Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten-Free)
Sorry guys, this post went up last Friday unintentionally for a few hours- I wanted to save it for a Monday because cookies on a Monday make Mondays a lot better, amirite?
It happens to the best of us. Midnight cookie craving attack. I have a general rule of thumb about sweet cravings- if I want something and the feeling won't shake for a few days, I will eat it. Because otherwise, I'll get rather grouchy and this will happen:
So as I've stated quite clearly in Navigating Nommers, I don't do recreations of recipes for the purpose of "healthifying" them particularly with desserts. In this case, I was genuinely curious about using almond meal in cookies and my brain was making me practically hallucinate the feelings of biting into a warm, freshly-baked cookie, so I decided to try messing around with a new recipe. These do happen to be gluten-free (just make sure the chocolate and oats you use are certified GF if you're a celiac!).
Oh heyyyyy.
Almond Meal and Oat Flour
Baking is a pretty exact science- it's not like cooking where if you slip in a little extra of one ingredient, it won't ruin a dish. If you don't measure precise quantities with baking, your cookie could easily turn into a brick or a pile of goo. Delicious goo, but still goo.
Give this recipe a go- my friends that are used to my classic chocolate chip cookies still raved about them, so I'll take that as a green light.
Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gluten-Free
*makes 15 medium cookies
Ingredients
3/4 cup Oat Flour
*all you need is raw rolled oats- click link for instructions!
1/2 cup Almond Meal
1/2 cup unsalted grass-fed Butter, room temperature
2/3 cup unsweetened Applesauce
1 large Egg
1/2 cup raw Coconut Sugar
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp pure Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup mini dark Chocolate Chips
*optional sea salt to sprinkle atop cookies- you should do it...
Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 325ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine flour, almond meal, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. Mix well.
3. Using a whisk, beat butter, applesauce, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until well combined (for you bakers out there- it won't be fluffy like in traditional cookie mix), for about 1 minute.
4. Beat egg into the wet mixture until well combined. Add vanilla extract in and continue to mix for another 30 seconds.
5. In two parts, add and whisk in dry flour mixture to the wet mixture. Be very careful to not overmix- just beat until dough is sufficiently combined (no signs of dry mixture).
6. Using a spatula, stir in chocolate chips.
7. Using a spoon or a cookie dough scooper, scoop out cookie dough in about 1-in size balls and spread evenly across baking sheet. *Optional, sprinkle sea salt on top of cookies. I say optional, but I really mean mandatory.
8. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes (pending on your oven), until cookies are lightly browned on the edges.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes. This step is very important, as these cookies are a bit fluffier/more delicate and will crumble if you don't wait!
10. When cooled, transfer onto a wire rack for further cooling or serve while warm.
