I'm a chemist (well, technically a biochemist) by training. So I like to think of cooking (especially GF) as a chemistry experiment. I've been trying to come up with a recipe for really good chocolate chip cookies. I like them to be a little cakey, but moist with a little bit of chewiness to them and thick, not spread all across the cookie sheet.
For my first attempt at chocolate chip cookies I used the old Nestle Tollhouse standby (with GF flours of course). While the taste was pretty good, the cookies were a little flat and dried out, especially the next day. So I went about doing some research into different cookie recipes and how a change in the ingredients changed the texture of the cookie.
I once again found a helpful post on Dessert First. I told you this was a fun site! She used 4 different recipes resulting in 4 very different cookies. The recipe with more flour turned out to make more cake-like cookies and it also spread less than the others. I wondered if this would translate using GF flours.
I mixed up a batch of cookies on Wednesday night and baked a few to see how it worked. They were good, but a little too dry for my taste. So I set about searching for what I could add to moisten the cookies without losing their cake-like factor. I found that some (non-GF) people said they like to add milk to their chocolate chip cookies to enhance the flavor. I wondered if this would help by adding some protein that gluten free flours lack. And I wanted to try adding some sweet (glutinous) rice flour to help bind and moisten the cookies. I thought these 2 additions would balance each other out nicely.
The results were marvelous! The cookies were moist and cakey with a little bit of chewiness! Just what I was looking for. The Husband who seems to be all about taste and has a complete disregard for texture thought both batches were the same. They were not. He thought they were good, but did say had a sort of weird flavor to them (of course that didn't stop him from eating 4!) I think it was probably the bean flour, so next time I will try a different flour blend.
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening - I used butter flavored
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
2 Tbls milk
1 cup GF flour blend (I used a blend of 3 parts sorghum, 2 parts chickpea, and 1 part each tapioca and arrowroot)
1/2 cup oat flour
1/4 cup sweet (glutinous) rice flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugars in a mixer. Add in egg, vanilla and milk; mix to incorporate.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes - until the tops of the cookies are slightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Makes 18 cookies. Try not to eat them all!
