes.
The flourless chocolate cookies will be soft when you take them out of the oven but will firm up more once cooled. Then enjoy!
FAQs
Can you make these cookies without butter?
Yes, I actually tend to use coconut oil instead of butter or margarine. Though all three will work. I haven’t tried to make an oil-free version yet, but I think it should work as well.
How to store these flourless chocolate chip cookies?
Keep the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to a week. Alternatively, store them in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Can you prepare the cookie dough in advance?
Yes – prepare the dough and leave it covered in the fridge overnight. Then bake the vegan chocolate cookies when you’re ready the following day.
Alternatively, wrap the dough up tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for up to a month before baking – I haven’t personally tried this yet, but it should work fine.
What chocolate should you use in the double chocolate chip cookies?
You can use chocolate chips, chunks, or chopped chocolate within the fudge cookies. Just make sure to use dairy-free for vegan chocolate cookies. Choose whether you want to use dark chocolate or vegan ‘milk chocolate‘ based on personal preference.
Note that whether you use chocolate chips or chopped chocolate will also affect the vegan chocolate cookies differently. Whereas chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape in high heat, the chopped chocolate will usually melt – plus all the tiny slithers will distribute throughout the cookies, for different levels of chocolate in every bite. I used a combination of both.
Recipe Notes & Variations
- You can chill the cookies before baking or bake them immediately. It doesn’t really make a huge difference, as they do not spread much.
- You could use a combination of Dutch-processed cocoa powder (used for Oreos) and cocoa powder for a richer flavor. I prefer to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder since the flavor of that cocoa alone is very strong.
- The type of sugar you use will affect the flavor and consistency of the chocolate fudge cookies differently. Though it changes from bake to bake, brown sugar tends to yield moister, chewier cookies compared to more ‘crisp’ cookies using white sugar.
Other Vegan Cookie Recipes
- German Hazelnut Cookies
- Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)
- Chocolate Stuffed Cookies
- 3-Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies (Keto, Vegan)
Other Vegan Chocolate Recipes
If you give this vegan chocolate fudge cookies recipe a try, I’d love a comment and ★★★★★ recipe rating below. Also, please don’t forget to tag me in re-creations on Instagram or Facebook with @elavegan and #elavegan – I love seeing your recreations.
Chocolate Fudge Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tbsp ground chia seeds + 1/4 cup (60 g) water
- 1 scant cup (100 g) ground sunflower seeds or almond flour
- 3/8 cups (75 g) date sugar or organic cane sugar
- 5 tbsp (30 g) cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp espresso powder (optional, but recommended)
- 3 1/2 tbsp (50 g) nut/seed butter of choice
- 1 1/2 tbsp (18 g) coconut oil melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (60 g) dairy-free chocolate chips or chocolate chunks (or both)
Instructions
- Please measure all ingredients in grams (use my written measurements) on a kitchen scale, if possible. Also, watch the video in the post for easy visual instructions.To a small bowl add ground chia seeds (or ground flax seeds) and 1/4 cup water. Stir to combine and set aside. Also, preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To a medium-sized bowl (or food processor) add ground sunflower seeds (or almond flour), cane sugar (or granulated sugar of choice), cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder. Mix until there are no lumps.
- Add nut/seed butter of choice, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and the chia seed mixture. Stir (or blend, if using a food processor) until combined.
- Finally, add the dairy-free chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) and mix with your hands until you have a smooth dough.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each weighing about 50 grams / or make 10 smaller ones) and roll each piece with your hands into a ball. You can also use an ice cream scoop.
- Place the cookie dough balls on the prepared parchment paper and flatten them with your hand. Bake in the oven for 14-16 minutes. They will be still soft when you take them out but firm up once cooled. Enjoy!
Notes
Video Of The Recipe
- Ground sunflower seeds: I grind sunflower seeds in my electric coffee/spice grinder to make sunflower seed flour. A blender works too, but you can also use store-bought sunflower seed flour or any other nut flour of choice, e.g. almond meal, almond flour, etc. Please do not use coconut flour, as it's too absorbent.
- Sugar: I used organic cane sugar, but you can also use regular sugar or brown sugar. Use coconut sugar or date sugar for refined sugar-free cookies. I haven't tried low-carb sweeteners like Xylitol or Erythritol, or monk fruit in this recipe, but they might work too.
- Nut/seed butter: Feel free to use peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, etc. I used peanut butter.
- Coconut oil: You can use melted vegan butter or vegan margarine instead of coconut oil. You can most likely also leave it out completely, and use a little more nut/seed butter of choice.
