These easy Teff Almond Butter Cookies are nutritionally packed and have an addictive almond flavor. Gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free.
Teff is a humble tiny grain that is a nutritional powerhouse. This whole-grain exotic flour pairs well with nuts, bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, fruits, and seeds.
Like these fudgy teff brownies or teff oatmeal cookies, dark chocolate makes a good match.
But you'll find in this recipe, almonds and teff make for delicious and delightful treats!
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Why you'll love this recipe
- Nutritionally packed cookie
- Easy recipe
- Simple ingredients
- These cookies will melt in your mouth!
Ingredients and substitutions
Here are a few quick notes about the ingredients in this recipe. You can see a complete ingredient list and instructions in the recipe card below.
Teff flour - With a wonderfully nutty taste, teff is a tiny gluten-free grain that is very finely ground gluten-free flour rich in essential amino acids, minerals, vitamins, fiber, and a low-glycemic index.
You can find the flour in health food stores, many grocery stores, and online. I like using Bob's Red Mill brand.
Almond butter - This acts as our binder and fat as well as flavor. If you use salted almond butter, you might want to adjust the salt in the recipe.
(If you love almond butter, you need to try granola butter!)
Maple syrup - Gives these cookies just the right amount of sweetness.
Vanilla extract - Helps round out the sweetness and all-around flavor!
Almond extract - One of the star ingredients! A little bit goes a long way to making these gluten-free cookies irresistible.
Step-by-step instructions
Before you start: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
Step 1: In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients; teff flour, salt, and cinnamon.
Then add the wet ingredients; almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil (ensure it is no longer hot), and almond and vanilla extracts.
Stir with a rubber spatula until well combined. Allow dough to rest for 5 minutes.
Step 2: Use a tablespoon or #40 cookie scoop, then roll the cookie dough into small balls and place on the baking sheet.
With a fork, flatten balls about halfway down into a cookie shape. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.
Step 3: Bake for 10-11 minutes. Remove from the baking tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Step 4: Store in an airtight container.
Tips
- It is important to let the dough rest for about 5 minutes before rolling it into balls. This will allow for the flour to absorb some of the mixtures.
- A little sprinkle of sea salt on top right before baking is highly recommended!
- Storing the teff cookies at room temperature will create softer cookies over time, storing them in the refrigerator will give them a little more of a bite.
FAQs
Teff is considered an ancient grain. The teff grain comes from the lovegrass plant (Eragrostis tef) native to Africa.
Teff has a wonderful nutty, earthy flavor and is great when used in combination with other gluten-free flours. It pairs well with nuts (hazelnuts and almonds!), seeds, chocolate, and sweeteners like maple syrup and coconut sugar.
It is used in making traditional injera but is excellent in cookies, muffins, bread, crackers, and porridge.
Love this recipe? Please consider leaving a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating on the recipe card below and let me know what you think in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Teff Almond Butter Cookies (Gluten-free, Vegan)
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (245g) teff flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup unsalted almond butter
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
- ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine the teff flour, salt, and cinnamon. Then add the almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil (make sure it has cooled), and almond and vanilla extracts. Stir with a rubber spatula until well combined. Allow dough to rest for 5 minutes.
- Use a tablespoon or #40 cookie scoop, then roll cookie dough into small balls with your hands and place on prepared baking sheet. With a fork, flatten balls about halfway down into a cookie shape. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes. Remove from baking tray and allow to cool on baking sheet on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nicole
I found my 'dough' very wet/sticky/oily-looking after following the recipe (with the exception of subbing peanut butter and omitting the almond extract) and I was sure the cookies would end up spreading out like crazy while baking like other commenters mentioned. Also, I recently made a teff oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from elsewhere that also used coconut oil and I had the same thing happen. So this time I pre-empted things by adding in several big spoonfuls of extra teff flour (likely around 1/4 cup) and the dough was much stiffer yet totally workable and roll-able, and I'm happy to report that the cookies didn't spread out and held their shape. If I were to make these again (I'd love to try the tahini variation) I would likely just add less coconut oil. I was curious about these cookies not having any leavening agent (baking soda or powder) but they still turned out fine.
For my second tray, instead of fork imprints and salted tops I made raspberry jam thumbprint cookies and they're very cute. I haven't tried either batch yet as they're cooling but they smell lovely.
Tessa
Hi Nicole! Thank you for sharing - the raspberry jam tops sound absolutely delicious. I am going to have to try that!
Jennifer
This recipe is delicious! First time baking with Teff flour. I used half almond flour and half tahini. My whole family, including toddler loves it! Will definitely make again.
Tessa
That is awesome! Thank you, Jennifer!
Rachel
Really amazing cookies!!! :)
Tessa
Thank you, Rachel!!
Rachel
Thank you so much! Sounds really interesting! Can i sub the almond butter with peanut butter?
