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.
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
{ 3 trackbacks }