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Healthy cookie dough hearts are an easy Valentine’s Day dessert! The edible chocolate chip cookie dough is topped with a chocolate drizzle and festive sprinkles. The recipe is no-bake, vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo. It’s also easily customizable for keto and refined sugar-free diets. This mini dessert is an adorable way to remind someone you love them!
With Valentine’s Day just one week away, I figured it was the perfect time to share a quick and easy V-Day treat! These mini chocolate chip cookie dough hearts are a cute little way to spread the love. They are soft, sweet, and topped with crunchy bits of sprinkles. The simple recipe is made with good-for-you ingredients like almond flour, coconut flour, and cashew butter.
Whether you’re spending the holiday with a significant other or headed to a GALentine’s party, be sure to bring this bite-sized treat along with you! They’re great for sharing and the perfect companion to a glass of wine (or Rom-Com movie night). Pro tip: change the sprinkles and you’ll instantly have a festive, lovable treat for any time of year.
These cookie dough hearts are:
- Vegan, gluten-free, paleo, and grain-free
- An easy valentine’s mini dessert
- Customizable for keto & nut-free diets
- Ready in 30 minutes or less
- Made with healthy ingredients & no refined sugar
- Easily portable // great for gifting and parties
Ingredients in valentine’s day cookie dough hearts
- Almond flour: This type of flour is made from finely ground almonds. It’s a healthier and gluten-free alternative to all-purpose flour.
- Coconut flour: Coconut meat is dried and finely ground in order to make coconut flour. It’s naturally gluten-free and has a mild, sweet flavor.
- Cashew butter: Cashew butter is often used in healthy cookie dough recipes because of its mildly sweet flavor. If you aren’t a fan of this nut butter, you can use peanut butter instead.
- Maple syrup: This natural sweetener makes the cookie dough refined sugar-free.
- Chocolate chips: Since this is a mini valentine’s day dessert, it’s important to use mini chocolate chips. Regular chocolate chips will be too large. If you only have the regular size, I recommend roughly chopping them into smaller pieces.
- Sprinkles: If you are preparing this treat for Valentine’s Day, use pink, red, and white sprinkles. Use rainbow sprinkles if you’re making them for a birthday or another occassion.
- Vanilla: Vanilla extract helps create an authentic cookie dough flavor.
- Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the sweetness from the other ingredients.
How to make cookie dough hearts
For the full ingredient measurements and step-by-step instructions, scroll down to view the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Prepare healthy chocolate chip cookie dough
First, add almond flour, cashew butter, maple syrup, coconut flour, vanilla extract, and salt to a large bowl. Mix together until evenly combined.
Next, add mini chocolate chips to the bowl. Mix together once more.
Use a mini heart cookie cutter
Line a square 7×7-inch or 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Add the cookie dough and firmly press it across the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Freeze for 15 minutes (or longer) to set.
After, lift parchment paper out of the pan. Using a mini heart shaped cookie cutter, cut the cookie dough into hearts.
Be sure to use all of the cookie dough. Press the leftover scraps together into one ball of dough and roll it into a flat surface. Cut more mini hearts until it has all been used.
Decorate with chocolate and valentine’s day sprinkles
Lastly, decorate the hearts. Add mini chocolate chips to a bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between, until smooth. Drizzle melted chocolate over the cookie dough and top with valentine’s day sprinkles. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes to set. Enjoy!
Tips for perfecting this mini dessert
Adjust the flour as needed. The cookie dough texture may vary depending on the type of nut butter used. Natural nut butter has a drippy/runny texture while no-stir nut butter is thicker. The latter may require less flour or more maple syrup.
Use mini chocolate chips. These mini cookie dough hearts work best with mini chocolate chips. If you only have regular chocolate chips, I recommend roughly chopping them into smaller pieces.
Put all the cookie dough to good use. Cut as many hearts out of the cookie dough as possible. Then, take the leftover scraps and fold them together into one big ball of cookie dough. Firmly press/roll the dough into an even layer and cut out more hearts. Alternatively, save the leftover scraps of cookie dough and enjoy it on top of oatmeal, pancakes, smoothie bowls, and sundaes.
Use festive sprinkles. You can change the sprinkles depending on the time of year! Use rainbow sprinkles for birthdays, red and green sprinkles for Christmas, or orange and black for Halloween.
Where to buy vegan sprinkles? If you’re looking for places to purchase vegan sprinkles, I recommend Fancy Sprinkles or Sweetapolita.
