Get ready for the BEST gluten free dairy free cookie recipe! Our Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies are allergy friendly and just like traditional Toll House chocolate chip cookies. You’d never know they’re gluten free and dairy free!
One thing I love about cookies is that they’re pretty easy to make and they bake quickly. Even if you don’t have a lot of baking experience, great classics like chocolate chip cookies are nearly foolproof and so easy to make.
I’ve written a few recipes for several different kinds of chocolate chip cookies in the past, but none of them are as close to real chocolate chip cookies as this one is!
These are seriously the best gluten free chocolate chip cookies!
Some of my older recipes for dairy free chocolate chip cookies are more cakey (like my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies), but these ones turned out perfectly chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges just like those Toll House chocolate chip cookies my mom would make.
How to make gluten free dairy free chocolate chip cookies
I adapted this recipe from a chocolate chip cookie recipe on AllRecipes and made our recipe gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and soy free.
Our delicious gluten free vegan chocolate chip cookies are made with a gluten free all purpose flour blend and unbleached cane sugar for results closest to the real thing.
If you’d like a whole grain cookie with natural sweetener, check out our Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies that are made with brown rice flour (or whole grain sorghum flour, both work) and honey instead of cane sugar.
Here are the steps for creating these amazing gluten free chocolate chip cookies (don’t forget to scroll down to the recipe card for the complete recipe!):
- Preheat your oven and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream your completely softened dairy free butter in a large bowl with the brown sugar and unbleached sugar and vanilla.
- Next add your dry ingredients (the gluten free flour blend and baking soda) as well as the rice milk and chocolate chips and mix again till a dough forms.
- Scoop onto the prepared cookie sheets by the spoonful and bake for 10-13 minutes.
Gluten free chocolate chip cookie baking notes
With our cookies, you can make them crispier or chewier/softer depending on what you like. If you want these more crispy, bake for about 12-13 minutes. If you want these more chewy in the middle, bake for just 10-11 minutes.
Since my husband loves crunchy cookies, here’s another trick we like to do for extra crisp cookies: leave the cookies on the cooling rack longer (several hours) and put them in a container that isn’t airtight (like a bakery box). This keeps the cookies crisp if that’s your jam!
I like my chocolate chip cookies chewy in the middle and a bit crisp on the edges, so I just bake these for 10-11 minutes and store them in an airtight tupperware-type container to keep them from getting crunchy.
You’ll notice that we didn’t add any additional salt to this recipe since the King Arthur gluten free flour blend has salt in it already and the cookies also have baking soda.
If your gluten free all purpose flour doesn’t have salt in it already, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to these if you like.
What dairy free butter should I use in these cookies?
We love using the Country Crock Plant Butter with avocado oil or olive oil for our baking. The plant butter sticks don’t have soy in the ingredients but the tubs do have soybean oil in them. Also they have an almond oil plant butter, so if you have tree nut allergies double check the labels.
If you plan on using a different brand of dairy free butter, just remember that every dairy free butter acts a bit differently in baked goods and your cookies might spread more.
For example, tubs of Earth Balance Soy Free is more liquid at room temperature than the Country Crock Plant Butter Sticks. So the cookies may spread too much if you use that butter (keep reading to see how you can fix it if that happens!).
The sticks do have a warning of “may contain soy“, so if you have severe soy allergies you can use something like the Flora plant butter which is also a great option.
What if my cookies spread too much?
If you find that your cookies spread a lot and get pretty thin, adding some additional gluten free flour can fix this. Different brands of dairy free butter will act differently in this recipe, so some brands will cause more spreading than others.
If you find your cookies are spreading, try doing a test. With your next batch of cookies, bake just a couple test cookies to see how they spread. If they spread too much, add 2-4 Tablespoons additional gluten free flour to the dough recipe and bake another 2-3 cookies to test again.
Once you get them how you like, you can bake the rest of the batch. If the butter you used is a different brand than the one we used here, make a note on your printed recipe that if you use that specific brand of dairy free butter, you’ll need to add additional flour to keep them from spreading too much.
How to make softer and thicker chocolate chip cookies
It’s been almost 2 years since we originally posted this recipe, and in the spirit of creating the perfect allergy friendly cookie and always making improvements, we continued to experiment with different flour combinations for softer and thicker chocolate chip cookies.
We combined 2 different flours that created an even softer and thicker cookie and debuted this change with our Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies!
If you like crispier and chewier cookies, you can stick with the recipe as written, but if you want a thicker cookie (like those great TollHouse cookies from our youth), then try this:
- Swap the 1-1/2 cups gluten free all purpose baking mix for 1 cup of gluten free all purpose baking mix + 3/4 cup fine sorghum flour (or fine brown rice flour). Bake for 12 minutes.
