These Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are rich, fudgy and perfectly soft. They're also secretly healthy, and are refined sugar free, grain-free and paleo too. They make great Christmas cookies and are perfect for gifting too!
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Place the dates, oil, plant-based milk and salt in a food processor or blender.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Transfer into a mixing bowl and add the ground almonds and cocoa powder.
Tip: Place the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to allow it to firm up slightly.
- Take a heaped tablespoon of the cookie dough and use your hands to form it into a round ball.
- Roll the ball of cookie dough in the powdered sugar until completely covered.
- Use your hands to flatten the ball into a circular, thick patty - don't worry, unlike traditional cookies, these won't spread out as they bake.
- Lay it out onto a rectangular baking tray lined with greased baking paper.
- Repeat until the rest of the cookie dough is used up - you should be able to make 10 cookies.
- Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes - be careful to not over-bake them!
How long do these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies keep for?
These cookies keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make to this recipe:
- The ground almonds can be replaced with ground walnuts, ground hazelnuts or ground sunflower seeds.
- The coconut oil can be replaced with olive oil or vegetable oil, or almond butter, cashew butter or sunflower seed butter.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk.
- For a nut-free version, replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds or 50 g (½ cup) coconut flour, and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- For an oil-free version, you can replace the oil with applesauce.
- For a refined sugar free version, you can replace the powdered sugar (icing sugar) with cornstarch (cornflour).
More gluten-free vegan cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Pumpkin Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Oatmeal Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 130 g (¾ cup) pitted dates (soaked overnight in cold water or for 10 minutes in boiling water)
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- Pinch salt
- 240 g (2 cups) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 20 g (¼ cup) cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar (icing sugar) **
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Drain the soaked dates and place in a blender or food processor with the oil, almond milk and salt.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Transfer into a bowl, add the ground almonds and cocoa powder, and mix well.
- Place in the fridge for at least 10 minutes for the cookie dough to firm up slightly.
- Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl.
- Take a heaped tablespoon of the cookie dough and use your hands to form it into a round ball.
- Roll the ball of cookie dough in the powdered sugar until completely covered.
- Use your hands to flatten the ball into a circular, thick patty - don't worry, unlike traditional cookies, these won't spread out as they bake.
- Lay it out onto a baking tray lined with greased baking paper.
- Repeat until the rest of the cookie dough is used up - you should be able to make 10 cookies.
- Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes - don’t worry if they’re still quite soft when you take them out as they will firm up as they cool down. Be careful not to over-bake them!
- Leave to cool completely before storing in an airtight container - keeps in the fridge for a good few days.
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Elizabeth
Yum! I have really enjoyed Rhian’s recipes for a few years and this was my first time baking with dates in this fashion. This made deliciously moist cookies that were so pretty and really flavorful!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so happy to hear that!