Three-Bite Almond Flour Cookies - Gluten-Free Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep gluten-free cookies from falling apart? ›

Chilling helps the flours and xanthan gum absorb liquid, which makes the dough sturdier and easier to handle. Without a proper rest, your cookies are likely to crumble. Think of mix-ins as the Spanx of the cookie world. They are a sly way to ensure that your cookies look like cookies, not misshapen gluten-free blobs.

Typically, almond flour cookies fall apart because of a measuring error; weigh your flour to be certain you are using the correct amount. Additionally, it's important to let the cookies cool completely and set before removing them from the baking sheet.

This nutritious flour adds delicious richness and moisture to cakes, cookies, and beyond, and can be easily added to classic recipes, as covered in this previous blog post on how to swap almond flour for some of the wheat flour in recipes.

Don't skip the binding ingredients.

Almond flour recipes rely on eggs and other binding agents such as flax meal, psyllium powder, pumpkin puree, and mashed banana to create a cohesive batter/dough and give the finished results more structure.

Almond flour is a little more moist than wheat flour, and doesn't have quite the same binding qualities. You'll do best to substitute 1:1 to begin with, as many recipes respond well to this direct replacement. But be prepared to add more almond flour as you go to compensate for the wetter batter.

Add extra liquid: Gluten-free flours tend to absorb more liquid than regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid to your recipes to compensate. This can help to keep your baked goods moist and prevent them from becoming dry and crumbly.

Gluten free flours often contain lots of water grabbing gums and starches so we have to ensure that there is enough water present to fully hydrate the gums and gelatinize the starches. When starches do not gelatinize, the baked good can have a gritty texture, and this commonly happens with flours such as cornflour.

Binding agents (such as xanthan gum, guar gum, or flax) help give gluten-free baked goods the elasticity needed to create structure — so if your favorite gluten-free flour mix doesn't contain one, you'll probably want to add one.

Almond flour makes up the base of these cookies and yields a really chewy consistency with crisp edges. The high fat content of almond flour means these cookies will stay super moist and not dry out! Cornstarch. A little cornstarch helps absorb excess moisture to ensure the cookies don't spread too much while baking.

Almond flour can be substituted for regular flour at a 1:1 ratio. It is important to note that almond flour may require more egg to bind the flour.

How to make gluten-free cookies rise? ›

2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of gluten-free flour is necessary to ensure proper leavening. Baking soda and buttermilk can be used to leaven instead of baking powder, but 1-1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added for each 1/2 teaspoon baking soda used.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

Gluten-free baked goods often benefit from extra liquid to hydrate the flour blends, eliminate grittiness, and achieve a less dense or dry texture. However, it's very important to drive off this extra moisture during baking, or you'll wind up with a gummy texture. The best way to do this? Longer baking times.

Almond flour can be substituted for regular flour at a 1:1 ratio.

Additionally, almond flour is naturally gluten-free which usually acts as a binder in other flours. Try adding extra eggs (or simply egg whites) to combat this. Many recipes call for more eggs if you are using a 1:1 flour ratio.

The Basic Baking Guidelines

Our chef prefers to add a little xanthan gum or cornstarch to the almond flour to help with the texture, though it is not entirely necessary to do so. Almond flour is pretty forgiving in that regard. Some use arrowroot powder to achieve a similar effect in their bread recipes.

Almond flour is denser than regular flour, and it doesn't contain gluten. As a result, it doesn't always provide the same rising power as regular flour. If you find that your dough isn't rising as much as you'd like, try adding an extra teaspoon or two of baking powder.