These protein chocolate chip cookies are perfectly chewy with a crisp exterior and taste just as delicious as regular chocolate chip cookies. They use a mix of almond and coconut flour and are grain-free, dairy-free and can also be made vegan, keto and paleo.
I think these cookies are even more delicious than my Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies, from which these protein cookies are adapted.
When I first baked them, it smelled like my memory of what a Popeye’s smells like (that memory is now about 20 years old, so not very reliable). 😄 One time, I thought it smelled like a donut shop I recall going into as a kid.
I have no idea why. They somehow smell a bit deep-fried when baking. At least they did when making the non-keto versions and using one of the 3 protein powders I experimented with.
Please don’t let that description worry you. These cookies are perfect. And they’re certainly not deep-fried. 😉
While you can’t taste the protein powder at all in my Protein Brownies or Protein Pudding, you get a hint of it in these cookies. But if you shared these cookies with someone who didn’t know they were protein cookies, they’d probably have no idea.
But other than that one brownie and pudding recipe, these are the least-protein-tasting protein treats I’ve ever had.
I’ve had a lot, and they’re usually pretty gross. So if you’re doubtful of these cookies, I get it. But with these cookies, and my other protein recipes, you really don’t need to hesitate!
As long as you use one of the protein powders I used and you follow the recipe, you should have fantastic results.
Here are a few of my other favorite protein desserts and snacks:
Ingredients
Note that almond meal was used here and not almond flour, which is what I call for in the recipe. Bob’s Red Mill changed the name of their almond meal to Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour. It was previously called Natural Almond Meal.
Their almond flour is called Super-Fine Almond Flour. You can probably see how my photographer got tripped up!
The cookies came out great with almond meal (that’s what I’m calling it because that’s what it is), so you can certainly use it if you prefer.
Also note that the ingredients shown aren’t to scale.
How to make them
This is a standard cookie recipe.
Just mix together the dry ingredients and set the bowl aside. Then beat together the wet ingredients, and add the dry mixture to the wet.
Stir until combined, and then add in the chocolate chips.
Depending on your protein powder, you may need to chill the dough first. If you don’t need to, then you can go ahead and bake them now.
Protein powder
I’ve tested these cookies with 3 brands of protein powder. All of them are gluten-free, two are vegan and one paleo/keto. I tested the cookies using chia eggs for the vegan version and regular eggs for the non-vegan version with each of the three protein powders. None of them left a weird aftertaste.
I couldn’t have been happier with the results!
Dr. Murray
If you’re not paleo, then you can use Dr. Murray’s 3-Seed Vanilla Protein Powder. This one is vegan.
The ingredients are:
Vegan protein blend (pumpkin protein, flax protein, sunflower protein), natural flavors, MCT powder (MCT oil, soluble tapioca fiber), gum blend (organic guar gum, organic acacia gum, xanthan gum), monk fruit extract, lactobacillus paracasei.
This is the protein powder I always use. I love the taste in sweets, and I use it every day in my Matcha Protein Shake.
This one does have a stronger taste than the other two powders below. My husband describes it as artificial tasting but tasty.
There’s nothing artificial in there, though!
It’s the one used in these photos. It’s the least absorbent of the 3 protein powders, meaning they spread a little bit more and require chilling before baking.
It’s also the cheapest. Right now, on iHerb, it’s $14.32/lb. Organic Protein Powder Plant-Based Vanilla Bean is $15.52 if you buy the 2-pound container and Orgain Keto Collagen Protein Powder Vanilla Bean is $30.62/lb.
If you use this one, your cookies will look like the photos. If you use one of the other options, your cookies will be a little lighter in color – more like regular chocolate chip cookies.
You can see in step 1 of the step-by-step photos above that it’s a weird color and not a light off-white like most vanilla protein powders. It’s the ingredient in the bottom half of the bowl.
Keto Orgain
I also tried these cookies with Orgain Keto Collagen Protein Powder Vanilla Bean.
The ingredients are:
Collagen peptides, coconut medium chain triglycerides, natural flavors, acacia, sea salt, organic stevia
It doesn’t say paleo on the package description, but the product page says paleo-friendly. It’s not vegan, though.
