More Recipes to Share

So I have some requested recipes I should post. I have made one friend who is new to the Gluten Free Life, and I figured the nicest thing I could do was give her some recipes that she can consume without fear. The first one I've got for everyone today is a GF/DF/Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie, because my new friend Grace is as much of a cookie fanatic as I am. And my neighbor called them Da Bomb Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Chip Cookies. My family managed to consume the whole batch, except what we sent over to my neighbor, by the morning after I made them. Before I go to the recipe, a quick note about replacing eggs. I had no eggs when I came up with this recipe, so I used silken tofu and soymilk. Tofu binds similarly to eggs, though not as tight, so I doubt you could use it in bread, but it worked to create a very tender and moist crumb in my cookies. I also use shortening for my cookies, even knowing how bad it is for you, because of the dairy allergy we have in our house. You could use softened butter or margarine, obviously, if you have no dairy allergy. They won't be dairy free, and I'm not sure if that would still make them vegan. Have to look that up. But here goes.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free/Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 cups Suzy's GF Flour blend (see earlier post for flour blend recipe)

1 tsp. Xanthan gum

1 tsp. Kosher salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup silken tofu

3 Tbsp. Vanilla soymilk

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark, whatever you've got)

1 Tbsp. Real Vanilla extract

1 cup Chocolate Chips (Make sure they're GF! I use Guittard or Ghirardelli)

Preheat oven to 380 to 395 degrees (mine is not perfectly accurate, so somewhere in there)

So you pretty much make these like any cookie. I still use a Stand Mixer for ALL my GF baking, except muffins- they're easier to stir. In the bowl of the stand mixer, combine the shortening, soymilk, both sugars, salt, vanilla, vegetable oil. In a 1 quart bowl combine the flour blend, baking powder, and xanthan gum and blend together with a wire whisk. Turn on the mixer and blend together the sugar and shortening, etc. until mostly not lumpy, stop the mixer and add the tofu, start it up again and run on medium speed lightened in color and beginning to rise up the sides of the bowl, a minute or so on low and then speed it up to medium and let it run for another minute. Turn off mixer and scrape the bowl all the way down in the bottom, run it again for a few seconds to make sure there's no unmixed spots. Turn mixer back on to low and add the flour mixture slowly to the bowl. I usually add in about three installments, bit by bit. If you dump it all in at once, you'll make a big mess. Mix for a minute or two, until thickened. Be sure and scrape the bowl and be sure there's no dry spots in the bottom, and mix again. It will not exactly match the texture of a gluten dough, but you'll know what I mean when I say thickened. Take the bowl off the mixer and stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, I use AirBakes, they make great cookies. You can reuse the same piece of parchment for subsequent pans of cookies, at least about 3 times, so if you only have one baking sheet it's okay. Drop medium sized balls of the cookie dough on the baking sheet, about the size of a walnut. So 1 and 1/4 inch or so. I have bigger cookie sheets, I can fit about 20 cookies on each sheet, but space them about an inch and a half apart or so, they don't spread as much as you'd think. Bake for about 11 minutes per sheet, one sheet at a time with the oven rack in the top, or high, position. These will not get very brown, and if they do they'll be drier when you eat them. When removed from the oven, let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack. Cool for at least 10 minutes before eating, or you might burn your mouth.:) It may take some experimentation to get them right in your oven, but they're really really good cookies! Makes about 3 dozen 2 inch cookies (when baked) though you may get a few more than that, depends on how much dough you eat! Enjoy.