Everything else stays the same in the recipe! I’ll add this into the recipe card notes so if you print off the recipe, it will be there, too 🙂
UPDATE on the King Arthur all-purpose gluten free baking mix
We have used the King Arthur all-purpose gluten free baking mix for quite a few of our recipes, King Arthur Baking Company recently reformulated their gluten free baking mix to be better for biscuits.
The change in their baking mix results in slight texture changes for our cookies specifically, but our cookie recipes still work with the newly reformulated King Arthur gluten free all-purpose baking mix.
I am testing several of our recipes with the changed flour to make sure that the recipes still work great and if any updates to our recipes will be necessary. So far no changes to the recipes are necessary with what we have been testing, but we’ll update recipe cards if we find changes that need to be made!
Check out our other gluten free dairy free cookie recipes:
- Gluten Free Sugar Cookies (Top 8 Free)
- Gluten Free Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Gluten Free SunButter Cookies
- Gluten Free Vegan No Bake Cookies
- Gluten Free Frosted Lemon Cookies
Pin for later!
BEST Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- ½ cup dairy free/vegan butter, softened (we like the avocado oil or olive oil Country Crock Plant Butter sticks)
- ½ cup unbleached cane sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups gluten free all purpose flour (we used King Arthur Flour gluten free one-to-one blend)
- ¼ cup rice milk or other dairy free milk
- ¾ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips (we use Nestle Simply Delicious semi-sweet chips)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together the dairy free butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.
- Add the all purpose gluten free flour and the rice milk to the butter mixture and cream again until mixed thoroughly.
- Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough and mix again until evenly distributed.
- Scoop cookie dough out with a silverware teaspoon (or measuring tablespoon) and drop on the cookie sheet by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart.
- When making the thicker softer cookies with the mix of sorghum flour and all purpose gluten free baking mix, roll the dough into balls and flatten the balls slightly before baking.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes for cookies that are chewy in the middle, or bake for 12-13 minutes for cookies that are crispy all over.
- Allow to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days (if they last that long!) or freeze them.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie which she founded in 2011. Sarah is based in Wyoming and has been managing food allergies for herself and her 2 children for over 20 years. Sarah was also a certified personal trainer for 12 years, as well as a group fitness instructor, health coach, running coach, and fitness nutrition specialist.
Super delicious! My favorite gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe!
I’m so glad to hear that Bella, thank you!
I only use this recipe for my son who has multiple food allergies (we use a dairy/soy free butter). I love to make a small well in the cookie dough, fill it with peanut butter, cover back up and bake as normal. This is SO delicious!! Thank you for the recipe.
I love that idea Marissa, thank you so much for sharing! I need to try that with Sunbutter on my next batch.
I would put 5 stars because they are SO good, BUT I wish I watched the video – it shows that you smoosh them after placing them on the baking sheet. The directions did not say to do this – and my cookies stayed in the ball and did not cook evenly. Luckily I had enough to make another batch. You might want to add that to the directions… I follow directions to the T because baking is not my forte. The cookies were/are delicious though!
Thank you so much for letting me know! I’ll add that to the directions, sometimes I forget small details in the recipe card 😬 I’ll make sure to add that asap!
These are perfect! Super simple and tasty, just needs a little salt. Everyone loved them and I was able to please all the kiddos with food intolerances.
Glad you loved these Vanessa!
Thank you for this easy and great recipe!
I always adjust recipes based on what ingredients I have on hand – in this case I used melted coconut oil (less than required vegan butter amount) and only brown sugar. I found the batter a bit sweet for my preference, so added more GF blend (Pillsbury Best Gluten Free all purpose flour blend, which contains Xanthan Gum) and plant milk (organic soy is what I had) till the batter was to my preferred sweetness. (And then I added a touch more vanilla and baking soda, but didn’t add anymore oil). I could hardly stop eating the raw batter at this point! Baked (what’s left, lol) for 11 min, the cookies turned out perfect, held their shape and volume really well and didn’t flatten! Second batch baked for 15 min and look more golden, just came out of the oven and I will see what i prefer for next time. Definitely making these again!
I would say by the end I must have used about 1/3 cup coconut oil for about 2 cups GF blend.
(Also added a bit of himalayan pink salt since my mix didn’t contain any)
Thank you for sharing your adjustments with us Leila! I love eating this cookie dough, too, and fortunately there are no raw eggs in this one!
My thanks to you!
Next day update: my hubby prefers the 11 min baked cookies, I like both the 11 and 15 min baked ones, and they are even tastier the second day 😀
And yes, I felt free to indulge in the raw preparation knowing it’s all plant-based!
