Here's a few of my favourite things: hamburgers, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. I've been looking for the perfect recipe for each one of the above mentioned for years and even though I have tried at least tens of different recipes that have been promoted as "the best" I still haven't quite found what I'm looking for.
After my wheat allergy diagnosis a couple years ago I needed to start the whole process again from scratch. Not only did I have to try all my favourite recipes again to see if they still work, but I also had to learn a whole new technique of baking and find the perfect flour combination for each one of the recipes. Too often have I noticed that my once tried-tested-and approved recipes just didn't work when substituting wheat with the likes of rice and corn flour: the dough often becomes either too loose and sticky or hard and brittle to bake in the normal fashion. I've mastered most dishes but often with quite unconventional methods - for example my pizza dough has eggs in it and I spread it out with a spatula and bake it for a couple of minutes before adding the toppings. It tastes great - it's actually one of the best pizza crusts I've ever made or eaten, but real Italian chefs would probably crucify me for it.
I can't even remember how many times my cookies have either been too brittle to lift up, or have melted into one pan sized giant cookie or been more like little puffy cakes. And if the consistency has been right, the flavour hasn't been quite like I wanted. After many disasters in the kitchen trying to bake gluten free, I've learned to find joy even in the smallest successes. But when you hit the jackpot and even your not-allergic-to-wheat-and-thus-able-to-eat-the-real-deal husband tells you your creations are the best chocolate chip cookies he has ever tasted, the feeling is amazing.
Finally I've found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. In the past few weeks I've already given it a try three times to see if it really works or if the first time was just a lucky coincidence with all stars aligning perfectly (I've noticed that gluten free baking is often more like stuff of the spirit world and even though you would measure everything closely and do exactly like instructed the result may vary from something looking like naan bread to perfect french style bread rolls with crispy crust to anything in between and you never know what you are going to get when starting out). Let me tell you, the cookies have turned out perfectly every single time!
And did I mention this is a really easy recipe as well? You just mix everything together and leave out the steps where things might go wrong, like whisking together butter and sugar until white and fluffy. I found the recipe on i am a food blog via Pinterest. The original recipe is by Tara O'Brady and published in the book Seven Spoons, a book that I do not have but would very much like to own if the rest of is anything like this cookie recipe.
I'm not going to copy or re-werite the recipe here since you can easily find the recipe over here:
I followed the recipe very closely but here are the few little modifications I've made to it after trying this recipe a couple of times:
- I use gluten free flour mix. The one I use is from Semper called Fin Mix. You can check the ingredients here.
- I use only 7 dl (3 cups) of flour so that the cookies don't turn out too brittle.
- I have reduced the amount of sugar from the total of 2 cups (4.75 dl) to 1.5 cups (3.5 dl), I think they are sweet enough like that. I also use half granulated sugar and half confectioners' sugar, but I'm not sure if it really makes any difference.
P.S. The cookies go through a few stages of metamorphosis before reaching their final form: first they melt into small puddles before the baking soda kicks in and they start to rise like small cakes. Peering through the oven glass I've been like "oh shit!" at both stages but the in the end the cookies settle into perfect form, so don't start panicking too early and easily :)
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