These Vegan Gluten-free Grain-free Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies are wonderfully chewy with a rich chocolate flavor that is beautifully enhanced by rich molasses. These are strong in flavor and not for the faint of heart. Only serious chocolate lovers here!
VEGAN DARK CHOCOLATE MOLASSES COOKIES
If you are a fan of dark, rich chocolate, then you are going to love these vegan chocolate molasses cookies!
These vegan cookies are amazing, easy and simple to make. They are only for serious chocolate lovers, as the flavor is strong, due to the blackstrap molasses enhancing the cocoa. These cookies will suit a lot of people, as they are vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, oil-free and a nut-free option.
GLUTEN-FREE BAKING
Gluten-free baking is tricky. There are multiple flours out there to choose from, yet they all yield different textures and results. They all require different amounts and different liquid to flour ratios, and have very different end results. A lot of recipes use eggs in gluten-free baking to make up for the lack of structure and “glue” needed for lightness and to hold the product together.
These cookies took a couple of trials, but the end result even shocked me. These are slightly crispy on the outside, chewy and soft on the inside, and absolutely delicious!
Combining chocolate and dark molasses gives a really rich dark chocolate flavor, almost bitter. So, these cookies are for serious dark chocolate lovers, not the milk chocolate lover.
HOW TO MAKE VEGAN CHOCOLATE MOLASSES COOKIES
Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined pan, 2 inches apart.
Flatten each cookie into a round shape 1/4 inch thick. Bake 9-11 minutes, until spread and slightly cracked on top.
MORE VEGAN COOKIE RECIPES
- Crispy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pecan Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cinnamon Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 5 Ingredient Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Vegan Snickerdoodles
- Cashew Butter Cookies
Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies (Vegan and Gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup (112g) blanched almond flour (for a nut-free option, see NOTES below)
- 1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch/flour
- 1/4 cup (24g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 tablespoon (6g) ground flaxseed
- 1/2 cup (160g) pure maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons (48g)) creamy peanut butter or cashew butter (use sunbutter for nut-free)
- 1 tablespoon (20g) molasses
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120g) dairy-free dark chocolate chips (use semi-sweet if you don't like a dark/bitter flavor)
NOTE
- Just like the title states, these are a dark chocolate cookie, almost bitter. If you do not like too dark of a flavor, make sure to use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and not the dark.
Instructions
- Pre-heat an oven to 375°F and line a dark metal sheet pan with parchment paper. I have found that dark metal pans bake cookies much crispier on their bottoms, versus aluminum pans, where the bottoms don't seem to cook as well.
- In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flaxseed well and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour (or sunflower), tapioca, baking powder, cocoa and salt together and whisk well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Next, stir in the molasses, peanut butter and vanilla into the reserved flaxseed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and fairly thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more almond flour.
- Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop and drop mounds onto the prepared sheet pan spaced 1-2 inches apart. Use fingers dipped in water to press down each cooking in a round patting motion, smoothing the edges into a round shape. The cookies should be about 2 inches wide, about 1/4 inch tall. This will ensure even baking.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until spread out and slightly cracked on top. Be careful about over-baking or they will burn and dry out.
- Cool 5 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack. They will be really soft upon removal but will crisp up beautifully over the next 15 minutes. So, be patient to let them cool and finish cooking fully before eating.
Especially good when used for making ice cream sandwiches!
Great idea!!
These Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies are simply awesome! Easy to make, chewy, tasty, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of hot herbal tea as I wind down from a busy day. My husband loves them as much as I do. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe, Brandi!
Yay, thank you so much Maryanne!
These cookies are amazing!!!
So easy. So yummy!!!
Yay!! Thanks Angie!