Tessa
Hi Rachel! I think natural peanut butter would sub in just fine! :)
Beth
I try introducing healthy options for my toddler... Due to the high protein content of teff, I wanted to intoduce it to his diet and one can't go wrong with cookies. I made a few alterations and it still turned out great, thanks for the wonderful recipe :))))
My son has nut allergies, so instead of almond butter, I used tahini...
Since making it vegan wasn't a concern for me, I used organic butter instead of coconut oil.
Lastly, I didn't sprinkle salt on top as I added 1/2 cup of raisins.
Tessa
Tahini is such a great sub! I'm so glad it worked for you. Thanks so much for your kind note, Beth!!
Liz Smith
So sad to report that I just made the Teff Almond Butter Cookies recipe (following to a "T") and it was a disaster. The cookies melted into each other and didn't adhere as a solid, turning into a mess of crumbs. I saved the mess of cooked crumbs and will probably try using it as pie or crumble crust. I think if I pressed it into the bottom of a dish it might stay put and be delicious.
Tessa
Hi Liz - I'm so sorry to hear that. I know that is frustrating and hate that that was your experience. My only guess as to why they didn't stay solid is that the almond butter may have had a higher oil content. I have found in making other recipes that nut butter oils can vary sometimes and alter the results. I like your idea of saving as a crust and agree it would be delicious as a crumble!
Miriam
These cookies were delicious! It’s hard to find almond butter where I live so I substituted and used Tahina which worked well. Thanks for this recipe
Miriam
Tessa
That's awesome! Thanks so much for your note. I will have to try them with tahini as well. If almond butter is hard to find, you can also throw a couple cups of almonds into a food processor and make your own almond butter. I love toasting my almonds and then processing them!
Maddy
Omg. Tessa. I just made these and I didn't think the batter would make it to the oven because I couldn't stop eating it by the spoonful straight out of the bowl. THESE ARE AMAZING. Where has this recipe been hiding?! Everyone needs to make these!!!! The flavors are incredible - so complex and comforting. I'm graduating college this week and am giving them to my favorite professor as an end-of-the-year thank you. I can't even. I could go on and on. Thank you!!
Tessa
Maddy! I am SO happy you liked them! You just made my day. Seriously. :) And what a compliment that you are giving them as a gift!
Congrats on your graduation!!! What's next for you?
Divya Marwaha
Just made these,and they are absolutely yummy,specially right out of the oven!
Tessa
Thanks so much, Divya!!
Gillian
These are so delicious! I didn't have hazelnuts so I made these, but your hazelnut teff cookies are next on my list.
Tessa
Thank you! I am so happy you liked them!! I hope you like the hazelnut teff cookies just as much. The hazelnut + chocolate together is so good!
renee (will frolic for food)
ah! i love these little gems! can't wait to try this recipe out. love the clean styling in these shots, too.
Tessa
Thanks, Renee!! I hope you like them - they are so freaking addictive!
rahel
Excellent recipe!!! Super-healthy, super-tasty cookies! I was scouring the internet for a cookie recipe that wasn't 100% almond flour but when I came upon this one, I was nervous about 100% teff so tweaked it to be 1 cup teff, 1/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup glutinous rice flour. Then tweaked some more to suit allergies and ingredients on hand so 1/4 cup dairy butter instead of the coconut oil, 1/2 cup honey instead of the maple syrup, reduced to 1/2 cup almond butter. Turned out fantastic. I cannot thank you enough for providing a solid recipe to work with.
Tessa
Thank you, Rahel! I am so, so glad to hear it!
Jennifer
Was I the only one who had these cookies spread way too much out? I know part of the problem is that I had to special order teff from a local store, and they only had teff not teff flour. I tried grinding it down, but I am sure some of it didn't grind all the way. But I am thinking if maybe it was too hot? The oil and almond butter was melted and liquidy (I poured out the almond butter to measure it) Do you think if I kept the dough cold it would of kept shape better?
Tessa
Hi Jennifer - I'm so sorry to hear that the cookies spread! I have a couple guesses to what might help. I'm wondering if the teff grain you had to grind wasn't ground fine enough and therefore wasn't able to absorb the liquids as well. I use Bob's Red Mill teff flour which is finely ground and a lot of times I order it through Amazon since my local store doesn't always have it in stock. You may also want to let the melted coconut oil cool a bit more before adding it to the mix. It may help if you happen to be using a new jar of almond butter to stir it up completely and refrigerate it before using in the recipe as I think sometimes the oil content in nut butters can vary. I think your idea of chilling the dough could be great too. If you try again and find something that works well with your teff, I would love to know! Thanks, Jennifer!
