We are so lucky to have an awesome gluten free guest blogger! Welcome back Amy, who is bringing us more of her delicious gluten free treats!
The idea of chocolate chip cookies and cookie pops started as a simple request from my husband for cookies. Well, not really cookies, but the cookie dough, for him to eat straight out of the bowl. He’s asked me for his own personal bowl of dough before, since he usually sneaks several bites of mine while I’m making the actual cookies, and I continually shoo him away, reminding him that he cannot double dip! So I set off to make one of the recipes you can find on Pinterest for ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip’. The word ‘dip’ should have been my first clue that it wasn’t going to be a salmonella-free version of the traditional cookie dough. Alas, the dip was more like a frosting and we decided it would be pretty good on brownies or maybe even the chocolate chip cookies themselves.
Deciding that cookies were finally going to be made and any experimenting with safely edible cookie dough would have to wait, I headed downstairs to round up my ingredients (As a side note, I keep my gluten free flours in labeled containers in a small freezer chest. The stay fresher longer, especially the brown rice flour, which can go rancid quickly if left at room temperature). As I found my cookie sheet, I saw my heart-shaped Wilton cookie pop mold peeking out from under my baking towels. Yes! I had completely forgotten I bought this at our local Goodwill last fall, and now seemed like the perfect time to give this a try.
Gluten free chocolate chip cookies are one of the easiest recipes to convert yet one of the hardest cookies to perfect. Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies and everyone has a particular taste they associate with them, which is very, very hard to recreate in a gluten free version. Most gluten free chocolate chip cookies you will find will have a gritty texture to them, mainly from the type of gluten free flour that is used. Some will have a more bland taste than you might remember from the wheat version, and some may have an odder shape to them – either really small and puffy or really large and flat. Like most of cooking or baking, getting to the gluten free chocolate chip cookie that you really like is a process of trial and error. But at least you can eat most of what you experiment with!
Below is the gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe I use. It’s a slight modification of the original Toll House version that we all know and love. I used softened coconut oil for the shortening and a blended mix of gluten free flours, including Authentic Foods Superfine Brown Rice Flour. That particular flour is a little more difficult to find and more expensive than a Bobs Red Mill pack at Target (check Amazon and watch for free shipping!), but well worth it.
Oh – the edible cookie dough recipe! Just skip the eggs, add a little more butter, reduce the flour by ¼ C and omit the leavening ingredients. It actually looks and tastes like a chocolate chip cookie dough pie crust…an idea for another recipe!
Chocolate Chip Cookies – Gluten Free!
½ cup coconut oil, softened (or shortening)
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup brown rice flour blend
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a large cookie sheet or cookie pop tin with coconut oil or shortening.
2. Cream coconut oil (or shortening), butter, sugar and brown sugar together in a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix well. In a separate, medium bowl, mix together flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop dough onto cookie sheet by tablespoon and place them about 2″ apart on the cookie sheet. If using a cookie pop tin, drop about a tablespoon of dough into mold and press in to form. Insert cookie pop stick and cover with an additional tablespoon of dough into mold and press in to form. Insert cookie pop stick and cover with an additional tablespoon of dough. Bake in oven for 9-11 minutes for cookies, 13-15 minutes for cookie pops. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet approximately two minutes, remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack. For cookie pops, allow cookies to cool almost completely in the tin, letting the cookie stick set in place. Gently remove cookies from tin using a rubber scraper. Store cookies in an air tight container for up to three days.
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