These flourless chocolate chip cookie bars are made primarily with almond butter. They’re easy to make, plus vegan/paleo friendly, gluten free, grain free, and naturally sweetened!
The weather here has been crazy these past few days. First of all, it’s been unseasonably cold this year. I’m not complaining, as I very much enjoy cooler over hotter temps, but the fluctuation is putting a strain on my poor plants! Last week was beautiful, in the 60’s-70’s, so we did some planting in our backyard—a few peonies, lilacs, azaleas, lavender, as well as a bunch of herbs. After enjoying some nice weather, it suddenly froze overnight and some of the plants didn’t survive 🙁
This week went like this: it was in the 70ºs Monday, then dropped below 40ºF Tuesday with snow! Wednesday jumped back up to 60ºF with overnight lows in the 30º’s and will be close to 80ºF by the end of the weekend. Crazy weather for an April in the south!
When there’s stuff in life that’s out of my control, I bake. Baking can be a great way to relieve stress. At least for a time, you can put all of your concentration into something else. Methodically measuring, carefully stirring, double and triple checking the recipe…and then you have something delicious to enjoy at the end of it. It’s like a win-win!
These flourless chocolate chip cookie bars are made primarily with almonds. Almond butter, to be exact. In this instance, I made my own, but store-bought almond butter works just as well. The only problem with the variety of almond butters out there, is that they tend to have different consistencies. Some are very firm, like, break the spoon firm, while others are runny.
My homemade almond butter was more on the thick side as I used raw over roasted almonds. Roasting the almonds helps them release their natural oils, which makes the almond butter more runny. Either way is fine, but the amount of water needed will vary. In the end, you’re looking for a thick, yet malleable dough, kind of like cookie dough. I needed 4–5 tablespoons in order to get mine to the right consistency. See the videos in the recipe for more detail of what the dough should look like.
Press the finished dough evenly into your pan and bake. You’ll never believe these yummy bars are made primarily with one ingredient and free of flours, grains, gluten, dairy, oil, eggs, and refined sugar too! Hope you enjoy them!
Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 18 mins
- Total Time: 33 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
Description
These flourless chocolate chip cookie bars are made primarily with almond butter. They’re easy to make, plus vegan/paleo friendly, gluten free, grain free, and naturally sweetened!
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all natural almond butter or 2 cups (340g) unsalted almonds (raw or roasted) ground into butter
2/3 cup (100g) coconut sugar
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if almonds are salted)
3–5 tablespoons water
3/4 cup (120g) chocolate chips (use more or less to taste)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line an 8×8 pan with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine almond butter, coconut sugar, flax, baking soda, and salt. See notes below to make your own almond butter.
Stir in water a little at a time until batter is soft and malleable, like cookie dough. Amount of water will vary on how thick or thin your almond butter is. Thinner almond butter may not need as much water.
Stir in most of the chocolate chips, reserving a few to sprinkle on top. Press dough evenly into pan and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 18–20 minutes, until bars are golden brown. Let cool thoroughly before slicing and serving. Warm bars are more delicate and will firm up as they cool. Makes 12–16 bars.
Notes
To make your own almond butter, place dry almonds in a food processor and blend until creamy. It takes a while and you need to stop and scrape down the sides occasionally. If your food processor gets hot, you can stop for a few minutes until it cools down. Almonds will turn into meal and then will start to get clumpy. It may get stuck as it begins to ball up, but give it time and it will eventually become creamy. This process can take anywhere from 12–20 minutes, maybe more, depending on your food processor. Two cups almonds should equal 1 1/4 cups almond butter, so just scrape the almond butter into the mixing bowl, then continue to follow steps above. See video below for details on progress of almond butter, every few minutes. Took a total of 13 minutes to get almond butter in my NutraMilk machine.
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