These may seriously be the best gluten free chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had! These Tigernut Flour Cookies have delicious crispy edges with perfect chewy centers. Everything you need from a chocolate chip cookie!
I’ve mentioned it on many occasions before that we don’t actually follow any specific diet restrictions. We try to eat a diet that includes lots of vegetables and is clean about 80% of the time – otherwise we embrace gluten free, vegan, or omnivore recipes alike.
What we really love is variety! And you all know my love for experimenting with gluten free baking from my coconut flour recipes.
What is Tigernut Flour
The tiger nut, also called chufa, is not a nut at all. And they have nothing to do with actual tigers either.
Tiger nuts are actually a tuber that is grown underground just like potatoes.
After being sun-dried tiger nuts can be enjoyed as a delicious snack all by themselves. And they also get milled into flour for baking or to be added to smoothies.
They have been around for a really, really long time (over 4 thousand years). Tiger nuts are also the main ingredient of Spanish-style horchata.
Tiger nuts can be found all over Southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and also in India. And now they are also making their way into North American markets.
Tigernut Flour Benefits
There are many reasons you should give tigernut flour a try. To give you a better overview of all the benefits, let me just list them in simple point format:
- Tigernut flour is an all natural gluten-free and nut-free flour alternative
- Allergy friendly: no nuts, no gluten, no lactose
- It is very high in prebiotic fiber (a resistant starch that feeds the friendly gut bacteria and aids digestion)
- Paleo-friendly and lower in carbohydrates
- Nutritional minerals: iron, zinc, copper, magnesium
- Natural sweet, coconutty flavor
- Can be replaced 1 for 1 for flour in most baking recipes
How to Make Tigernut Flour Cookies
Ingredients
Despite having just said that it can be replaced in equal parts with flour, I still made a few changes from my go-to Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies and Coconut Oil Cookies.
Because of the tigernut flour’s natural sweetness, I reduced the usual amount of sugar. And in the next test batch I had to reduce it even more. Otherwise the cookies were just too overwhelmingly sweet.
For the same reason I also used quite a bit less chocolate chips than I usually would. Even when using dark chocolate chips or chunks they add to the overall sweetness of the already sweet tigernut flour cookies.
This also makes the cookies perfect for dunking into a glass of really really cold (dairy-free) milk.
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Method
In terms of method, this is a really easy healthy cookie recipe. You can stir it all together in one bowl with just a wooden spoon.
First combine all of the wet ingredients (sugar, melted butter or coconut oil, egg*, and vanilla extract). And then add the dry ingredients (there are just the tigernut flour, sea salt, baking soda, and chocolate chips).
I am just realizing that this is a super simple 8 ingredient cookie recipe (4 dry, 4 wet). And aside from the tigernut flour you probably have all of them already in your pantry and fridge.
To get your hands on tigernut flour, unless you live near a really well stocked health food store, your best bet is probably ordering it online. >> Tigernut Flour on Amazon
*A note about the egg. I have not tried replacing it with a vegan alternative like flax egg in this recipe. But in my experience with other cookie recipes, if it is just one or two eggs you are trying to replace, usually the flax or chia egg alternative is a viable substitute.
So again, I haven’t tested it, but with the vegan egg option and using coconut oil (instead of butter) you can totally make this into a vegan cookie recipe, too.
More Tigernut Flour Recipes
Once you have tiger nuts or tigernut flour in the house you are probably looking for other ways to use them.
Since I have only this one recipe so far, I looked around some other trusted food blogger’s websites and found these other delicious tigernut flour recipes for you:
Tigernut Flour Cookies
These may seriously be the best gluten free chocolate chip cookies I've ever had! These Tigernut Flour Cookies have delicious crispy edges with perfect chewy centers. Everything you need from a chocolate chip cookie!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup cane sugar or coconut sugar, muscovado, etc.
- 1/4 cup butter melted (or coconut oil)
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cups tigernut flour (160g) *
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips and/or chunks
Instructions
In a medium bowl whisk together sugar, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Either by hand or with an electric hand mixer.
Add tigernut flour, sea salt, baking soda and stir in until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips/chunks and chill the dough in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Once chilled, scoop 12 cookie dough balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet (about 6 fit on a regular baking sheet). Top with a few more chocolate chips/chunks while slightly flattening the cookie dough balls.
Bake the chocolate cookies for 12-15 minutes until the edges are just set. Don't overbake them. Leave the cookies one the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature 2-4 days.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
*Measuring TIP: Tigernut flour (and any flour) should be loosely spooned into a measuring cup. If you dip the measuring cup into the flour, you are compacting it and end up with much more flour. Which would result in dry cookies that don’t spread.
Esperanza
These cookies are so delicious!!! I tripled your recipe and they came out wonderful. Thank you so much! They are perfectly sweet and very delightful!!
Regina | Leelalicious
Wonderful! So great to hear you enjoyed the cookies
Sonia Lunas
Actually, I have all those ingredients – including the tigernut flour. I ran across it the other day and thought, I wonder what I can do with that and now I know!
Emma Padmore
I used 1/8 cup coconut sugar and coconut oil. They’re good but too sweet. I’ll make without sugar next time. The tiger nut flour and choc chips will make them sweet enough.
Regina | Leelalicious
That is so interesting. I wonder if the sweetness of tigernut flour varies from batch to batch? Or maybe my dark chocolate chips balance it out more. Anyway, glad to hear you are going to try again. Would like to hear if omitting sugar altogether works out better for you