Thanks to Louise for today’s recipe, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Along with the recipe for the gluten free chocolate chip cookies from Gourmet, she sent a photo of the finished product. Looks great! Of course now my goal is to round up all the ingredients which include xanthan gum and potato starch (Update: You can use a gluten free all purpose blend!) and a few other things I don’t normally keep in the pantry. Judging from Louise’s review, it’s worth buying the ingredients just for experimentation’s sake.
Louise noted that baking these at 400 F rather than 375 F might give you better results, as she accidentally baked some at 400 F and they rose better. If you use 400, just keep an eye on the cookies.
Update:If you don’t want to make your own baking blend, use 2 cups and 2 tablespoons of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Blend or King Arthur Gluten Free Baking Blend.
Adapted version is below.
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons gluten free all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 cup vegetable shortening ((non-hydrogenated such as Nutiva)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the shortening and both sugars until creamy. Beat in the eggs, then beat in the vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until blended, then stir in the chips and nuts.
- Drop heaping teaspoons of dough 2 inches apart on parchment or nonstick foil lined baking sheets.
- Bake one sheet at a time at 375 degrees F. for 10 minutes or until cookies are brown around the edges.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
2 cups brown-rice flour (extra finely ground)
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour
I have to say, I’m amazed at how far gluten free goodies have come. I sampled a bunch of commercial varieties at the NRA show and many tasted just as good as their conventional counterparts which is great news for celiac sufferers!
What Anna failed to tell you is that I also made the UNIX/TCP/IP guru’s Ultimate Stand Mixer CC Cookies. Since the two types were side-by-side, there was something to compare them to, not just my taste memory. There is definitely a texture difference, but not necessarily in a bad way. We had about ten adults and four young teenagers eating them and both batches of cookies disappeared at an even rate. The gluten-free cookies were excellent and, people didn’t realize they were wheat-free.
I have a friend who just started a gluten free and dairy free diet.
I think she can eat eggs, but not cc containing milk. I wonder if there is a cc without milk? maybe bittersweet?
Gloria — a couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of “Enjoy Life Semi-sweet
Chocolate Chips”. They are free of the 8 common allergens including dairy, nut, and soy. The stated ingredients are Evaporated Cane Juice, Chocolate Liquor, Non-Dairy Cocoa Butter. You can’t tell looking at the package, but they are mini chips. I was going to use them in the cookie, but tasted a couple. They tasted awful and I didn’t use them, but maybe somebody needing dairy-free would feel differently.
Gloria – Both Trader Joes and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips are actually dairy free and taste much better than the enjoy life in my opinion. The other varieties of Ghirardelli (ie the 60%) contain milk products, but the semi-sweet are fine. Thanks for the recipe Anna and Louise – they came out great! The only one I’ve had to top it is “the chewy gluten free” recipe by Alton Brown. Its fantastic and easy to make dairy free with earth balance or another non-dairy margarine such as fleishmans (unsalted only) and almond milk in place of the dairy milk. As a celiac sufferer, its great to have a couple good cc recipes that live up to their wheat filled counterparts.
Connie, thanks for the review! Also, thanks for recommending the Alton Brown recipe. I’ll have to check his as well.