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Flourless Fudge Cookies
Ultra-chewy, rich chocolate cookies with no added fat? And no gluten? Impossible! But it's true: these flourless chocolate cookies get their texture from egg whites, and their flavor from cocoa powder (which represents the only fat in the recipe). Plus they're easy to make: Just stir together a few simple ingredients, scoop onto a pan, and bake for 7 to 10 minutes. You won't believe the delicious result. Speaking of delicious, though — adding chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts to this basic recipe takes these cookies to a whole new level. If you can afford the calories, we highly recommend this addition.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
- 1 cup cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process cocoa
- 3 large egg whites
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chips, chopped nuts, and/or chopped dried fruit, optional
Instructions
- Lightly grease two baking sheets. Or line with parchment, and grease the parchment. Yes, grease the parchment; these cookies are sticky, and need to be baked on a greased surface.
- Whisk together the egg whites and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, except for the chips/nuts/fruit. Stir the wet and dry ingredients together. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and stir again until smooth. The sticky batter will be the consistency of a thick syrup. Add the chips and/or nuts, if you're using them.
- Drop the syrupy batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 3" circles (for large cookies), or 1 3/4" to 2" circles (for smaller cookies); a tablespoon cookie scoop or teaspoon cookie scoop, respectively, work well here. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheets for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Bake the cookies for 7 minutes (for smaller cookies), 8 to 9 minutes for the larger cookies; they should spread slightly, become somewhat shiny, and develop faintly crackly tops. Note: large cookies with added chips/nuts will need to bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool right on the pan. When they're nearly cool, carefully loosen them from the pan with a spatula.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size 1 cookie, 28g
- Servings Per Batch 16
Amount Per Serving:
- Calories 88
- Calories from Fat 5
- Total Fat 1g
- Saturated Fat 0g
- Trans Fat 0g
- Cholesterol 0mg
- Sodium 47mg
- Total Carbohydrate 19g
- Dietary Fiber 1g
- Sugars 16g
- Protein 2g
* The nutrition information provided for this recipe is determined by the ESHA Genesis R&D software program. Substituting any ingredients may change the posted nutrition information.
Tips from our bakers
- Yes, this batter is supposed to be syrupy and sticky. If it's not, add more egg white until it drips from a spatula in a thick ribbon.
- This recipe can be tricky to nail, especially the first time out. Please read our blog post, Putting a Tricky Recipe to the Test, for some handy tips.
- The yield on this recipe can vary quite a bit, depending on size and add-ins. Without add-ins, you'll get 16 large (3 1/4") cookies or 32 smaller (2 1/2") cookies. With added chips/nuts — 2 dozen large cookies, or 4 dozen smaller cookies.
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Reviews
After searching for a recipe to use leftover egg whites, I came across the Flourless Fudge Cookies. After reading the recipe and the tips on the blog, I decided to bake these cookies. I found the cookies to be fudgy, and had a lot of chocolate flavor. I did not add in any nuts, chocolate chips or dried cranberries this time, but I will give it a try next time. I used my teaspoon cookie scoop, and it only made 24 cookies, but the recipe states that it would make about 32 cookies. Maybe my cookie scoop is not the same size. After the cookies cool on the cookie sheets, are the cookies suppose to be thin and flat?
Success! I read the full recipe and the blog posts and followed the instructions (for once in my life). I used the extra chips and nuts and made the larger size and they held together just fine. Best eaten cold from the fridge!
Easy and delicious. Added 2 more egg whites and baked 12 min (1tbs size)
They tasted too dry for my tastes.Hi there, Dianna! We're sorry to hear that this well-loved recipe didn't do the trick for you. If we can help troubleshoot or pick out a recipe that better fits your tastes, please give our Baker's Hotline a call at 855-371-BAKE (2253). Kindly, Morgan@KAF
I have changed this recipe in the following way and it is foolproof no problems ever. 3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa, 3 cups confectioners sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 4 egg whites unbeaten, I added about 5ounces choc chips and 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (or equal amount of chips and or nuts) 1 tsp vanilla , espresso powder is nice if you have it. Stir everything together and bake in 325 oven 20 to 25 minutes on parchment paper.Watch carefully these burn easily. Remove carefully when almost cool. This batter is a little thicker than the original recipe. It spreads so leave plenty of room between cookies. Thank you King Arthur for creating recipes for us celiac sufferers. I made popovers for the first time with your Gluten free baking flour using the recipe on the box! Perfect!
Excellent recipe! I used 4 egg whites and they turned out nice and chewy. I might try and use a little less sugar the next time. Would definitely recommend adding the chocolate chips.
This cookie is delicious and I love it, but I really think you need to alter the recipe, or inform that a 4th egg white may be necessary. Also, I read the recipe 4 times before i noticed that the preheat is in the middle of the recipe, at the end paragraph of step 3. Why isn't that the first step??? It feels like this recipe was written as an afterthought.
So delicious! and easy to make. We did need to add an extra egg white to achieve the consistency they said to go for. Couldn't believe how lovely these were! People asked for the recipe. I'll be making it again!
I looking for a gluten free cookie for friends and family that have Celiac and this sounded perfect. I was a little intimidated by some of the problems others ran into, but mine turned out great. I highly recommend reading all tips and blog about this and take everything to heart. If possible, measure ingredients by weight have an extra egg. I ended up adding about 1/2 tsp more beaten egg white to get the thick syrup consistency. I used Hershey's special dark cocoa and added the espresso powder. My go-to chips are Ghirardelli, but wanted dairy free used Enjoy Life semi sweet mini chips. Be sure to let them rest for 30 min before baking and look for slight cracking in the surface to indicate they are ready to come out. I used greased parchment and slid the whole sheet on the cooling rack instead of moving them individually. I ended up with very dark, shiny, delicious, rich cookies with depth of flavor. Will definitely be making these again and plan to replace some of the chips with dried fruit.
I chose this recipe to provide a gluten-free cookie dessert for a client at the lodge where I bake. I probably didn't pay close attention to all the tips and hints the first time I made them; they came out quite flat, but I then decided to feature them as a dessert base; I decoratively piped very lightly sweetened whipped cream on each one and drizzled them with salted caramel. The second time I tried a batch, they were the proper cookie shape, and I must have removed them at the exact right time, because the texture when cooled was out of this world fantastic. Thank you for yet another permanent recipe in my repetoire!
