These soft and irresistible Gluten Free Mocha Hazelnut Cookies will quickly become your new favorite cookie recipe! Studded with the flavors of chocolate, coffee, and toasted hazelnuts, you will have a hard time practicing self control!

You know that first bite you take into a new cookie? Where you start chewing, your eyes start closing, your tastebuds start dancing... and you just can't help but take another bite??

These Gluten Free Mocha Hazelnut Cookies will make you do just that!

Funny thing, I have been dreaming of making these cookies for years! Pre gluten-free dairy-free, one of my favorite premade sweet treats was the Ferrero Rocher Chocolate Hazelnut candies. Did any of you ever eat those? They are luscious little morsels, wrapped up in a pretty gold wrapper. Unfortunately, they just don't work with my diet anymore.

The idea for these Gluten Free Mocha Hazelnut cookies was birthed from my love of those candies.

I knew I wanted these cookies to be soft and decadent, so I used the chocolate cookie dough from my Gluten Free Crinkle Cookies recipe as a base for this recipe (If you haven't tried my recipe yet for Crinkles, you're missing out!). I added to it instant coffee powder, dairy-free chocolate chips, and toasted hazelnuts.

The result is a luscious treat you can't resist! They actually remind me of an upgraded brownie - just in cookie form!

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Recipe notes and substitutions for these Gluten Free Mocha Hazelnut Cookies:

Starbuck's VIA Instant Coffee Packets- I use these in lieu of espresso powder. While I'm not a huge Starbucks fan, their VIA Instant Coffee Packets are decent, and the coffee flavor is much stronger than the average espresso powder you find at the store. Can you substitute the Starbucks VIA with espresso powder? Absolutely. I'm just not sure how much you'll need, so start with 2 teaspoons of the espresso powder, and then add more to taste from there.
Sweet Rice Flour- You can substitute more brown rice flour if you can't find or don't have sweet rice flour on hand.
Organic Cane Sugar- I do not recommend substituting coconut sugar in this recipe. Coconut sugar can actually have a drying effect on baked goods, while organic cane sugar binds and adds moisture.
Eggs- These are essential to this recipe and unfortunately, there are too many of them to substitute. You might try this Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Crinkles recipe from Sarah Bakes Gluten Free instead.
Hazelnuts- You can definitely substitute another nut if needed. Pecans or walnuts would also be wonderful; however, do not toast them beforehand (they might burn).

How to toast raw unsalted hazelnuts:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Place the raw unsalted hazelnuts in an even layer on a baking sheet. Toast for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Carefully wrap the hot hazelnuts in a clean kitchen towel to steam for 1 minute. Use the kitchen towel to rub off the hazelnut skins. It's okay if all of the skin doesn't come off. Cool completely.

So if you need to eat several of these at once, I won't judge you. I won't even blame you for hiding the entire bag and eating them all once your children go to bed. 😉 Chocolate will make you do that some days.