Want a sweeter treat? These healthy cookie dough hearts have a mildly sweet flavor (compared to traditional cookie dough) because they are good for you! If you have a big sweet tooth, you’ll enjoy them with 2 tablespoon coconut sugar (or cane sugar) added to the recipe.
Recipe variations
Need to make this Valentine’s dessert suitable for a specific diet? Check the simple ingredient swaps below to make adjustments as needed.
Keto: Many of the ingredients are already keto-friendly, but you’ll want to use keto versions of the maple syrup and chocolate chips. I recommend trying Lakanto Maple Syrup and Lakanto Chocolate Chips.
Nut-free: It’s possible to make this recipe nut-free with a couple adjustments. Use oat flour and sunflower seed butter instead of almond flour and cashew butter.
Paleo: Great news! The standard recipe is already made with paleo ingredients – just make sure you’re using paleo-friendly dark chocolate.
Sugar-free: Follow the recipe as written, but be sure to use sugar-free versions of maple syrup and chocolate chips. You can find many brands using stevia or monk fruit instead of sugar.
If you try these Healthy Cookie Dough Hearts, please let me know your thoughts by leaving a rating and comment below! Ready for more? Subscribe to my newsletter or follow along on Instagram and YouTube!
Print
Healthy Cookie Dough Hearts (Vegan & Gluten-Free)
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 40 mini hearts 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Healthy cookie dough hearts are an easy valentine’s day dessert idea! These mini chocolate chip cookie dough bites are vegan, gluten-free, paleo, grain-free, and made with no refined sugar. They’re loaded with almond flour, coconut flour, cashew butter, and chocolate chips. Spread the love with this edible valentines day gift! #cookiedough #valentines #valentine #vegandessert #nobakedesserts #ediblecookiedough #glutenfreedesserts
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- ½ cup cashew butter or peanut butter
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- 1–2 tablespoon sugar (only if you’d like a sweeter treat)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Topping
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp sprinkles
Instructions
- Prepare cookie dough: Add almond flour, cashew butter, maple syrup, coconut flour, vanilla extract, and salt to a large bowl. Mix together until evenly combined. Add mini chocolate chips, then mix together once more.
- Transfer cookie dough: Line a 7×7-inch or 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Transfer cookie dough to the baking pan and firmly press it across the bottom in an even layer. Chill in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- Cut cookie dough: Lift parchment paper out of the pan. Use a mini heart shaped cookie cutter to slice the dough.
- Melt chocolate: Add chocolate chips to a bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between, until fully melted.
- Decorate: Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookie dough hearts. Add sprinkles on top. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes to set. Enjoy!
Notes
- Want a sweeter treat? These healthy cookie dough hearts have a mildly sweet flavor (compared to traditional cookie dough) because it is good for you. If you have a big sweet tooth, you’ll enjoy them with 2 tbsp coconut sugar or cane sugar added to the recipe.
- Adjust the flour as needed. The cookie dough texture may vary depending on the type of nut butter used. Natural nut butter has a drippy/runny texture while no-stir nut butter is thicker. The latter may require less flour or more maple syrup.
- Use mini chocolate chips. If you only have regular chocolate chips, I recommend roughly chopping them into smaller pieces.
- Put all the cookie dough to good use. Cut as many hearts out of the cookie dough as possible. Then, take the leftover scraps and fold them together into one big ball of cookie dough. Firmly press/roll the dough into an even layer and cut out more hearts. Alternatively, save the leftover scraps of cookie dough and enjoy it on top of oatmeal, pancakes, smoothie bowls, and sundaes.
- Nutrition: The nutrition information below uses regular ingredients. This information will change if you use sugar-free or keto ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 3 mini hearts
- Calories: 180
- Sugar: 6g
- Fat: 12g
- Carbohydrates: 12g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 6g
Keywords: cookie dough hearts, easy valentine’s day desserts, valentine mini desserts
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Would it be okay to only
use almond flour or regular flour or do I need to
mix both?
Hi, Arushi! You can use only almond flour 🙂 Do not use regular flour though!
Can you use Almond butter?
Hi, Cathi! Yes, you can use almond butter. I really recommend peanut butter or cashew butter though 🙂
Thank you so much. I have peanut butter so I will use that. I’ll try cashew next time. 😊
Sounds great! Enjoy 🙂