This vegan chocolate shortbread is a delicious, easy-to-make dessert perfect for any occasion. It is made with only 4 ingredients and is ready in just 20 minutes!
This shortbread is also very versatile. You can use it to make cookies, bars, or even a pie crust. It is a great base for other desserts, such as a vegan chocolate cake or a vegan chocolate pudding.
If you are looking for a delicious and easy-to-make vegan dessert, then you should definitely try this vegan chocolate shortbread!
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Vegan Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Almond Flour - fine, blanched, packed
- 3 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 3 tablespoons Coconut Oil - melted
- 3 tablespoons Maple Syrup
Optional decoration
- 1 cup Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Chips
- 1 teaspoon Coconut Oil
- ¼ cup Vegan Sprinkles
- 1 pinch Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together almond flour and unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Make a well in the center and pour in melted coconut oil and maple syrup.
- Combine with a spatula until it forms a consistent chocolate cookie batter. The batter should hold together well, form a cookie dough ball, and be shiny and slightly oily.
- Place the cookie dough ball into the mixing bowl and refrigerate 20 minutes.
- Remove from the fridge and place the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper.
- Press the top layer of parchment paper with your palm to stick to the dough and flatten the dough like a thick disc.
- Start rolling dough until it reaches your favorite shortbread thickness. I recommend a 5 mm (0.2 inches) thickness for the best texture. The thinner you get, the crispier they will be.
- Peel off the top parchment paper sheet, cut out the dough with a cookie cutter, then slide a flat tool under each cookie to lift them off the paper and transfer them to the prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 °F (180 °C) for 10 minutes. The cookies should be soft when out of the oven. Cool 4 minutes on the cookie sheet then gently transfer each cookie to a cooling rack. Use the same technique as before, sliding a flat tool (spatula/knife) under each cookie to gently transfer from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
- Cool for 10 more minutes or until it reaches room temperature before decorating.
Melted chocolate
- In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips with coconut oil, stirring constantly.
- Use a teaspoon to drizzle chocolate on top of each cookie.
- Add a pinch of sea salt or rainbow sprinkles on top if desired.
- Freeze the decorated cookies 3 minutes to quickly set the chocolate shell.
Storage
- Store the cookies for up to 1 week at room temperature in a cookie jar. If it is hot where you live, store them in the fridge to prevent the chocolate decoration from melting.
- You can freeze the cookies in silicone bags and defrost them the day before on a plate.
Nutrition
What’s Vegan Chocolate Shortbread?
A vegan chocolate shortbread is a type of shortbread like my classic Vegan Shortbread Cookies that is made without dairy products.
While a typical shortbread is made with vegan butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and flour, this recipe uses healthier alternatives.
Vegan chocolate shortbread is a delicious and easy-to-make dessert that can be enjoyed by people of all dietary restrictions. You might also want to try my Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies or Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies.
Here, I share with you how to make delicious gluten-free, vegan chocolate shortbread, meaning they are egg-free and dairy-free.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make delicious chocolate cut-out cookies are 4 wholesome ingredients:
- Almond Flour – use fine unblanched almond flour for best results. Almond meal is coarser and gives a gritty texture to cookies.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – This doesn’t bring any sugar, unlike most chocolate chips.
- Maple Syrup or brown rice syrup to decrease fructose and glycemic index. Other liquid sweeteners that can be used are agave syrup or coconut nectar.
- Melted Coconut Oil – if you don’t like the coconut flavor of coconut oil, use refined coconut oil. It has no coconut taste.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Shortbread
Who doesn’t love a chocolate shortbread cookie? Shortbread cookies are crumbly cookies usually made of butter and eggs. This is an easy vegan chocolate shortbread recipe. There is no special tool needed to make this recipe. It’s a simple 1-bowl cookie recipe. However, there are a few tricks to make these cookies beautiful every time!
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together almond flour and unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the melted coconut oil and maple syrup.
- Combine the ingredients with a spatula until a consistent chocolate cookie batter forms. The batter should hold together well, shape into a cookie dough ball, and have a shiny, slightly oily appearance.
- Place the cookie dough ball back into the mixing bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and place it between two pieces of parchment paper.
- Press the top parchment paper layer with your palm to adhere to the dough and flatten it into a thick disc.
- Roll out the dough to your preferred shortbread thickness, aiming for approximately 5 mm (0.2 inches) for the best texture. Thinner dough will result in crispier cookies.
