Gluten-free “baking” is a little bit new for me. I’m not super familiar with how to mix all of the alternative flours to make gluten-free stuff taste like it’s not gluten free. I often ask my GF twitter and blog friends for assistance. Jeanne from Art of Gluten Free Baking helped me out with my questions the other day. And she’s currently writing a gluten-free baking book too, so I figured I could trust her advice! I developed my recipe using Jeanne’s recommended blend of GF flours (brown rice, white rice, tapioca, sweet rice + xanthan gum). Thanks to Jeanne, because those flours worked out perfectly!
Since going gluten-free, my Mom has had a hard time with things made with GF flour. She loves her cookies and she hasn’t had much luck with baking her own gluten free cookies. She says they’re too soft or too crumbly or they just don’t taste right. Guess what? These tasted right!!
They’re not crunchy, but they’re not break-apart soft or crumbly either. I’d describe them as a fairly sturdy-but-soft cookie that is chewy and very much like a regular old chocolate chip cookie made with regular flour. We served them up at a football game party yesterday (without revealing the fact that they were gluten-free), and no one even noticed a difference.
A funny side-note… when I told my husband I was baking Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, his immediate reaction was, “Ick.” When he tasted the cookies, his reaction was, “Wow, these are good!” Many people have the misconception that eating gluten-free means that you don’t get to eat any good food or that all things that are made to be gluten-free are disgusting and icky. You may be surprised just how well you can eat living without gluten. I hope I don’t ever have to do so, but I know that if someday I have to give up gluten, life can still be pretty delicious. P.S. I was able to find most of the flours in the recipe at my regular market (made by Bob’s Red Mill), but the sweet rice flour I found at Whole Foods. Do you have friends and family who have to live a gluten free life? Make them some cookies 🙂