- You can chill the cookies before baking or bake them immediately. It doesn't really make a huge difference, as they do not really spread much.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Equipment
Simple and Delicious Vegan Cookbook by ElaVeganCLICK HERE to order!
yum yum! another recipe for the win!
just made this and it’s delicious and not too sweet at all.
i followed the recipe almost exactly. i did use ground flax seeds (ans i added twice the chia amount), i used cashew butter, and i ended up using applesauce instead lf oil, and that worked fantastically!
i realized i only had 30.g of chocolate but the cookies still turned out wonderfullly and beautifully fudgy. next time I’ll definitely make sure i have more chocolate.
mine cooked for 12 mins and i made 14 cookies. thanks for the recipe!
sorry for the spelling mistakes on . my reviews. my phone’s screen is broken.
Thanks so much for your helpful feedback, Layan! 🙂
Theses are so delicious! They taste just as yummy leftover as well. I’m going to make these for my children’s Sommerfest this weekend. lecker!
Awesome! Enjoy! 🙂
Everyone loved them! People were asking me for the recipe. It helps I can give them all the Deutsch recipe since I live in Germany 🙂 .
Wonderful! Thanks for your lovely feedback, Amanda. 🙂
I just made these, and as all your recipes that I have tried before, this turned out amazing too 🙂
A question, would decaf coffee powder work in the recipe or it wouldn’t enhance the flavour of chocolate?
Thanks, Fanni 🙂
Hi Fanni, that’s so good to hear. Yes, it should work too! 🙂
Does coffee powder has caffeine in it? I want to make these and give it to my child. Otherwise they look lush and will certainly make them. Thank u for amazing recipes
Yes. Just leave it out, it’s optional. 🙂
Should I boost the coconut oil if I leave out the peanut butter? I was also going to omit the espresso powder since I don’t have it on hand. Thank you!
Yes, I would use about 50 grams of oil in total. Don’t worry about the espresso powder. 🙂
I made these the other week and everyone absolutely LOVED them!
I want to remake them with flax seeds instead of chia seeds – do I use the same amount of seeds and water?
Thank you!
Hello! I am so glad that everyone loved them. It should work pretty much the same with ground flax seeds, but you could slightly increase the amount of flax seeds by about 1/2 of a tablespoon (so, use 2 tablespoons in total). Everything else remains the same. 🙂
I was looking for a recipe for cookies without flour: this was just perfect. Made these cookies today and they are so luscious while keeping the recipe to a very easy level! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
You are very welcome, Elena! So glad you loved them. 🙂
Omg, these are the best cookies I have ever made!!!!! They are so moist and the expresso really gave an extra chocolate taste! Love, looove the flavour and texture! I used peanut flour instead of almond flour and less sugar than required. Thank you so much for your recipe! Can’t wait to try the banana bread.
Love from Brazil ✨????
Aww, that’s awesome, Marcella! I am so glad you loved them. 🙂
Thanks for your feedback.
These look amazing! I’m in the middle of making them and noticed your ingredient list says baking powder but your instructions say baking SODA. These are different products of course that do different things. I’m going ahead with powder though, since you have a link to powder on amazon, just thought I’d share that it might get confusing for readers. Thank you for sharing and can’t wait to try them!
Thanks for letting me know! I will fix that asap. Baking powder is correct. 🙂
Hello, could regular all purpose flour be used in this recipe? Thank you!
Hi Edith! I wouldn’t recommend it, since it doesn’t contain any fat. The nut/seed flour makes the cookies fudgy and tasty. 🙂
Can´t wait to try them! Literally running to the store right now to get chocolate. Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes 🙂
Aww, that’s awesome, Isi! I hope you will like these cookies. 🙂
I love your cookie recipes! Not sure which one I like the most, cinnamon star or this chocolate great one. Thank you so much for sharing.
You are very welcome Barbara! I am so glad you like the cinnamon stars too. 🙂
Wow, this is my new favorite cookies!! I just love the way they turned out! Soft, chewy and chocolaty. Amazing and so delicious…love all your recipies by the way♡
That’s awesome, Luzie! Thanks so much for your kind comment. 🙂
Hi Ela is it possible to use chia seed flour? I bought some and I never found a receipe to use it?
Hi Diana, I am not sure, because chia might make the mixture sticky (it’s mainly used as an egg replacement). 🙂
I’ve tried many vegan cookie recipes and this one is the best one so far! It’s very gooey and not dry at all! I used almond butter and ground flax seed and they came out great!
Yay! That’s awesome, Sarah! So glad they turned out gooey and yummy. Thanks for your great feedback. 🙂
Best chocolate cookie I have ever made! absolutely love them!!
Hi Brenda, I am so glad you love them! 🙂