Paleo Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies: Chewy, Gluten-Free, and Made with Almond Flour

Damn Good Paleo Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies

Say hello to the cookie that turned my kitchen into a tahini testing lab for a solid month. These paleo chocolate chunk tahini cookies are gluten free, dairy free, and grain free, and the whole batch comes together in one bowl.

Crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle, and loaded with puddles of dark chocolate that melt the second you bite in.

I have been on a tahini kick for a while now. It started with tahini brownies, moved on to blondies, and then those salted tahini caramel millionaire bars that vanished from the counter before they finished cooling.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, I started wondering what tahini would do in a simple chocolate chunk cookie. The answer, as it turns out, is everything.

Tahini does two jobs here. It brings a subtle nutty, almost savory edge that keeps the cookies from tasting too sweet, and it adds enough fat to build that soft, chewy center without a single stick of butter.

If you have a jar sitting in the back of your pantry for hummus night, this is what it has been waiting for.

Here is the short version: mix the wet ingredients, add the dry, fold in chopped dark chocolate, scoop, bake, and finish with flaky salt while the chocolate is still soft.

Prep takes about 10 minutes, the oven does its work in another 10, so you are looking at roughly 20 minutes from empty bowl to warm cookie.

The batch makes 10 to 12 cookies, which is the most dangerous number possible in a house of two.

One bowl, one egg, no butter, and chocolate in every bite. That is the whole promise.

Here is how to make them, step by step.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the egg, coconut sugar, tahini, melted and cooled coconut oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
3. Add the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until a cookie dough consistency forms, then fold in the chocolate chunks.
4. Grab about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Place the ball on the cookie sheet and flatten the top of the dough a bit with the palm of your hand.
5. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are just slightly golden. Slightly underbaking keeps them gooey. As soon as they come out of the oven, sprinkle them with Maldon salt. Cool on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing them from the pan.

The flattening step matters more than it sounds. These cookies do not spread much on their own because there is no butter and the coconut flour tightens things up, so a gentle press with your palm gives you a cookie instead of a dough ball.

Ingredients in these tahini chocolate chip cookies

Every ingredient in this list is doing a specific job. Nothing is filler, and the swap section below will tell you what you can bend and what you should leave alone.

Wet ingredients

• 1 egg, ideally at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (77g) coconut sugar, an unrefined option that keeps the cookies paleo and stands in for brown or regular sugar
• 1/4 cup (58g) tahini, which is simply ground sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons melted and cooled coconut oil, which is what keeps these cookies dairy free
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry ingredients

• 3/4 cup (84g) fine packed almond flour
• 1/4 cup (28g) coconut flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (3 ounce) dark chocolate bar at least 72%, coarsely chopped
• Fancy Maldon salt, for sprinkling on top

A few notes on the lineup. The flours are fine blanched almond flour plus a smaller amount of coconut flour, and that pair is what makes the grain free base work.

The coconut oil is only a couple of tablespoons, but it is enough to keep everything tender without dairy. And the chocolate is the star of the show, so use a bar you actually enjoy eating.

Chop it coarsely so you get big shards and small flecks in the same cookie, which is exactly how you end up with those molten puddles. If you would rather use chips, 1/2 cup of chocolate chips works fine.

The Maldon salt is optional, but please do not skip it. That little hit of flaky salt on warm chocolate is the difference between a good cookie and a cookie that makes people ask for the recipe.

For reference, here is how the nutrition breaks down per cookie based on the source recipe.

The recipe makes 10 to 12 cookies, and the serving count on the card is 12.

Simple ingredient swaps

My honest advice is to bake the recipe as written the first time around, especially if you are new to grain free baking. Paleo cookies are a balancing act, and the flours, fats, and sweeteners are holding hands in a very specific way. Once you have a feel for the dough, here is what you can try.

• Coconut sugar: brown sugar works in the same amount if you are not strictly paleo.
• Tahini: cashew butter is the closest stand in. It keeps the creamy texture and swaps the sesame flavor for a milder nutty one.
• Coconut oil: melted butter, vegan butter, or melted ghee all work. Any of these will take the cookies out of dairy free territory, so choose based on who is eating them.
• Coconut flour: oat flour might work here, but I have not tested it, so treat that idea as an experiment rather than a guarantee.

