If you ask me, there’s nothing better than a chewy chocolate chip cookie.
When I was little, my mom did hair from the house. Every day, we had people traipsing in and out of the house down to the basement where my mom had a salon. Most of her clients were regulars that came every 6-8 weeks for color or a trim, so knocking in my childhood home was not required. You came in, you gave hugs, and you were automatically a member of the family.
One of my mom’s most remembered clients was Kitty. Kitty was an elderly woman who came to get her hair done every month or so – and every time Kitty came over, she brought cookies. A whole tin of cookies. Her cookies were oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with little nuts sprinkled throughout. Those cookies will always be known as “kitty cookies”. As in, “Mom, did you do hair today? Did Kitty come? Did she bring Kitty Cookies?” or “Dad, what do you mean you brought the Kitty Cookies to work? I wanted those!!!”
Kitty cookies will always be the best cookies known to mankind. You probably realize I haven’t had a Kitty Cookie in quite some time – being gluten free can do that to a person. But man oh man can I still taste those cookies – chewy, dense, chocolaty, bites of oatmeal – in a sense, perfect.
Gluten free baking is quite tricky believe it or not. Cookies are either too cakey, too flat, too crispy, too burnt, blah blah blah blah blah.
So when you get a cookie that comes out of the oven still actually looking like a cookie, you eat one – fast. And then you burn the heck out of the roof of your mouth and don’t regain feeling to it for about a week and a half. I’m going on day 7 folks – I’m hoping I will have a fully functioning mouth in about three days.
When I signed up to be a part of the Food Blogger Cookie Swap, I pondered about what kind of cookie I wanted to make for quite some time. And by quite some time, I mean about two days when I realized I was in crunch time and needed to get those cookies out to my unsuspecting swap matches.
I know it was technically a “holiday” swap, but I figured everyone and their mother was going to be making traditional holiday cookies. In an attempt to be different, I was fairly ordinary (??) and made a traditional oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.
I do have to tell you though – if you make these cookies, don’t eat the batter. Raw gluten free cookie dough tastes horrible. Please just take my word for it that these cookies don’t taste horrid like their raw counterpart.
Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (gluten free, vegan)
Makes 3 & 1/2 dozen
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
1 & 3/4 cups gluten free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
2 cups gluten free oats
1 cup chocolate chunks (I used Enjoy Life)
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. xanthan gum
3/4 cup coconut oil, solid**
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
2 flax eggs (2 tbsp. ground flax + 6 tbsp. water, let sit for 3-5 minutes)
Directions: In a small bowl, start by making your flax eggs. Mix 2 tbsp. ground flax with 6 tbsp. water and set aside. Once the mixture begins to thicken up, they will be ready to use.
In another large bowl, mix 1 and 3/4 gluten free flour, 1 and 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. xanthan gum. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream together the 3/4 cup coconut oil, 1 cup turbinado sugar, 1 tbsp. vanilla, and 2 flax eggs. Beat for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Once your wet ingredients are combined, slowly add in the flour mixture and continue to beat until all ingredients are well incorporated.
Once the batter has been made, stir in 2 cups gluten free oats by hand. Then, fold in your chocolate chips. I always refrigerate my dough for ~30 minutes, so now would be the time to do it! It is not necessary, but I always find my cookies come out better when I do.
Taking tablespoon amounts, use your hands to form a ball of dough. If you want your cookies to be flatter, flatten the dough out a bit. If you want them nice and puffy, leave the cookie dough in balls. Bake by the dozen on baking sheets in a 350 degree oven for 12-14 minutes.
**coconut oil is solid at room temperature. make sure your coconut oil is solid and not liquid. To harden the coconut oil up, you can put it in the fridge. If you do not have coconut oil, you can replace it with Earth Balance.
::sigh:: It’s like I’m reliving my childhood all over again, one cookie at a time.
While my goal was to make 3 dozen cookies to send out, I sure am glad this made 3 and a half dozen cookies – just ask my burnt mouth.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
These look amazing! I think oatmeal cookies HAVE to be soft to be fully enjoyable!
I love oatmeal cookies. The chocolate chunks look pretty, too.
Loved this little back story – does your mom still cut hair?
She does! She’s mainly a realtor now, but she still does family and friends.
YUUUUM I vaaant cooookiiieeessss
Mmm these look so good. I wish I had some right NOW!
i love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! and I loved reading the story:)!
This looks like a delicious gluten-free adaption go a traditional favorite. I’m sure Kitty would be proud!
Love oatmeal cookies, made some yesterday and yup, burnt the roof of my mouth on a hot one as it came out of the oven! Feeling OK today though.. These look and sound beautiful, thanks for the recipe
YUM! You can betta believe I’m attempting those for the cookie swap at work!
