Get your pumpkin fix with these gluten free and vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies, they are nut free and easy to make!
Chocolate is the perfect treat for people with a sweet tooth, until you read the label and find out it has lots of things in it that you or your kids are allergic to (soy, milk, manufactured with nuts…). Finding good chocolate that everyone can have can be challenging, and the same goes for granola!
I haven’t even purchased granola for months because it is rare to find one that everyone in my family can eat (and is still affordable!). Many gluten-free products can be problematic because they still contain soy or dairy.
This last week I got the opportunity to try out some chocolate products from one of my favorite allergy-friendly companies: Enjoy Life Foods. Enjoy Life sent me a bag of their Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks and the Double Chocolate Crunch Granola.
We were getting carried away with munching on both of these right out of the bag, but I did manage to save some chocolate for a fun recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies!
I have been using Enjoy Life products for a couple years now, and I love that my kids and I can eat their treats without worrying about our food allergies/intolerances. I try not to buy packaged foods very often, but Enjoy Life Foods are safe treats to have on hand when we need something sweet in a pinch.
We usually keep some of the Enjoy Life soft cookies in my son’s classroom at school so he has a sweet (and safe) treat when classmates bring cupcakes.
The chocolate chunks were really yummy – the bag didn’t last long! We munched on them out of the bag and I baked some delicious cookies , too. We liked the granola, but I found that I preferred snacking on it without milk.
The prices for the Enjoy Life products are a bit higher than regular packaged foods, but the ingredients are high quality and Enjoy Life Foods takes special care to ensure proper handling to avoid allergen cross contamination.
Enjoy Life makes their foods completely free of the top 8 common food allergens (wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish) and are also free of casein, potato, sesame, and sulfites.
To top it all off, Enjoy Life Foods are not only wheat free, but also certified gluten-free and certified Kosher and Halal as well, and there are no artificial or GMO (genetically modified) ingredients and no trans fats. You can definitely feel safe treating your family to products from Enjoy Life Foods!
Without further ado, here is a yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk cookie recipe! Enjoy : )
Check out our other recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup brown rice flour
- 2 Tablespoon ground flax meal
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup agave
- ⅓ cup canned pumpkin
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon liquid Stevia
- ½ cup Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Set aside a baking stone or a baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown rice flour, flax meal, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, whisk together the agave, pumpkin, oil, vanilla, and liquid Stevia.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
- Fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Drop by Tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking pan. Bake for @12 minutes until the cookies are set and lightly browned on top.
- Let cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.
- Enjoy!
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.
Oh Sarah these looks so good. Love the color too!!
Thanks! It’s been a while since I’ve made these, I think I need to make them again and take some new photos to refresh this post 🙂
Okay. After scouring your site for cookie recipes, I think these might be the WINNER… What could I replace Agave with? I cannot do honey either… Or molasses or any type of syrupy stuff because it’s all sugar and my body cannot do sugar :-/ Maybe just more stevia? I also might try coconut flour or…. Sun Warrior Warrior Blend protein powder…… Thoughts?
Hey Gigi! For this recipe, you could replace the flour with coconut flour, you would need to use more of the binder. In this recipe the flax is the binder, but you can also use tapioca or arrowroot starch, or guar or xanthan gum to help it hold together without eggs. I would actually suggest making cookies out of my coconut biscuit recipe (https://thefitcookie.com/2013/09/07/grain-free-chocolate-chip-scones/) since that recipe is already made with coconut flour, it’s low sugar, and it’s easily made into cookies. You can replace the applesauce in that recipe with pumpkin. If you replace the honey or agave in either recipe, make sure to replace the liquid so they won’t be dry.
Another idea is using pureed water chestnuts or sweet potatoes in cookies. I made some cookies with water chestnuts one time and they weren’t too bad. I adapted a recipe from here (http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/05/low-carb-peanut-butter-sandwich-cookies-3.html). I didn’t publish my version since it was an experiment, but Melissa’s recipe would be great for you if you replace the peanut butter with another seed-butter you could have.
I have also been using Swerve recently and so far I am impressed with it! It’s an all-natural, sugar-free, erythritol based sweetener that Whole Foods carries.
Let me know what you think, and I can do some experimenting in my kitchen to come up with something suitable for you!
I made these tonight and they are scrumptious!!! The only thing I did different was add a couple dashes of pumpkin pie spice. and I might actually use a few less chocolate chips holy cow they were stock full! But hey that aint really so bad… Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome, I am so glad you enjoyed these! I will have to try the pumpkin pie spice next time I make these 🙂
These look amazing! They appear so moist!! My name is Cindy and I blog over at Vegetarianmamma.com I wanted to invite you to link up your recipe and any others at our Gluten Free Fridays Recipe Link up party! It happens every Friday and we’d love to have you join us with some of your awesome recipes! It doesn’t mean that you have to be a gluten free bloggers. If you have some recipes on your blog that are gluten free that counts! 🙂 Many recipes are naturally gluten free.
Also be sure to link up your blog on our Gluten Free Bloggers directory. You can reach the directory by clicking the “glutenfree bloggers” tab on our blog! Thanks, Cindy 🙂
Thanks Cindy, I will check it out : )