I used half and half almond flour and rice flour. I found my test batch to be too runny. So, I increased the flour by almost a cup, and lowered the milk to half. I added 1/4 cup more of sugar. But as a vegan cook, I’m used to adjusting recipes. They came out great, just like toll house only my kids can actually eat them. Everyone loved them! ❤️
Thank you for sharing your adjustments Debbra!
Hi Debra, I love when people actually try recipes and share their experiences. When you say you increased the flour by almost a cup, was that still a 50/50 ratio of almond and rice flour? Thanks!
Sorry, Debbra
I wish I could love these! Tried 3 times with hope that the cookies would turn out better, but they were always completely flattened and too crunchy to even eat. I’ve been following the instructions with the right ingredients- tried taking them out of the oven sooner… it just won’t work! Also added a pinch of baking powder last time to get them to rise. will definitely have to try one of your other recipes tho 🙁
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you! I wonder if your oven runs hot or if you used the all purpose flour instead of the all purpose baking mix (the flour doesn’t have xanthan gum or baking soda in it)?
excellent recipe.
i baked half and wasn’t totally happy with the flavor. it may have just been my flour blend and also the super dark chips i used, but i added some liquid stevia and almond extract to the remainder of the batter and the second batch came out way better. it tasted more like a non gf chocolate chip cookie!
this is definitely a recipe i will be using again and again, (along with the additions of almond and stevia).
well done! the texture is superb!
Thank you Melissa! What brand of flour blend did you use for your batch?
i’m sorry, i don’t recall! i’m making these again tonight for company i’m having over tomorrow! i’m using king arthur gf flour tonight. i have a large bag of premium gold gf flax and ancient grain all purpose flour mix. i think king arthur is safer (in terms of flavor) for company. i’ll try premium gold next time, i’ve never used premium gold gf flour before.
If I don’t have the right butter I can use 1/2 cup of Avocado oil?
I’d start with less oil and add more as needed, like start with 1/3 cup or 1/4 cup and add more as you need to bring the dough together. I think the cookies will end up pretty flat if you do a straight substitute for liquid oil.
Worst VGF cookie recipe ever. I have made many over the years and this one by far is the worst 🤢 Cookies fell completely apart from the start and yes i followed it exactly!
HI Kat, I’m sorry to hear that you disliked our cookie recipe. We’ve made this recipe dozens of times with great results and it has excellent ratings, so I’m not sure why your batch didn’t turn out. If these are “falling apart from the start”, something has to be missing because these don’t fall apart. It’s most likely that your gluten free flour didn’t have xanthan gum in it. If you used King Arthur flour, their GF all purpose flour does not have xanthan gum in it but their GF baking mix does (we added notes to the recipe and post about this). Since xanthan gum is the binder in this recipe, not having it will result in cookies that are falling apart. I’d double check your gluten free and make sure it has xanthan gum in it.
Just made these and WOW, they are SO good! We sprinkled a teeny weeny bit of salt on them and I’m drooling just thinking about them! Time for another one!
Thank you Maria 🙂 That’s a great idea with the salt, I’ll have to try that with my next batch!
The best cookie ever. Have tried several choc chip cookie recipes in 9 years of eating gf. Thank you.
Thank you so much Chris, that means a lot to us!
Love, love, LOVE this recipe! Thank you!
I’ve got an entire digital file full of recipes for various cookies, breads, and whatnot to try out… but according to my family, I don’t even need to attempt any other of my chocolate chip cookie recipes! These are so delicious, and because they keep it totally allergy-friendly, I can even make a batch for friends with allergies we don’t have in my own household. The best part is that it’s not a hassle to mix up, so we’ll be able to enjoy them fairly regularly.
I used a Country Crock plant butter stick (I think it was an olive oil one), regular white sugar because I didn’t have unbleached, the suggested King Arthur gf flour, Silk Oat Milk, and Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. Exactly 11 minutes was the perfect cook time for us.
Thank you so much Nikole, I’m so glad you all love these!
For 3 years I have searched for a good- just good- cookie recipe… but this one is FANTASTIC! I used coconut oil- room temp- instead of butter and used coconut sugar and homemade brown sugar (coc sugar and molasses) for the sweet. Y’all, my family is so picky and they loved them! THANK YOU for sharing this!
I’m so glad you loved these, thank you!
Hello, Sarah. So I made these cookies. I used Earth Balance butter, and even tho it was not soy-free, I still added four Tablespoons of additional flour as the dough looked really runny. The dough actually looked better before adding the milk, so I’m wondering if I could skip the milk or at least cut it way back. After each batch I put in the oven, I added another four Tbls of flour. So far I’m up to an extra 3/4 cup, and the cookies are still pretty flat. Any suggestions? I used oat milk in case that matters. They do have a pretty good taste, but they’re paper thin.