One swap I do not recommend is trading out the almond flour. It is the backbone of the texture in this recipe, and pulling it out changes the whole structure of the dough. Same story with the egg. If you want an egg free version, use the vegan option below instead of improvising.

If you do try a swap, expect small differences. Cashew butter dough tends to be a touch softer, and butter based dough will spread a little more in the oven. Both are still delicious, just not identical to the original.

Can I make them vegan?

Yes, and it is a simple fix. Replace the egg with one flax egg: mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water and let it sit for 5 minutes until it thickens into a gel.

Then double check your chocolate is dairy free, since most dark chocolate bars are but not all of them. Everything else in the recipe stays exactly the same.

The vegan version comes out a little softer in the middle, which in my house is not a complaint.

Don’t forget these cookie baking tips

Three things will make or break this batch.

• Do not swap the almond flour. Use fine blanched almond flour and nothing else. Other flours absorb liquid differently and the dough will not behave.
• Pack the almond flour. Scoop it into the measuring cup and press it down the way you would with brown sugar, then level it off. Loose almond flour gives you a crumbly, dry dough.
• Use a room temperature egg. Cold egg meets melted coconut oil and you get coagulated bits and a lumpy dough. If your egg is straight from the fridge, set it in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes, or run warm water over it for about a minute.

Also measure the coconut flour carefully. It is thirsty stuff, and a heavy hand turns chewy cookies into dry ones.

One more thing worth saying: the cookies will look underdone when you pull them out. That is correct. The edges should be just barely golden and the centers should still look soft. They set up as they cool on the sheet, and that is where the chewy middle comes from.

Storing & freezing tips

Keep baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 to 2 days. After that, move them to the fridge so they stay fresh, or freeze them for longer storage. Both the cookie dough and the baked cookies freeze well, which means you can scoop the dough, freeze the balls, and bake a couple whenever a craving hits.

To rewarm, a few seconds in the microwave brings those chocolate puddles right back. A quick pass in a warm oven works too if you want the edges crisp again.

More paleo friendly desserts

If these cookies made you a tahini convert, there is a whole lineup waiting for you. The grain free tahini brownies are the fudgy, gooey sibling of this cookie.

Almond flour chocolate chip cookies are the classic version for anyone who wants the familiar taste without the grains. Paleo lemon poppy seed cookies bring a bright, zesty twist.

Fudgy almond butter blondies are pure comfort, and the salted tahini caramel millionaire bars are the showstopper for a party table. There is also a full roundup of paleo dessert recipes if you want to browse everything in one place.

This recipe comes from Monique Volz of Ambitious Kitchen, with photography by Eat Love Eats. The post was originally published on January 15, 2019, and republished on March 1, 2022, and April 16, 2025. It has been a reader favorite for years, and one bite explains why.

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Damn Good Paleo Chocolate Chunk Tahini Cookies Say hello to the cookie that turned my kitchen into a tahini testing lab for a solid month. These paleo chocolate chunk tahini cookies are gluten free, dairy free, and grain free, and the whole batch comes together in one bowl.

• Total Time: 20 min
• Yield: 10–12 cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Wet Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 cup (77g) coconut sugar
1/4 cup (58g) tahini
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients
3/4 cup (84g) fine packed almond flour
1/4 cup (28g) coconut flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (3 ounce) dark chocolate bar (at least 72%), coarsely chopped
Fancy Maldon Salt, for sprinkling on top

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Instructions

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2-In a large bowl, mix together the: In a large bowl, mix together the following: egg, coconut sugar, tahini, melted and cooled coconut oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
3-Next add the dry ingredients: Next add the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until a cookie dough consistency forms, then fold in the chocolate chunks.
4-Grab about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough: Grab about 1 heaping tablespoon of dough with your hands and roll into a ball. Place ball on cookie sheet and flatten the top of dough a bit with the palm of your hand.
5-Bake for 9-11 minutes until edges are: Bake for 9-11 minutes until edges are just slightly golden. We want to slightly underbake these so they stay gooey. Once done baking, immediately sprinkle with Maldon salt. Cool on cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan. Makes 10-12 cookies.

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• Prep Time: 10 min
• Cook Time: 10 min
• Method: bake

Nutrition

• Calories: 202cal
• Sugar: 10.5g
• Fat: 14.7g
• Saturated Fat: 5.2g
• Carbohydrates: 16.7g
• Fiber: 3.5g
• Protein: 4.4g