Those days don't look over to me. What do think of these beauties?
The fact is, you can make wonderful gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and the procedure is no different than making "regular" chocolate chip cookies. You may find that you like these even better, and since store-bought gluten-free cookies are so expensive (and horrible!), it behooves you to learn how to do this. I promise you that this is easy.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cream of tartar with a wire whisk. I always use a whisk because then I know the xanthan gum is fully incorporated. In your mixer bowl, add the sugar, brown sugar, shortening, and vanilla. A scale really comes in handy here--no messy spoons or measuring cups.
Cream the ingredients on medium-low speed. Don't beat it on high speed--we're making cookies here, not a cake, and we don't need to incorporate air. Add the eggs one by one and mix well after each, again on medium-low speed. See the nice golden color from the eggs?
Add your flour and begin mixing. Scrape down the bowl if you need to do so. You end up with a good cookie dough.
Here's a nice close-up of the dough. Looks good, huh? Now add your chocolate chips and mix until fully incorporated, no more than half a minute.
Before we bake the cookies, I'm going to show you something I usually do here. I don't need 4 dozen cookies at once, so I freeze half of the dough. Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap. Scoop half of the dough onto it. Roll it up, twisting the ends and folding under. Do this TWICE with the plastic wrap, and you have a nice cylinder as you see in the middle. Then wrap in a large sheet of tinfoil, twisting the ends and then turning them under. Put the shiny side of the tinfoil toward the inside because labels don't like to stick to it. Label your cookies, and then put the cylinder in a freezer bag and freeze. That's four wrappings--2 plastic, 1 tinfoil, and 1 freezer bag. This will keep for many, many months in the freezer. When you're ready to use it, pull it out and leave it wrapped on the counter for a couple of hours to thaw and then use. Or you can leave it overnight in the fridge to thaw out.
Roll some dough between your hands to form ping-pong ball-sized cookies. Here you can see them just starting to melt in the oven. Bake 12-14 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them stay on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes, and then remove them with a spatula to a cooling rack to cool completely. On the right, you can see them cooling on a rack. The ones on the left were baked a couple of minutes longer and will be a little crispier than those on the right.
And that's all there is to it. I told you it was easy!
2 and 3/4 cups (358 g) gluten-free flour blend
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup (6.5 oz) shortening
3/4 cup (5.6 oz) brown sugar
3/4 cup (5.25 oz) sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, and cream of tartar in a medium-sized bowl with a wire whisk. In the bowl of your mixer, add the brown sugar, sugar, shortening, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium-low speed until creamed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the flour mixture all at once and mix just until combined. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined. Roll dough between your hands to form ping-pong-sized balls. Place on cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven and let the cookies sit in the pans for two minutes. Then remove with a spatula to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen.
TIPS:
1. I use my own gluten-free flour blend, called
"Mel's Magic Mix," which is a blend of sorghum and rice flours with
corn, potato, and tapioca starches. My ratio is 3:1 (flours to starches),
and I think this works well. But you can use any good gluten-free flour
mix. If your mix already contains xanthan gum, then omit it when mixing
up this recipe.
2. You can refrigerate your dough to make it even easier to work with, but it isn't necessary. If your flours are coarse, it can help to soften them up a bit. I always use finely-ground flours.
3. A scale is invaluable in gluten-free baking. Not only does it prevent messing up spoons, measuring cups, etc., with ingredients, but gluten-free baking can be tricky. What if your flour weighs a lot more than mine because it's made of different flours? Then 2 and 3/4 cups will be too much. That's why it's always good to weigh your ingredients. This way, your baking will be much more successful.
4. Freezing the dough does not change the quality at all. You can also freeze the cookies after baking them. Be sure to wrap very well and use a couple of freezer-grade bags to freeze them.
5. All ovens are different. Mine takes about 12 or 13 minutes to bake these cookies nicely. Yours may only take 10 minutes or may take 14 or 15 minutes. Check the cookies in the oven at about the 9 or 10 minute mark. You want to see them starting to brown, not just barely, but actually some brown beginning to creep up the cookie. Experience with your own oven and with using this recipe will let you know exactly how long you need to bake these cookies.
6. Be sure that your chocolate chips and vanilla extract are brands that do not contain gluten.
7. A word about shortening: Yes, I know it is not the greatest thing in the world. They are now making it almost completely free of trans-fats. Cookies are not health food and are not meant to be health food. They are meant to be indulgences, and a few cookies here and there won't kill you. Shortening makes a nice, poofy cookie. Yes, you can use butter (1 cup), but your cookies will be flatter and may bake in less time. Also, if you do choose to use butter, you must refrigerate the dough for a few hours at least before baking. That will help with the flattening problem. Butter has liquid in it, and it will make your dough gooier.
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