Flourless Chocolate Cookies

You know these cookies: they're shiny, crackly, soft and chewy with crisp edges. They're absolutely full of chocolate flavor, and everyone loves them! They're flourless chocolate cookies, and yes, they're gluten-free and made with only 5 simple ingredients.

As I compile my list of Christmas cookies to bake this year, I will never forget about my gluten-free friends. These flourless chocolate cookies are specifically for them, but you may have to fight off everyone else to eat them.

These are the rich, chocolatey and chewy brownie-like cookies that everyone loves. They’re not missing a single ingredient, even though they lack flour. In fact, the lack of flour is what makes the texture of these cookies SO GOOD.

Without flour, egg whites are the binder for our cookies. This means that the egg whites bake up slightly crisp yet chewy in the oven—exactly like the best pavlova or eton mess you’ve ever had. 

Meringue is one of the best things in the dessert world if you ask me: sweet, crisp, chewy, fluffy and airy all at once. But this recipe for flourless chocolate cookies is the easiest way to enjoy meringue because we’re just going to stir the egg whites into the flourless chocolate cookies batter. We’re not whipping them with beaters or looking for soft or stiff peaks—literally just stir the egg whites with a spatula until the batter is wet. That’s it!

How to Make Flourless Chocolate Cookies

However, you can absolutely double this recipe to make more cookies to leave on your neighbors’ porches. One small note that if you double or triple the recipe, you still need to mind the spacing of these cookies on the cookie sheet. I know the batter doesn’t look like much, but it spread considerably while it bakes so cap it at 4 cookies per cookie sheet.

If you only have one baking sheet, it’s totally fine—just let the batter rest while the first 4 cookies bake, and then give you cookie sheet a quick rinse under cool water to cool it off before baking the last 4 cookies. Another great cookie to leave on people's porches is my coconut sugar cookies.

The Ingredients

• Powdered Sugar. Also referred to as confectioner's sugar, this is a super finely ground sugar that contains a small amount of cornstarch. It cannot be substituted for granulated sugar, so please only use powdered sugar for this recipe.
• Cocoa Powder. All natural, unsweetened cocoa powder made of 100% cacao is what we need for this flourless chocolate cookies recipe.
• Egg Whites. Two large egg whites that have been left on the counter for about an hour to come to room temperature. Here's a list of recipes that use egg yolks.
• Vanilla. Real pure vanilla extract enhances the chocolate flavor of these cookies.
• Chocolate Chips. You can use semisweet, dark or even milk chocolate chips for these cookies. I most commonly use dark chocolate chips for a rich flavor.

The Instructions

First, preheat the oven to 350 and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. See notes above about how to bake this recipe if you only have 1 cookie sheet. Gather your ingredients: powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a bowl.

This is a small batch recipe for flourless chocolate cookies that makes just 8 cookies, so it’s perfect if you just want a few chocolate cookies after making any of my dinner for two recipes. My husband and I can attest that 4 cookies per person is the appropriate serving size! You have to eat 1 or 2 cookies right when they come out of the oven when they’re SUPER soft, but then you have to eat 2 more when they’re room temperature and have the perfect meringue-like crisp and chewy texture.

Other holiday cookies you may like:

Peanut Butter Blossoms
Chocolate Shortbread
Almond Bars
Gingersnaps
Christmas Lights Cookies