Looking for healthier holiday treats? Make these Grain Free Chocolate Orange Cookies! They are vegan and mostly sugar-free, with a sugar-free/paleo option
Hey friends, it’s time for Recipe Redux again! Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas is coming up soon, so tables will be filled with all kinds of sweet treats. If you are looking for some healthier recipes to share with family and friends (especially if they have food allergies!), then you’re in luck!
In the spirit of the holiday season healthier eating, the November Recipe Redux theme is about all healthier desserts to trim your holiday table:
Trimming the Table: The holiday baking season is upon us. Time to pull out all the stops. Show us the healthy holiday dessert you will be sharing with family and friends this season.
The holiday baking season was always one of my favorite times! It’s so fun to whip up treats to give away to friends. I used to make layered pumpkin cakes, caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels, pumpkin breads, chocolate peanut butter cookies, and more. Nowadays I don’t go all out with my baking as often since we have so many food allergies, but I still love baking holiday treats!

For this recipe I decided to remake one of my older recipes for Guilt-Free “Sugar” Cookies (these ones use Stevia instead of erythritol). I originally made a chocolate mint version of them, but I as having some troubles with the peppermint oil so I decided to make some Grain-Free Chocolate Orange Cookies instead of chocolate mint.
These cookies turned out delicious! The flavors remind me of those Terry’s chocolate oranges you can get at the store around Christmas. Reminds me of the holidays!
My Grain-Free Chocolate Orange Cookies are made mostly sugar-free. We rolled these in granulated sugar so they aren’t completely sugar-free or paleo, but if you want them to be entirely free of sugar, you can roll these in granulated erythritol or omit that part completely. They will just look a little bit different than the photos.


Grain Free Chocolate Orange Cookies (Vegan)
Grain free, vegan; Free of: peanuts, soy, dairy, eggs
Ingredients
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- ½ cup warm water
- ¼ cup ground golden flaxseed
- 1 teaspoon pure orange extract
- 20 drops Chocolate Better Stevia
- ½ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup baking Stevia
- 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoon arrowroot powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Granulated sugar or erythritol to roll cookies in OPTIONAL
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside
- In a small microwavable bowl, melt the coconut oil. Whisk in the warm water, ground flaxseed, vanilla extract, and Better Stevia. Set aside and allow to thicken
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, baking Stevia, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, baking powder, and salt
- Combine the wet ingredients with the flour mixture and stir to combine until a thick dough forms.
- Pinch off about a tablespoon of dough and roll into balls about 1 inch, then roll the balls in sugar (or granulated erythritol for sugar-free)
- Place the dough balls on the cookie sheet about 1 inch apart and flatten slightly
- Bake for 12 minutes (they will be soft inside, but don’t over bake these or they will dry out once they cool completely
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.
What can I use instead of arrowroot powder and baking stevia???
Hi Dorota, You could use 1 Tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch (it wouldn’t be grain free then), and you could try using some granulated erythritol or xylitol instead of baking stevia if you still wanted to keep these sugar free.
This look so delicious Sarah!! I love anything orange and coconut!
Thank you Veena!
I love chocolate and orange together. Two of my favorite flavors!
I think this is one of my Mom’s favorite flavors, too 🙂 Chocolate orange and cranberry orange always makes me think of my Mom’s baking!
My husband used to get a chocolate orange every year for Christmas from someone at work. We fought over them! These cookies look delicious and love the vegan/allergy-friendly recipes!
These sound delicious. Love the flavour combo of the orange and chocolate. I have never seen flavoured stevia…will have to look for it.
I love flavored Stevia! I like the English Toffee flavor in my coffee (usually 5 drops is all it takes). NOW Foods makes the ones I use: https://www.nowfoods.com/natural-foods/by-brand/betterstevia/liquids
These are so cute! I love anything orange in desserts! I keep seeing coconut flour in many recipes now, but I’ve never tried it. I think I should buy it soon
Thanks Julia! Coconut flour is definitely an interesting flour: it’s very absorbent so it usually doesn’t take much of it to make a recipe 🙂
I absolutely love chocolate and orange combo, which makes this recipe go straight to the top of my list to try! I’ve never seen Chocolate Better Stevia. Where do you usually purchase it?
I used to order it from Vitacost, but I don’t think they have it anymore. Here’s the link to NOW Foods who makes it: https://www.nowfoods.com/natural-foods/betterstevia-liquid-dark-chocolate. They make other flavors that are great too! There are other brands that make similar products, but the concentration might be different with those ones so if you use another brand you may have to adjust the amount