Natural flavors sound questionable, I know, but the FDA defines natural flavors as “a substance extracted, distilled, or similarly derived from natural sources like plants (fruits, herbs, veggies, barks, roots, etc.) or animals (meat, dairy products, eggs, etc.) via a method of heating, with its primary function in food being flavoring not nutritional.”
So it sounds like they’re indeed natural flavors and not some nasty concoction.
Vegan Orgain
The third option is Orgain Organic Vanilla Bean Plant-Based Protein Powder.
The ingredients are:
Orgain organic protein blend™ (organic pea protein, organic brown rice protein, organic chia seed), Orgain organic creamer base™ (organic acacia, organic high oleic sunflower oil, organic rice dextrins, organic sunflower lecithin, organic rosemary extract), organic erythritol, organic natural flavors, organic acacia, sea salt, organic reb A (stevia extract), organic guar gum, xanthan gum, natural flavor
I’m not supposed to have some of those ingredients, so I got this one just to test a second vegan option in my protein recipes. It’s worked great so far.
Can I use chocolate protein powder?
I don’t recommend it. If you use chocolate protein powder, the cookies won’t be very chocolaty but rather have just a hint of chocolate. If you add cocoa powder to make them more chocolaty, then the proportions would be off.
Can I use unsweetened protein powder?
If you don’t want the cookies to be a normal sweetness, then you can use unsweetened protein powder. If you like liquid stevia or powdered stevia and just have to add a drop or a pinch of that, you can use that.
However, adding in enough maple syrup or another liquid sweetener to sweeten the cookies would totally throw everything off. So don’t try that.
What nut butter to use
Different nut and seed butters have different consistencies, making them not totally interchangeable in baking, despite what some people claim.
But these cookies – at least if using one of the 3 protein powders I used – are so thick that you should be able to use whatever nut or seed butter you’d like. As long as it’s the natural kind with just nuts/seeds and salt.
Can I reduce or omit the coconut sugar?
If you reduce it, the cookies will be cakier and perhaps not stick together. Sugar is also a binder. I don’t recommend reducing it.
And no, you absolutely can’t just omit it. There’s no way that’d work.
Can I use a different brand?
If your protein powder doesn’t taste good when mixed in with a banana or other ingredients when you make a smoothie, then neither will these cookies.
Something else to keep in mind is that every brand absorbs liquid a bit differently, so you may need a little bit more or less protein powder to get the right texture.
With Dr. Murray, the dough was quite wet and needed to be chilled before forming into balls and baking. With the other 2 brands, I could bake them right away, and they were still thicker than the ones with Dr. Murray.
So your cookies may not come out looking perfect.
I’m only able to say that the cookies work for sure with these 3 products because that’s all I’ve experimented with. If you try a different brand, please let us know the results, and I’ll add your feedback to the post! Thanks. 🙂
Can I omit the protein powder?
No. If you want to do that, please just make the original recipe.
Can I use different flours? Or just use all of one type?
Nope. You have to use the amount of almond flour and coconut flour called for in the recipe.
You could probably use a different type of nut flour/meal for the almond butter, but there’s no sub for the coconut flour.
Can I use homemade almond flour?
I have a lot of experience using non-finely ground almond flour (which is what’s available in Germany) because that’s what I test my recipes with until I think the recipe is perfect.
Then I switch over to finely-ground almond flour (which I order from the US) and then test all the variations (keto + vegan, paleo + non-vegan, etc.) again.
Homemade almond flour isn’t finely ground. If you use homemade almond flour, these cookies will likely spread quite a bit and be greasy. I think the edges of the cookies would also be quite lacy.
You can certainly experiment, but don’t expect your cookies to come out like they should.
I had my photographer get Bob’s Red Mill for both types of flour.
Vegan option
All you have to do is use a chia egg, vegan protein powder and vegan chocolate chips.
Paleo option
As long as you use paleo protein powder and paleo chocolate chips, these cookies are paleo.
Keto option
I used 88 grams of a Gentle Sweet copycat in place of the sugar and the Orgain keto protein powder I mentioned above.
The cookies came out amazing! There was zero aftertaste in the cookies.
I was pretty amazed because… keto sweetener + protein powder?! I thought they’d be terrible.