- Peel off the top parchment paper sheet, cut out the dough with a cookie cutter, and use a flat tool to lift each cookie off the paper, transferring them to the prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake the cookies at 350 °F (180 °C) for 10 minutes. The cookies should be soft when taken out of the oven. Allow them to cool for 4 minutes on the cookie sheet before gently transferring each cookie to a cooling rack, using the same flat tool technique.
- Cool for an additional 10 minutes or until the cookies reach room temperature before decorating.
- In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips with coconut oil, stirring constantly. Use a teaspoon to drizzle chocolate on top of each cookie. Optionally, add a pinch of sea salt or rainbow sprinkles on top.
- Freeze the decorated cookies for 3 minutes to quickly set the chocolate shell.
Carine’s Baking Tips
Here are some additional tips for making a great vegan chocolate shortbread every time:
- Use high-quality chocolate. The quality of the chocolate you use will make a big difference in the taste of your shortbread.
- Make sure the oil is not hot. This will help it to cream together with the maple syrup more easily.
- Don’t overmix the dough. Overmixing will make the shortbread tough and not pleasant to eat.
- Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes – this will firm up the dough, making it easier to roll.
- Roll between pieces of parchment paper – this is a gluten-free shortbread cookie recipe. Therefore the cookie dough is much stickier than regular shortbread recipes made of wheat flour. That’s why you need to roll out the dough between pieces of parchment paper or 2 silicone mats.
- Grease the borders of the cookie cutter – this prevents the dough from sticking to the cookie cutter. This tip is actually great for any cut-out cookie recipe!
- Use a flat tool to transfer cookies to a baking sheet. Slide a flat spatula or a knife under the cut-out cookies to gently transfer them to the baking sheet. This is the best way to avoid breaking them.
Decorating
These gluten-free chocolate cookies are delicious on their own but even better decorated. The best cookie decorations are:
- Melted vegan dark chocolate – combine 1 cup of vegan chocolate chips with 1 teaspoon of coconut oil, melt and spread on top!
- Sprinkles – most sprinkles are vegan and gluten-free.
- Freeze-dried raspberries
- Royal icing – combine 1 cup of icing sugar with 2 – 3 tablespoons of almond milk.
Storage Instructions
You can store your chocolate shortbread cookies for up to one week at room temperature in a sealed cookie jar. If you live in a hot climate, store them in the fridge to prevent the chocolate decoration from melting.
You can freeze the cookies in silicone bags and defrost them the day before on a plate.
More Vegan Shortbread Cookie Recipes
If you love easy vegan shortbread cookie recipes, I recommend you try our 3-ingredient shortbread recipes below:
brilliant recipe. I made these and instead of using sprinkles on top I used dried rose petals. Perfect chocolate heart shaped cookies for Valentines day ❤️
Such a cute idea!
Amazingly DELICIOUS Carine! Thank you so much. I appreciate you more than words could ever express!!
This recipe is simple, adorable, and scrumptious!!! ❤️❤️❤️
I am going to make a new batch for my Bible Study group Saturday morning, and take some to a Connect event tomorrow night! The perfect lovely bite to share so much love!!
That’s the most beautiful thing I have read today, thank you!
delicious!!
Thank you!
Greetings from luxembourg 🙂
Tried it. I prefered to change de sirup to a scoop of dark brownie choclate powder no sugar and i gave an egg to it. Wonderful recipe thank you
I am happy it work well this way, thanks for sharing!
What size cookie cutter did you use?
About 3 inches
What can I use to substitute the coconut oil? I can’t use it because he loved one is allergic to it.
You can use any low flavor oil like mild flavor olive oil.
hello! Thanks for the recipe but what are the quantities? how much flour? how much chocolate? I didn’t see the quantities anywhere 🙁
Have a look in the recipe card! You can get there by clicking the “jump to recipe” button, by using the Table of Content, or in the substitution section, by using the other button to jump to the recipe.
Hi what would be a substitute for coconut oil?
I haven’t found a good substitute yet, you can try other vegetable oils, but if the issue you have is the taste, try a low-flavor refine coconut oil!
What would be a good substitute for the almond flour?
Other great gluten-free flour swaps are sesame flour or sunflower see flour.
This looks like a wonderful recipe, just wondering if it has been tried putting it in a 9×13 pan and patting it thin and baking instead of rolling and cutting out. Thanks,