Jennifer
I used a trader joe's raw almond butter, and that stuff is thin! I think that is a major problem. It was still pourable after storing the open jar in the fridge. It was also so hot when I made the cookies that the coconut oil was in liquid form. I am wondering if these conditions for the oil and nut butter would get better results with a solid sugar, like date sugar or coconut sugar? Regardless, the flat cookies were still pretty darn tasty. And gives me motivation to keep using teff!
Tessa
Good to know! When I was experimenting with this recipe I actually tried using coconut sugar and the result were cookies that spread like crazy! I had another reader that subbed the maple syrup with granulated xylitol and hers spread as well. When she tried again and did part maple syrup, part agave, they came together much better. There is something about the the liquid sweetener and ratio to flour absorption that seems to work best. I wish I knew the science behind it! I'm so glad you found the cookies to be tasty. I think teff is such a cool grain/flour to work with and I am pumped to try it with more things as well. Thanks so much for getting back to me!
Nela
Pictures look delicious. I tried the recipe, but it was too liquid to form balls. Is there a trick? I ended up having used xylitol instead of maple syrup and adding more flour still.
Thanks,
Tessa
Hi Nela! Thanks so much for your comment. I haven't used xylitol with these before, but during one of my testing trials I made them with coconut sugar instead of maple syrup and the outcome was similar to your try with xylitol. I wish I knew the science behind this, but for some reason granulated sweeteners make for a thinner cookie dough. If you want to keep playing with these using xylitol, you might try mixing all the ingredients together and then slowly adding a little bit of the melted coconut oil at a time, until you get a consistency that will come together and form balls. If you find an adaptation with xylitol that seems to work best, I'd love to hear.
Nela
Hi Tessa,
I'm actually having one of your cookies now - followed exact recipe just substituting some of the maple syrup with agave. The texture is much better, crumblier this time, and they even increased in size unlike 1st time when I used xylitol.
Looks like it really depends on the brand of almond butter. E.g. MaraNatha almond butter works great while when I used 'Nuts to You' it got too liquid.
Thanks again for great recipe
Regards
Nela
Tessa
Oh yay! I'm so glad you had better success this time and that agave worked as a good sub for the maple syrup. Thank you so much for letting me know! That's great to know about the two different almond butters as well. Thank you, Nela!
Alanna
Omgggggg, give me ALL the cookies! These look freaking spectacular. I've just started baking with teff flour and I'm HOOKED - so malty and earthy. I just love these photos.
Tessa
Hahaha, thank you Alanna!! I am now a teff convert. I keep trying to decide what I want to make next with it!
Ingredient1
Not sure if I've ever tasted a teff cookie - very innovative! Can't wait to try these :)
Tessa
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy them!
Anne
This sounds amazing!!!
Tessa
Thank you, Anne! :)
Medha @ Whisk & Shout
Lovely photos! These are adorable, pinning :)
Tessa
Thank you, Medha! Have a great weekend! :)
Shannon
These are stunning and sound delicious! I love all of the creative teff recipes I've been seeing on blogs lately. It has such a great nutty flavor and the nutritional benefits are only a plus :D
Tessa
I agree, the nutritional benefits are such a bonus! Thanks so much, Shannon!
Laura
Yummm!!! I've been using teff flour a lot lately in baking and it is certainly a win. Thanks for this inspiration for cookies as well!
Tessa
Thanks, Laura! So glad to hear you are a teff fan as well! :)
Thalia @ butter and brioche
What delicious cookies.. I love the almond butter flavour and all the sprinkle action going on.
Tessa
Thank you, Thalia! The almond butter makes for such easy cookie-making too. xo.
Kathryn
I'm so excited to have a use for my teff flour! These cookies sound wonderful, just the right balance of sweet and nutty and tender. Can't wait to try them!
Tessa
I can't wait to hear what you use your teff in. I'm determined to use it in a blend for bread next...I may be getting ahead of myself though. Ha.
Sarah @ SnixyKitchen
Teff flour is also one of those gluten-free flours I haven't experimented with much either. I love the simplicity of this recipe - as a cookie-holic, I'm definitely going to be making these. Also - your photos, as always, are so beautiful and comforting.
Tessa
Thank you, Sarah! I'm totally ready to try out some other recipes with teff now. But I do love how quickly these cookies come together! xo.
Gwen @ Delightful Adventures
Good for you for sticking with it and doing all the experimenting! I find this to be something that is necessary with gluten-free baking. I have only used teff flour once in a recipe, I think this recipe will be attempt number 2! Love that they have the crumbly texture of a shortbread. Beautiful pics as usual :)
Tessa
Thank you, Gwen! I had so many batches of these cookies laying around we started running out of room in our little kitchen! :)
Christina @ Bake with Christina
Mmm what yummy looking cookies! I'm a huge fan of almond butter, and I would LOVE to use it in a cookie recipe, definitely have to give these a try!! Pinned :)
Tessa
These are so easy to throw together too. Thanks, Christina!