But I should say that I used my usual chocolate in the cookie dough. My gut doesn’t like keto sweeteners, so I avoid them when possible.
If you use keto chocolate, then there will probably be an aftertaste, but it’ll be from the chocolate.
They didn’t caramelize and crisp up at all due to the sweetener, so they were pretty soft. But once they had cooled completely, there were at least firm enough to package up.
To make a big batch of the homemade Gentle Sweet copycat I used
- 1 pound (453 grams) xylitol = 2 1/4 cups
- 12 ounces (340 grams) erythritol = 1 1/2 cups + 3 tablespoons
- 2 teaspoons pure stevia powder
This copycat isn’t a 1:1 sub for granulated sugar or coconut sugar. When I use this blend, I use about 2/3 (sometimes a little less) of the amount of granulated sugar called for.
So that’s what I did here. I just multiplied the grams of coconut sugar by .66. You could even use a tiny bit less if you’d like.
They weren’t overly sweet, but I think you could get away with maybe 75 grams.
The following info is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. I’m not a nutritionist nor a dietician. This information comes from online calculators. Although I do everything to attempt to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates. Be aware that varying factors such as product types or brands used can change nutritional information in any recipe.
This uses Gentle Sweet, 1 cup of Choc Zero Dark Chocolate Chips, a regular egg and half-sized cookies. 75-gram dough balls, as called for in the recipe, yield huge cookies. If you’re keto, I don’t believe you’re supposed to (in general) be having huge cookies.
I checked the nutritional labels of some other keto cookie recipes, and this seems to be about the standard size. The keto protein powder I used has a little less protein than the other 2 types I tested. Those cookies both have around 9.2 grams of protein per full-sized cookie.
I hope you’ll enjoy these protein chocolate chip cookies! If you try them out, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
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- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 8 large cookies
Please read the recipe notes before beginning.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (75 grams) finely blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup (32 grams) coconut flour
- 1/3 cup (31-42 grams) vanilla protein powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (84 grams) refined coconut oil, softened but NOT melty
- 2/3 cup (133 grams) very tightly packed coconut sugar or 88 grams Gentle Sweet for keto
- 6 tablespoons (98 grams) natural almond butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, cold or 1 chia egg for vegan
- 1 1/4 cups (213 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (vegan or keto, if needed)
Directions
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, coconut flour, protein powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer or using a stand mixer, beat together the coconut oil, coconut sugar, almond butter and vanilla at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Beat in the egg or chia egg on low and mix until well incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture until well combined.
- Stir in 1 cup (170 grams) chocolate chips.
- If your dough is too soft to form balls easily (I only experienced this with Dr. Murray), place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 1 hour or until the dough is firm. If you can easily roll balls, you can go ahead and bake now.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into 8 (75-gram) balls and place 8-9 chocolate chips on top of each one if you want them to look like the photos. Place 3″ apart on the prepared baking sheet. Press the cookies down with the palm of your hand.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes or until the surface of the center of the cookies no longer appears wet. They’ll be very soft but will continue to cook as they sit on the cookie sheet.
- Let cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, refrigerate for 1 week or freeze up to 3 months. The dough can also be frozen.
Notes
- I used Bob’s Red Mill almond flour and coconut flour. If you use a different brand that’s less finely ground, your cookies may spread more and be greasier. For those that live outside of the US, almond flour = ground blanched almonds and may not be whatever translates into “almond flour” in your language.
- If using Dr. Murray, add an extra teaspoon of coconut flour to the dough.
- The amount of protein powder in grams varies depending on your protein powder brand. I find it’s best to go by volume for protein powder recipes. 1/3 cup of Orgain Keto Collagen Protein Powder Vanilla Bean = 31 grams, Dr. Murray’s Vanilla = 42 grams, and Orgain Organic Vanilla Bean Plant-Based Protein Powder = 38 grams.
- I used refined coconut oil for no coconut taste
- It’s really best to weigh coconut sugar. Some brands are denser than others.
- The almond butter shouldn’t have any added fat or sugar. Just almonds and possibly salt. You can use other types of nut/seed butter, but you cookies may come out flatter or thicker.
- To make a chia egg, use 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds + 3 tablespoons water. Mix together in a small bowl until gloopy like an egg.
