Maple Walnut Cookies (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

These Gluten Free Maple Walnut Cookies have just the right amount of softness, sweetness, and crunch. They're perfect for fall and also completely dairy free and refined sugar free.

It took me about 7 tries to nail this recipe, but along the way I learned about what substitutions would work. The ideal cookie recipe is listed below, but I provide tons of subs to make these cookies ideal for you depending on the ingredients you have available and dietary preferences. 

Gluten Free Maple Walnut Cookie Ingredients

• Gluten free flour: use a 1:1 all purpose gluten free flour with xanthan gum for best results.
• Tigernut flour or almond flour: Tigernut flour is a nut free alternative to almond flour, but either will work. This provides a nutty sweetness that compliments the maple and walnuts perfectly.
• Tapioca starch: adding a little starch helps keep gluten free cookies soft.
• Maple sugar: this is where we get the maple flavor from! Maple sugar can be hard to find in stores, so you can order it via the link or see below for substitutions.
• Coconut oil or (vegan) butter: either will work, but result in a slightly different cookie. Butter results in a lighter colored, softer cookie while coconut oil results in a darker colored cookie that is slightly crunchier. Both options still taste delicious though!
• Eggs: you'll need 1 large egg and 1 egg yolk for this recipe.
• Walnuts: but pre-chopped walnuts for finely chop up your own.
• Cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar: used in the icing.
• Maple syrup: a little bit of maple syrup added to the icing gives us that maple flavor.
• Milk of choice: stick to a plant based milk to keep this recipe dairy free.

How to Make Maple Walnut Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Beat together the sugar and coconut oil/butter in a large bowl on medium high speed until light and fluffy (30-60 seconds).
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low to just combine.
6. Fold in the walnuts.
7. Scoop tablespoon sized drops of dough onto the baking sheets, leaving 1.5-2 inches between each cookie.
8. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes until golden and just firm around the edges.
9. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5-8 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bake in batches as needed.
10. Let cookies completely cool before icing.

Substitutions and Variations

Flour: If you don't have tigernut flour or can't access it, you can use almond flour or more gluten free flour. Using another ½ cup of gluten free flour will result in more puffy cookies that do not spread as much. They will also be much lighter in color.

Fat: You can use coconut oil or butter for this recipe. Butter results in a lighter colored, softer cookie, while coconut oil yields a darker colored, slightly crunchier cookie. If you'd like to reduce the fat content, you can use ¼ cup of oil/butter and ¼ cup of applesauce. This results in fluffier, softer cookies that do not spread as much, but are still delicious.

Sugar: This recipe calls for maple sugar to get that maple flavor. Unfortunately, maple sugar can be hard to find and is often expensive. You can use coconut sugar as a substitute or ¼ cup of coconut sugar and ¼ cup of maple syrup to get some of that maple flavor in the cookies. The combo of sugar and maple syrup also may result in a lighter, fluffier cookie. Again, still delicious! If you do want to use maple sugar, I usually buy it on Amazon.

More Walnut Recipes

Love walnuts? Then you need to try these other great recipes that incorporate walnuts!

Paleo Walnut Crumble Cookies

Gluten Free Walnut Crumble Banana Bread

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Gluten Free Maple Walnut Cookies

These gluten free cookies are lower in sugar, but still maintain all the delicious flavor and texture! Don't forget the dairy free icing to top them off.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Easy, Fall flavors, Low Sugar, winter

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 18 cookies

Author Victoria Faling

Ingredients

Cookies

• 1 cup 1:1 gluten free flour
• ½ cup tigernut flour can use almond or more gluten free, see notes above
• 1 tablespoon tapioca starch
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup maple sugar see substitutions above
• ½ cup coconut oil softened*
• 1 egg room temperature
• 1 egg yolk room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Icing

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoon melted coconut oil or butter
• 2 teaspoon maple syrup room temperature (zap in microwave at 5 second intervals if needed)
• Milk of choice

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Whisk together the flours, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
• Beat together the sugar and coconut oil/butter until light and fluffy (30-60 seconds).
• Beat in the egg until combined. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla until combined.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix on low to just combine.
• Fold in the walnuts.
• Let batter sit while you line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Scoop tablespoon sized drops of dough onto one baking sheet, leaving 1.5-2 inches between each cookie.
• Bake one cookie sheet on the middle rack for 10-12 minutes until golden and just firm around the edges.
• Let cool on the baking sheet for 5-8 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. While one sheet of cookies bakes, prepare the next sheet. Repeat until all cookies are baked.
• Let cookies completely cool before icing.
• To make the icing, mix together the sugar, oil, and maple syrup until you get a thick icing consistency. Add a tiny splash of milk if needed.
• Ice cookies as desired and enjoy

Notes

*You can also use (vegan) butter. Butter results in the lighter colored cookies that are softer. Coconut oil will yield a slightly more crunchy cookie that is darker in color.