Cashew Coconut Chocolate Cookies (Gluten-Free & Vegan)

Get your baker hat on and fill your house with the smell of cookie goodness! Cashew, coconut, chocolate cookies are everything tasty and awesome!

As a gluten-free baker, I incorporate almond butter into many recipes. It’s a reliable flour alternative, and it helps bind all the ingredients together. While almond butter will always be my go-to choice (mostly because I’m obsessed with the taste), I decided to experiment with cashew butter for my new cookie recipe. Cashew butter is creamy, buttery, and extremely smooth. I usually shy away from peanut butter because it is often processed, double the amount of sugar, and loaded with calories and fats. It’s really a no-brainer to use cashew butter when straying from almond. The beauty of this recipe is that as long as you create the cashew butter base, you can add any ingredient into the batter to form your perfect cookie. For me, that means adding coconut and dark vegan chocolate chips! Here is the recipe for my vegan and gluten-free Cashew Coconut Chocolate Cookies!

Ingredients

• 1 jar of creamy cashew butter (16 oz). *Note - use a brand that says ‘no sugar added’ on the label
• 2 flax eggs (regular eggs are also fine and will create a slightly firmer cookie, but use flax to be completely vegan)
• 1/2 cup of organic maple syrup
• 1 tbsp of finely shredded organic coconut powder
• 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp Sunwarrior Sea Salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup of 69% cacao vegan dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the cashew butter, eggs, maple syrup, coconut powder, vanilla extract, sea salt, and baking soda into a large bowl and mix until smooth - a sticky batter will form.
3. Add the chocolate chips and gently fold in.
4. Scoop out 3/4 of a tablespoon onto parchment paper per cookie (you should have 8-10 cookies lined on the sheet) and form small circles.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on your oven so check at 15 - the cookies should be slightly golden and remember, they harden more once they sit so don’t overcook)
6. Let the cookies sit for 15 minutes and then store in the refrigerator so they keep their shape and texture.