Cassava Flour Cookies (Double Chocolate Cardamom)

Tested-and-perfected, proudly presentable, and positively addictive Double Chocolate Cardamom Cookies made with Cassava Flour. These cookies are gluten-free, grain-free, nut-free, AND dairy-free!

All my life, I have loved baking. It’s an antidote, my little therapy session, one of those ‘flow’ activities. Contrary to this blog’s ‘baked good’ repertoire (or lack thereof), I grew up being revered as the baker of the household.

I would eventually discover that all I really knew how to do was a) find good recipes, b) measure accurately, and c) adjust to taste (most could use a little less sugar).

Fast-forward to last year, when we discovered my husband’s celiac disease, gluten-free baking really pulled that rug from under my feet.

I have high standards for gluten-free baked goods (mainly because I can still have gluten, and partly because my recipes need to be blog-worthy). Mix those standards with ALL the baking fails, and I think it’s safe to say I was left with more post-celiac emotional trauma than my husband.

Cassava Flour Cookies

What I realized was – if I really wanted to get comfortable with gluten-free baking, I needed to re-invent the wheel and go back to the basic principles of baking.

I couldn’t just rely on good recipes anymore – I had to create them.

I did just that with the help of Otto’s Cassava flour (affiliate link). It acts as the perfect base for any baked good. One flour, no additives, and pretty darn close to wheat.

As soon as I discovered cassava flour, I was in awe, as if I had landed on a treasure (see my favorite “I can’t believe it’s gluten-free” roti for more gushing). Cassava flour is a grain-free, all-natural, mild-tasting flour made of 100% cassava (or yuca) root.

Tips to Make Cookies with Cassava Flour

Before we go on to the recipe, here are 3 hard-won lessons after some self-taught, tear-inducing, cookie-baking 101.

1. Lesson 1 – Too much flour = dry, crumbly cookies. Too little flour = flat cookies. Cassava flour is the closest substitute to wheat and can be substituted 1:1 for wheat in many recipes. But using too much can result in dry and crumbly cookies. For perfect cookies, use just a little less than you’d naturally be inclined to.
2. Lesson 2 – Creaming the eggs, sugar, and shortening in the first step is the key to making them beautifully light and chewy. Make sure you cream them for a full 5-6 minutes so that the mixture turns pale and increases in size.
3. Lesson 3 – I tried butter, olive oil, and everything in between, but the cookies would always flatten. Still yummy (you can’t go wrong with cassava), but super flat. Then I remembered some of my favorite gluten-free bakers (Gigi & Shauna) mentioned palm shortening in their cookie recipes. Palm shortening not only helped the cookies hold their shape, but it gave them moisture without adding any distinct taste. Bonus – it made the cookies dairy-free (just make sure to use dairy-free dark chocolate chips)!

The best part is that these gluten-free chocolate cardamom cookies don’t taste like an ‘alternative’ dessert. They just taste wonderful – up to every standard. The cardamom takes on a floral, minty undertone. It’s not too much, even if you don’t like cardamom.

Feel free to make adjustments of your own. Omit the ‘double’ chocolate by using only chocolate chips at the end. Dust them with powdered sugar to make them festive for the holidays.

A huge thank you to Otto’s Cassava Flour for sponsoring this post (and for helping revive my baker’s confidence). As per usual, my opinion of this flour is entirely my own!

If you make these, please leave a comment below and let me know!!