KOSHER RECIPES FOR GLUTEN-FREE LIVING



Wednesday, January 10, 2007

My first gluten-free chocolate chip cookies



I've made cakes, I've made knishes, I've made gorgeous doughnuts. But one thing I've never tried baking since going gluten-free is something as basic as chocolate chip cookies. So this weekend I whipped up these cookies, based on a recipe I found on RecipeZaar. I used Enjoy Life's mini chocolate chips, and chose Pamela's Baking Mix* for the all-purpose flour. The tapioca and sweet rice flour were added for their glutinous (but not gluten-ous!) properties, which make the cookie stay chewy even once they cool. You can replace all the flours with a total of 1 1/2 cups of any gluten-free all purpose flour, but they will not turn out quite as chewy.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOOKIES

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sweet rice flour (also called sticky rice flour or glutinous rice flour)
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tablespoons almond meal
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar or turbinado sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Blend butter, sugars, egg and vanilla with a wooden spoon until creamy.

In a separate bowl, blend flours, baking soda, almond meal and salt. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well.

Grease a baking sheet and drop a tablespoon of the batter at a time onto the cookie sheet, leaving ample room between cookies. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before transferring carefully to cooling rack.



*Edited 3/09 to add: Pamela's baking mixes are under kosher supervision but are not certified by a mainstream kosher certifying agency, so most people who keep strictly kosher kitchens will want to use another gluten-free all-purpose flour mix such as Arrowhead Mills Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix. I no longer use Pamela's products in my house since I now have a more strictly kosher kitchen. If in doubt, check with your rabbi!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll have to try out this recipe. Thanks. I've been buying the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods to satisfy my craving.

K Allrich said...

Those look lip-smacking tasty!

Katherine Gray said...

Lovely! I have to make these. I really miss chewy cookies and I don't think my kid even knows what they're like. But I'll have to make them immediately after returning from the grocery. Those chocolate chips have a tendancy to, uh, disappear in my presence! Thanks for the comment on my blog. You're a much more accomplished baker than I and I'm excited to try your recipes!

Barb said...

I am trying to make these and I am confused as Pamela's baking mix already has not only multiple flours but also buttermilk, baking powder and xanthum gum.
If one uses a gf flour mix like Bette Hagmans, the ingredients are quite different.
Pamela's Baking Mix ingredients (from website)
INGREDIENTS: Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour, Cultured Buttermilk, Natural Almond Meal (may appear as brown flecks), Tapioca Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Grainless & Aluminum Free Baking Powder (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Potato Starch), Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum.

ByTheBay said...

Barbara - You're right, Pamela's and many other all-purpose GF flours already have multiple ingredients. If you use a flour without these additional ingredients, these cookies should still turn out - They just won't turn out exactly the same. Cookies don't generally require xanthan gum (though you can try putting a teaspoon in to see how it turns out) and the buttermilk powder shouldnt' be necessary. If you try them with the Bette Hagman blend let me know how they turn out - I bet they'll be just fine :) Sorry for the confusion. I have actually stopped using Pamela's since writing this recipe many months ago, so I'm working more with the GF flour mixes I make at home myself, or with individual flours.

Whitney Rae said...

These were my first gluten free chocolate chip cookies as well. Pretty darn good, they taste like what I remember homemade chocolate chip cookies tasting like!

Mine came out pretty crispy though. I let them cook 12 or 13 minutes because they didn't look done at 10, but maybe I should have taken them out at ten and let them set? They were still better than any gluten free cookie I've tried from the store though, so thanks for the recipe.

I too used Pamela's, but now that you don't use Pamela's, what would be the flour mix you'd use for this recipe? Maybe Bob's Red Mill bean flour mix? Or would you just use more rice and tapioca flours? As you can tell I'm new to the whole gluten free baking thing.

Anonymous said...

hi, thanks for posting this recipe. I'm trying to make tehm for my husband and am having such trouble (I had the same trouble the other day with choux pastry!)... I have absolutely no idea how heavy a "cup" is. I am in UK and we don't use that weight system. I've tried using online conversion charts and all I have is a huge bowl of what is basically like dry breadcrumbs! (With the choux pastry the same conversion chart ended up giving me a thin batter!!). I think I'm going to cry... :( Do you have any ideas?

ByTheBay said...

Anon- Yikes! I have the same trouble when I try to use your (weight based) system. I don't know how to make this recipe without using American measurements. I bet a quick google search would yield some websites about conversions (not just numbers, but ideas) though. If it's too crumbly, certainly try adding more liquid, though. So sorry I can't be of more help!