Tiger Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies: Vegan, Gluten Free & So Chufa Good

Simple and quick to make, these tiger nut chocolate chip cookies are crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside and fudgy in the middle. They have the added bonus of being vegan, comparatively healthy and gluten free.

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One of my most exciting Christmas presents this year was some tiger nut flour from CT. I’m easily pleased. It resulted in a flurry of baking. These tiger nut chocolate chip cookies were one of the delights I conjured up.

They are, without doubt, the easiest and quickest cookies I’ve ever made. Vegan, gluten-free and relatively healthy, they make a perfect sweet treat if you’re participating in Veganuary. They’re also my contribution to this month’s #WeShouldCocoa.

Tiger Nuts or Chufas

Tiger nuts earned their name from the orange stripes found on their tubers. They’re also known as chufas or earth almonds, though their scientific name is Cyperus esculentus. CT has grown them on and off for many years, but has never managed to cultivate them on a large enough scale for me to play with.

Chufas are sweet and tasty with a slightly nutty texture. They are, however, neither nut nor seed; they are in fact tubers produced by a member of the sedge family. Chufas are an ancient crop eaten way back when in Africa and they formed an important part of the early human diet.

They’re gluten-free, high in fibre and contain significant quantities of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and a whole heap of antioxidants.

I first came across tiger nuts in Spain on one of my epic hitchhiking trips many years ago. The Spanish make it into horchata, a delicious creamy drink I’ve never forgotten. I’m still waiting for CT to grow enough for me to make my own horchata. Tiger nut flour is quite sweet, so you can add less sugar to recipes when you use it. It’s also quite sticky, so it works particularly well in baking.

Where To Buy Chufa Flour

Chufa flour is perhaps not the easiest flour to get hold of, but it’s definitely worth searching out. Any good whole food establishment or health food shop should stock it. And if all else fails, you can buy organic tiger nut flour* online.

Tiger Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

The first thing I made with my tiger nut flour were some super duper fudgy brownies. We were entertaining friends so served them up with ice cream. They went down a storm, though nobody had heard of tiger nuts or chufas. Sadly I never got around to taking any photos or even writing up the recipe. Perhaps this is a call to make them again. 

These tiger nut chocolate chip cookies are the simplest and easiest cookies I’ve ever made. It’s pretty much just a case of stirring all the ingredients together, then forming the mixture into balls with your hands.

I didn’t want to use vast amounts of fat in the cookies as I was trying to keep them as healthy as possible, so I ended up using water to bind the dough. I wasn’t at all sure how well this would work, but I needn’t have worried. The biscuits held together just fine. The ingredients needed are few, although I do understand not everyone is going to have a bag of tiger nut flour lying around in their pantry. 

These tiger nut chocolate chip cookies are sweet, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside and fudgy in the middle. They do soften if kept for more than a day, but are still quite delicious. A friend helped us demolish them a couple of days after I baked them and she was mightily impressed.

The flavour is hard to describe, but it’s almost coconutty. The chocolate chips broke up the intensity of the sweetness wonderfully and are very much an integral part of the biscuit.

Other Recipes for Vegan Biscuits & Cookies You Might Like

• Chocolate sesame cookies via Green Gourmet Giraffe
• Coconut shortbread with chocolate drizzle via Emily’s Recipes and Reviews
• Failsafe wouldn’t know they were vegan chocolate chip cookies via Free From Farmhouse
• Ginger cookies via Thinly Spread
• Oat & raisin cookies via The Peachicks Bakery
• Oil free date cookies with toasted walnuts via Let’s Brighten Up
• Purple corn flour Easter biscuits via Tin and Thyme
• Vanilla almond cookies via Tin and Thyme

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these tiger nut chocolate chip cookies, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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If you’d like more gluten-free recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Tiger Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies. PIN IT.

Tiger Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies – The Recipe

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5 from 2 votes

Tiger Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Simple and quick to make, these cookies are crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside and fudgy in the middle. They have the added bonus of being vegan and gluten free.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Afternoon Tea, Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: biscuits, chufa flour, cookies, gluten-free, vegan

Servings: 12 cookies

Calories: 131kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 50 g coconut oil
• 100 g coconut suger
• 125 g tiger nut flour (I used organic chufa flour*)
• 1 tsp baking powder gluten-free
• 50 g dark chocolate chips vegan
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp water

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Warm the coconut oil gently in a large pan until virtually melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar.
  50 g coconut oil, 100 g coconut suger
• Add the tiger nut flour, baking powder and chocolate chips and stir until everything is well mixed.
  125 g tiger nut flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 50 g dark chocolate chips
• Make a well in the centre and add the water and vanilla extract. Stir with a knife from the inside out until everything is well combined.
  1 tsp vanilla extract, 3 tbsp water
• Take a tablespoonful of the mixture and roll into a ball with your hands. Place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly.
• Repeat with the rest of the mixture, leaving room on the tray for the dough to spread. I made 12 cookies.
• Bake in the centre of the oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 15 minutes.
• Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up, then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Notes

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition

Calories: 131kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 43mg | Potassium: 68mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Please take a photo and mention @choclette8 or tag #tinandthyme on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Linkies

These tiger nut chocolate chip cookies are my submission to this month’s #WeShouldCocoa.

I’m also sending these splendid chufa flour biscuits to Only Crumbs Remain for #BakingCrumbs

And finally my gluten-free chocolate chip cookies go to Easy Peasy Foodie for #CookBlogShare

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