Hey Brandi 🙂 I just tried these Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies (Vegan and Gluten Free), and the bottoms burned! But other than that they were yummy – thank you! It was my 1st time using dark metal baking sheets even though I used the If You Care parchment paper as well. Also, this awful chemical smell came from the new baking sheets as they heated up in the oven- yuck! Can you tell me what brand of dark cookie/baking sheet you use? Or provide an Amazon link? The following day I made my sweet potato fries (oil free, of course) on the same pans lined with parchment and they burned too :(. Thanks Brandi! 😀
Mmmm these were so good. Crispy on the edges and soft on the inside. I used potato starch instead of tapioca because it was just what I had and these turned out great. I love being able to find a recipe that uses ingredients I already have at the house. Def making these again!
So happy you loved these Paige, yay!!
Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much for this recipe!! I wanted to make treats for my colleagues at work but their combined diets/allergies/intolerances mean they need to be vegan/gluten/rice free. Using the sunflower seeds instead of almond meal was brilliant! Everyone loved them, including the allergy/intolerance free omnivores.
My only amendment was to up the cocoa a little on the second batch (because I’m a chocoholic).
Thanks again, it was a pleasure to give them pleasure and so quick and easy :)))
Yay, so glad these were such a hit with your coworkers and you are so nice to bake for them!! Thank you for the lovely review Lynette!
I love chocolate and molasses together and really want to try these cookies. I can’t do flax (or chia) though. Does it function as egg replacer in this recipe? I can eat eggs and gelatin, could I swap something like this or something else in for the flax? I saw the one review that said they used an egg and made them into brownies but I was curious what to try if I still wanted them to be cookies.
Yes the flax helps to bind the cookies. It is just extra flour here though, not a liquid, as what an egg would be, so I would not suggest replacing it with an egg, because then you will end up with a too wet of batter. You could try a cornstarch or tapioca starch instead, but I haven’t tested this personally with using the extra starch, (it would be 5 tablespoons total of starch) so I don’t know how it will affect the cookie. I’m sure it would be fine, I just can’t say for sure.
I just made these. I added a large dose of holiday-esque spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) and they go so well with the molasses and cocoa. I had to add a splash of plant milk to get everything to mix in. Oh, I also added pecans. They are SO good!
Wonderful Danielle! Great idea to add some holiday spices! So glad you loved these, thank you for the awesome review and rating!
These are wonderful! A guilt free cookie that actually tastes good.
Awesome! I’m so glad you loved them!
What is the # of cookies this is to make? At the top of the recipe it says 1
thanks
MJ
Hi Mary Jean! Sorry about that…I had switched recipe plugins and it didn’t transfer over the yields on a lot of my recipes. I believe this recipe makes 10-12 cookies.
i just made up a batch of these and they are SO GOOD!! Definitely going to double it next time and add it to my permanent collection 🙂
So awesome to hear that Jenna, thank you!!
I saw these on your FB page today and knew I had to try them asap! My 4 year old “helped” me make them. I could hardly wait for them to cool so I could try one. Wow! They are incredible! These sre going to be a real treat for our gluten avoiding family. Thank you!
That is so awesome to hear Melinda! So happy they are a hit! So cute too, my daughter is 4 and she always helps me in the kitchen, too, haha! Thank you for the feedback, love hearing it 🙂
Thank you so much for this! I am allergic to nuts, G-Free and now I have a dairy allergy. I am so excited to have a treat! I will be baking these up today.
Oh wow, these are perfect for you then! Yay! Let me know how they turn out! 🙂
It’s been ages since I saved this recipe and only today I organized myself to bake the cookies. They are so sooooooo delicious!!! The crust is amazing and they still keep an irresistible soft core. I love molasses, and they turned out extra-crunchy because I used cacao nibs for the chocolate chips. Thanks Brandi!!! 🙂
So so happy to hear how much you loved these Barbara! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback!
These cookies are the best!!
Thank you so much Kathy! I’m so happy you loved them and I love your pic of them on Instagram!
I just spent quite a bit of time looking through all your cookie recipes, and now i have another huge list i need to try!! These are at the top of the list! I’ve recently been loving using molasses in cookies…so good can’t believe I just started using it!
Haha, yes these are some of the best, super chewy and super chocolatey! I LOVE molasses and have used it in so many recipes!