If you don’t want to make them gluten free, you could definitely just use regular AP flour.
there’s nothing better than a chewy chocolate chip cookie. = I agree!!!
You did a fabulous job on these, both vegan AND gf. One or the other is fairly easy; both in the same recipe when it comes to cookies can be majorly tricky.
They look fabulous and as i said before, if there is a downside to traveling in Dec., it was missing this cookie swap! I wish I coulda done it!
Thanks! That’s why I usually don’t bake cookies – too much room for error!
What a great story and memory to go along with those cookies. I bet you feel like a little girl when you take a bite out of one of those- and they really look like they came out PERFECTLY!
Props, Chelsey!
Hahah I love how your family dubbed them Kitty Cookies! These look great
The chocolate chunks are a nice touch, although they probably make the burnt mouth worse. Look great!
I love me a chewy cookie. These sound delicious!
These cookies look perfect, along with a great childhood story to go with them.
These look amazing!! Thanks for sharing!
Chocolate oatmeal are one of my favorites! These look amazing & thanks for the link up!
Those look more like chewy chocolate CHUNK cookies, even better!
“If you ask me, there’s nothing better than a chewy chocolate chip cookie.” <– AMEN girl! These look amazing. I had no idea you could use coconut oil to bake cookies!
Oatmeal chocolate chip are a match made in heaven to me. These look mighty good. Chewy and fluffy all at the same time. And chocolatey.
The best kind are chocolatey!
looks delicious! i’m not vegan or GF, but will definitely be trying this one. oatmeal cookies are my fave
Don’t you hate when you make cookies, taste the dough, then sit in front of the oven hoping that the cooked version will taste SO much better than what you licked off the spatula? The torture?!
YES!!!!
I just might have to make these next week! And what is turbinado sugar?
sugar in the raw – but you could use any other kind of sugar (evaporated cane juice, etc.) – sugar in the raw is just less processed.
Someone I work with thinks she might have a gluten intolerance, and I was trying to convince her and my co-workers that there is good gluten-free food. She didn’t believe that there is gluten-free pizza and cookies (her favorites, I guess), but I told her otherwise. Maybe I should bake these cookies and bring them into work
.
You totally should!!
there’s nothing better than a chocolate chip cookie sometimes
You are wrong, my friend: there is one thing better than a chewy choc chip cookie…a chewy choc chip cookie with a glass of cold milk ! I would tell you these look amazing…but you already know that
I can’t wait to try out this recipe! =)
One thing I miss since being GF is cookie dough. Bad habit I know but I love it more than the cookies sometimes! I have found that any time I use Bob’s Red Mill AP GF mix it tastes horrible! Blech. I have to rinse my mouth out or grab whatever I can find to stuff in my mouth to make that taste go away. Thank god it does after they’re baked…..there’s a hint of that taste when they come out of the oven but once the baked goods cool down they taste “normal”. I believe it’s the garbanzo bean flour that’s funky. Thanks for the recipe! Gotta try these.
OMG gf dough does taste weird!! I think its either the xanthan gum or the soy flour that’s sometimes part of the mix. I’ve kind of gotten used to it though and I still eat the cookie dough even if its gluten free.
It’s funky, but not bad.
Gluten free? You should be proud that they look so good! Can’t wait to make them!
Your cookies turned out looking so perfect! Look delicious, oatmeal chocolate chip are one of my favorites!
soft & chewy is the way to go!!
Yup, I’m ALL over these!!! Thanks Girl!! I can picture the gooey~ness now….first bites are always the bestest
xxoo
Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies have got to be one of my favorite kind!
These look so good! I love chocolate chip cookies, in fact, I think their simplicity makes them perfect for the holidays. They’re a reliable cookie, always welcome amidst their more flashy counterparts.
Chewy cookies are definitely a must. Although, I always eat my raw gluten-free cookie dough batter, I wonder what about this batter makes it so icky. Sometimes I think it’s the bean flour in Bob’s Red Mill’s mix, I can’t taste it when cooked.
YUM! Vegan and gluten-free AND chewy?
I was so nervous to do a chewy cookie with the swap because I didn’t know how they’d ship. This recipe would have swayed me though, if I had come up with it
.
your kitty comments have conjured such fond memories for me. in the 80s, before my parents became well off, my mother baked italian christmas cookies galore, selling them from the home. it’s all that she did at christmas time, besides, of course, tending to three very high maintenance little girls and a husband.
when i became older, she confided in me that all monies earned from cookie sales were spent on christmas gifts for me and the two younger sisters. such a wonderful mommy.
x
Glad you mastered the gluten free kitty cookie! I bet your swap recipients are too.
These turned out great…yummy!
These are seriously amazing! I have made them several times and throw them in the freezer for when I need something sweet! Best oatmeal cookies ever!!
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