Tuesday, January 27, 2015

My Allergen-Free Version of King Arthur Flour’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

When I King Arthur Flour announced their 2015 Recipe of the Year for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies, I immediately put it on my list to create an allergen-free version.

My recipe is half of the King Arthur Flour version – any more than that and I’d be eating way too many cookies. But feel free to make the larger batch if it suits your needs. The key changes here are the use of gluten-free flours (and oatmeal), along with the corresponding additions (noted below), and use of a flaxseed egg instead of the traditional egg.


Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (inspired by King Arthur Flour’s recipe of 2015)

Ingredients:

½ cup (8 tablespoons) shortening, at room temperature (I used Earth Balance Natural Shortening)
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 flaxseed egg (instead of the egg and egg yolk)
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
124 grams King Arthur Flour gluten free whole grain flour blend (instead of 1 cup of All Purpose Flour - please weigh the flour!)
½ cup old-fashioned gluten-free oats
½ teaspoon xanthan gum (added)
2 teaspoons baking powder (I doubled to account for no eggs and no gluten and left out the baking soda)
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (the original recipe called for 1 ½ cups – 3 cups for the full recipe. That’s a whole lot of chocolate chips, even for me, so I reduced it.)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat together the shortening and sugars until grainy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically. Note that this recipe uses the invaluable technique of “creaming” whereby the sugar granules are coated with fat. Don’t skip this step! Add the flaxseed egg and vanilla and beat them into the sugar mixture.

Whisk together the flour, oats, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt, and add it to the mixing bowl. Mix until everything is thoroughly blended. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. I was tempted to refrigerate the batter for an hour before scooping the cookies, but I found that it really wasn't required.

I used a #40 scoop to make “regular” size cookies. Use a larger scoop if you are preparing these for a special event or bake sale.


Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving space in between.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes (add a minute if you like your cookies crunchy). Note that they won’t be as golden as cookies made with wheat, but they are delicious!


These cookies are moist, gooey when warm, and very chocolatey. Do you think it’s okay to serve them for breakfast?

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