Hi Beth! I would try to avoid using the Earth Balance butter in this recipe instead of the Country Crock butter since it is a lot more runny than the Country Crock Plant butter and will result in very spread out cookies. It won’t matter too much if it’s the Earth Balance regular or Earth Balance soy free, we’ve found that both melt too easily and is thinner than the CC plant butter. If you can’t use the CC plant butter, skip the milk and add a little additional flour OR use slightly less dairy free butter.
I haven’t baked them yet but I used Earth Balance soy free buttery sticks and I added 1/4 cup of applesauce as a replacement egg. The batter is actually batter which is exciting! I thought the recipe was missing something replacement egg. I’m using rice milk. My first time. I’m baking for allergen free kiddos and hope these turn out!
Let me know how they turn out! The xanthan gum in the GF flour blend acts as a binder in this recipe, so this recipe doesn’t require an egg replacer if you’re using a flour blend with xanthan gum.
Also maybe check your flour to make sure that it has xanthan gum in it. That helps with thickening and binding, some all purpose GF flours don’t have that so it might cause spreading. This recipe needs a GF flour that has xanthan gum in it.
My son was having an end of school party and he asked if I would make him allergy friendly cookies! He is gluten, dairy and egg free. These are delicious!!! Mine spread out a lot though so the cookies were quite thin. Does anyone have suggestions or recommendations for that?
Hi Debbie! If your cookies spread out too much, add a bit more gluten free flour to firm up the dough. If you used a different brand of dairy free butter, this might be why they spread more, but you can fix that with some extra flour. On your next batch, bake just a couple cookies to see how they spread, and if they spread too much, add 2-4 Tablespoons additional gluten free flour to the recipe and bake another 2-3. Once you get them how you like, you can bake the rest of the batch 🙂
Most delicious gluten free/dairy free cookies I have ever tasted! My class all LOVED them and my gluten free/dairy free students begged me to share this recipe with them so that they could make them for their families. SO GOOD!
Thank you so much Suzi, that’s so great to hear!
These were fantastic! Better than Toll House!
Thank you so much Cheryl!
Amazing! Quick question. Can you use normal all-purpose flour If you don’t want to use gluten-free? Thank you
Hi Angela, I’m pretty sure you can use regular flour instead of the gluten free all-purpose flour in this recipe since the gluten free flour is meant to be a one-to-one replacement for regular flour, so regular flour will work, too. The gluten in the regular flour acts as a good binder, so you still won’t need eggs. You might have to adjust your flour amount by 1-2 Tablespoons (plus or minus), but we’ve found that the gluten free flour and regular flour are pretty close in recipes like this.
As a newbie to GL and Vegan recipes I am so pleasantly surprised at how delicious these are, and such an easy recipe too!! I made a 1/2 batch due to past bad experiences but I’ll be making a full batch tomorrow! I baked cookies for about 15 minutes and that made them the perfect softness. Absolutely delicious, highly recommend!
Thank you so much Jennifer!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made! My daughter is gluten and dairy free, so I tried to find a cookie recipe I could make for Valentine’s Day for her. I went strictly by the recipe and used Bob’s GF 1-1 blend flour. I baked for 10 minutes. They are unbelievably good! They are as good as any Toll House cookie I have ever baked! Thanks for sharing your recipe…you nailed it!
Thank you for the kind words Linda! Have a great Valentine’s Day 🙂
Hi there! Is it possible to sub the vegan butter with the same amount of softened coconut oil? Thank you!
Hi Charlotte! I haven’t tried this recipe with coconut oil, but I think the cookies would spread out and flatten a lot more with coconut oil since it melts at a lower temperature. If you want to use coconut oil, i’d try using slightly less coconut oil than the dairy free butter, like maybe 1/3 cup or 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon and try that out to see how they bake up.
Omg delicious, made them as bars with half the sugar. Amazing!!!!
Thanks Colleen! Love the idea of making these into bars 🙂
Amazing cookies! I love them chewy! Easy and simple recipe to follow! Perfect traditional chocolate chip cookies!
Thank you Weslie! 🙂
Do you have any suggestions on an alternative for the sugar? I wonder if maybe coconut sugar can be a good sub? TIA
A granulated sugar alternative should work in this recipe, like coconut sugar. Coconut sugar does have a strong taste so it will make the cookies taste a little different (more brown sugar or molasses tasting).
I altered this one only where the brown sugar is and OMG they are amazing!! Thank you so much!!
So glad you loved these Missy!
I made these using Namaste GF flour and these turned out wonderfully. I have never found a vegan cookie that holds together so well; thank you!
Thank you for the great feedback, Manda! 🙂
Made these using Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour and they were fabulous. I followed the rest of the recipe as printed.
Thank you so much!