Flourless Chocolate Cookies

These flourless chocolate cookies are made without butter or flour. Believe me it’s not! Fudgy and rich, you won’t miss the flour or butter in these chocolate flourless cookies!

Believe it or not, I try to restrict the amount of sugar and sweets I eat during the week. I know it’s shocking since this is a dessert and baking blog. But, notice I didn’t say eliminate. No, total sugar elimination is never going to happen around here. 

After dinner is over, my brain immediately goes to “what’s for dessert”. But of course I usually have something sweet in the freezer or on the counter from testing recipes. So it’s never too far out of reach. But sometimes, isn’t what you need isn’t a giant chocolate cake or a whole plate of cupcakes, but just one really good cookie or a piece of chocolate. 

That’s what these cookies are for you. It’s the perfect ending to dinner that will satisfy your chocolate craving without making you feel guilty in the end. 

This cookie believe it or not has no flour, no butter, and will only set you back about a 100 calories. So if you’re like me, you just did some quick math in your head and figured out you can easily have two and feel guilty whatsoever. 

I love math. When it involves cookies that is. 

How To Make These Flourless Chocolate Cookies

So let’s talk about this cookie a little more shall we as opposed to simply drooling over them. You can still drool while you read. I won’t judge. First of all, like I said this cookie is completely flourless. Now flourless is great for all those flour avoiders out there. It is also what makes this cookie extremely fudgy (hence putting fudge in the name). It’s the same as my flourless fudge brownies. Without the flour to strengthen the cookie, it ends up being very fudgy. And that’s a good thing. 

First start by melting your chocolate chips. You can do this in a double boiler or in the microwave. If using the microwave, microwave at 30-second intervals and stir after each time.

Then you want to whip eggs whites in a clean grease free bowl with no trace of egg yolks present so they whip up to full volume. For help on how to separate your eggs, read this post how to separate eggs (6 ways!). Whisk until soft peaks are formed.

You will add 1 cup of sugar to the bowl and continue to whisk. Do this slowly as not to deflate the egg whites. You are essentially making a simple French meringue. The mixture should resemble marshmallow creme. Try not to stick your face in the whole thing. This will take serious restraint. I have faith you can do it.

Then add in the remaining cup of sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt. It will look like a whipped chocolate pudding at this point. 

Pro Tip: Make sure you are using unsweetened cocoa powder. There is a difference between dutch and natural!

Then stir in the melted chocolate and chocolate chips. The dough will be very stiff and sticky at this point. 

Then the dough is ready to roll!

How To Shape These Flourless Fudge Cookies

This dough will become very stiff  and sticky once you add the rest of your ingredients. But that’s what you want for these cookies.

For these cookies I used a 1-inch cookie scoop to get even balls of cookie dough.

Then I like to roll these in my hand to make perfect round balls of cookies.

Pro Tip: I coat my hands in powdered sugar first so the dough doesn’t stick to my hands.

And then I roll them in powdered sugar again so they have that crackly powdered sugar top when they bake. 

Recipe Tips

• Melting your chocolate: As far as technique goes. Couple of important things. This cookie calls for melted chocolate. You can melt in the microwave. If you do, just make sure to melt in 30-second intervals so as not to burn the chocolate. Be sure to stir each time. Your chocolate look like it’s not melted, but give it a stir before nuking it another time. Chocolate chips will tend to keep their shape, so stirring is key!
• Room temperature: Second of all, you are using egg whites in this recipe. Not only does this keep the calories nice and low, it is essential in creating a fluffy meringue to which you will add your other ingredients. Just make sure they are room temperature so they whip up to full volume. 
• Add your sugar gradually. You want to add it gradually so you don’t deflate your egg white mixture and lose all that volume. 
• Watch that baking time. Last thing before I let you run to your kitchen to start whipping up a batch. Just keep an eye on these cookies. Every oven is different. Knowing your oven is key in baking. It’s best to invest in an oven thermometer so you know if your oven runs hot or colder than what it says it’s running at. Mine came out perfectly at 10 minutes. I suggest starting at 8 minutes and go from there. You definitely don’t want to over bake them. That would be such a shame!
• Checking for doneness: For chocolate cookies, sometimes it’s hard to tell when they are done. You can’t rely on the color of the cookies to tell you they are done. So for these cookies you want to be looking for cookies that puffed and slightly cracked on top.

Tips For Whipping The Egg Whites

• Separate your egg whites when they are cold. They will be much easier to separate.
• You want your egg whites at room temperature when you go to whip them. You will never get the maximum height for the meringue if the egg whites are cold. So leave them to sit on your counter for at least 30 minutes until they come to room temperature. If you are in a bit of a hurry, place your container of egg whites in a second container with warm water to bring to them to room temperature faster.
• Make sure your stand mixer bowl and whisk attachment is very CLEAN. Before I whip any egg whites, I give my stand mixer a thorough cleaning just to be sure. 
• Start out by whipping your egg whites on low speed until foamy then increase the speed of your mixer to high (my mixer goes up to 10- I set mine at about a 7 for this step)
• Sprinkle in your 1 cup of sugar once the mixture has become opaque.
• You want to whip your egg whites to soft peaks. This will take a few minutes. If you’re not sure, lift the beater out of the egg whites. The peak should fall over immediately, not stand straight up. If you are unsure, just keep stopping your stand mixer every minute and checking. You don’t want to over mix your egg whites!
• The mixture should resemble marshmallow creme. If your egg whites look like cotton floating on a  pond, unfortunately you’ve over-beaten them and there’s nothing you can do but throw them in trash and start over. So check frequently friend so this doesn’t happen!

More Recipes To Try

• Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Fudge
• The Best Chocolate Fudge Recipe
• Oreo Fudge
• Flourless Chocolate Cake
• Lemon Cookie Recipe