Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
I successfully completed the Whole 30 last month and it's completely flipped my eating habits. While I've added back in small doses of dairy, legumes (seriously, life without hummus is just SAD) and occasional grains like rice, oats and corn, I'm proud to say I've been completely gluten free for almost two months. Sure, there are times when I miss bread and donuts but I feel so much better now. I've lost 10 pounds and my clothes aren't tight anymore. I am regularly wearing a pair of my “skinny pants” that I'd put away for awhile and they're sliding toward the “too baggy” category. Yay me! gluten free chocolate chip cookies
But, I miss sweets. I have a serious sweet tooth and I love homemade cookies. These gluten free chocolate chip cookies are a hit with my family and I feel much less guilty about occasionally indulging. Important to note, these cookies are not Paleo or Whole 30 compliant. They have sugar and most gluten free baking mixes are going to contain some kind of grain, usually rice flour. But, I like to think this is a healthier twist on chocolate chip cookies and they don't dissapoint in the taste department. These are not “diet food” or “health food” and if you eat 10 of them in one sitting, your scale is probably going to tell you something. But they are an alternative to baking with flour and they don't contain eggs or dairy (unless you use milk chocoate chips.)
Amazingly yummy gluten free chocolate chip cookies
[Tweet “Gluten free egg free chocolate chip cookies”]
Ingredients:
- 1 c coconut oil
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vanilla
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 cups gluten free baking mix
- 1/4 cups flax meal
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
I bought a bottle of Mexican Vanilla when we went on our cruise this past December. There's nothing like it and it's soooo much better than using the immitation vanilla extract, although that will do in a pinch. But seriously, the real deal makes your cookies taste amazing.
Preheat oven to 350.
Line 2 baking sheets w/parchment paper.
In med. bowl, mix oil, applesauce, salt, vanilla and sugar.
In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, flax meal and baking soda.
Carefully add dry ingredients to wet, stir until grainy dough forms.
Gently fold in chocolate chips. I prefer dark chocolate chips but you can use any kind you like.
Using a melon baller, scoop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart and press w/ heel of the hand to flatten.
The batter seems a little oilier than most traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes and they don't spread like “regular” chocolate chip cookies, which is why you need to use your hand to flatten them out before they go into the overn. See below.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool.
Store in container at room temp for up to three days (like they'll last that long.)
These look good. I will need to give them a try. My 8 year old has celiac disease and I’m always on the look out for new gluten free goodies to try.
One thing that caught my eye is your mention of adding oats back in to your diet. If you are truly wanting to avoid gluten, be very careful with oats. It is quite difficult to find any that haven’t been cross contaminated. We currently live in Australia and people with celiac disease are advised not to eat them at all as there is the danger of cross contamination plus oats contain proteins called avenins which can cause the same reactions as gluten. You may already know all that but I just wanted to pass the info along in case you were interested.
No, I didn’t know! I actually haven’t had oats yet but I was going to put steel cut oatmeal back in my breakfast rotation. I make it in the crock pot with apples.
A good many people can eat oats and be fine but there a quite a few who react adversely. In order to allow oats in the diet here, you have to undergo a doctor supervised oats challenge to see if they can be tolerated. However, the, standards for gluten free in Australia are a bit more strict than the US and the rest of the world for that matter. Australia considers food gluten free if the detectable gluten is 3 ppm or less where as everyone else uses a measurement of 20 ppm. And everywhere else allows oats as part of a gluten free diet. I just wanted to pass the info along as many people aren’t aware of any issues with oats. It’s entirely a matter of choice for anyone outside of Aus.
Can you use almond flour and would it be two cup still?
I haven’t tried that but that’s what I would do…I’ve subbed almond flour for regular flour in recipes and it’s worked OK. What I suggest is to add your flour a little bit at a time to make sure you’re happy with the consistency.