Cookies!

Today I was experimenting with an older recipe of mine and after all was said and done, they turned out quite well. I replaced the white flour with almond flour and oat flour and replaced the sugars with coconut sugar and cane sugar.

So the recipe I used today is as follows:

Crackerjack Cookies

1 cup of butter

1 cup of cane sugar (to replace the white)

1 cup of coconut sugar (to replace the brown)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of almond flour

2 ½ cups of oat flour (simply oat flakes ground in my Vitamix)

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 cups of oats

2 cups of rice crispies

Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper) and press down slightly.

Bake for 10-11 minutes in a 325* oven. My cookies looked quite underdone when I took them out but they finished their baking while cooling on the cookie sheet. This made 50 good sized cookies.

A few notes about what happened today:

• I think I only needed ¾ cup of butter, rather than a whole cup but I'll play with that next time
• If I had used less butter, I would have needed less flour
• Because almond flour isn't a very dry flour, it took a lot more oat flour to reduce the wetness of the dough
• I also could probably cut the amount of sugar down as well, but I didn't want to experiment with too many variables at the same time

(A fabulous cookie jar from my sister!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Gluten Free

I woke up on this cool snowy morning with the desire to bake something sweet. With chocolate. Maybe I just wanted something to comfort me and my family as we watch the flurries continue to fall. So here's what I baked today!

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ½ cups butter (or margarine)

1 ½ cups brown sugar

¾ cup white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs or egg substitute

2 cups brown rice flour

1½ cups arrowroot flour

¼ cup finely ground flaxseed

1½ teaspoons xanthan gum

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs, mix together until blended in. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. 

Add to butter/sugar mixture and mix. 

Add chocolate chips.  

Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. 

Notes:

• Because of the arrowroot flour, these will be flat cookies with an aftertaste similar to that of shortbread cookies. Not a bad thing, just so you know.  
• I did have to add a little extra flour because the dough was a little sticky
• I chilled the dough balls before baking
• They won't last long in this house. They are soft and delicious!

Please feel free to try the recipe out and even blog about it yourself. If you do, just link back to me and let me know what you thought!

Copyright: homeschoolingmomof4©

Wheat Free Baking

When I embarked upon my wheat/gluten free changes, I was a little worried about what or how I would ever bake again.  I was surprised to find a plethora of resources that allow me to fullfil my desire to bake yummy treats and still remain wheat free.  

Yesterday's cookies were a huge hit!  They are butter, wheat/gluten and egg FREE!  I took the recipe from Stephanie Cooks Blog (not me) and modified it.  

Butter-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups GLUTEN FREE ALL PURPOSE BAKING FLOUR

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 portion of egg replacement product

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Stir together flour, soda and salt. Set aside.
Whisk together both types of sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture to oil mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
Using a tablespoon measure, scoop up dough and shape into tight rounds of about ¾ to 1 inch. Space them about 2 inches apart on two ungreased cookie sheets. The mounds should be bursting with chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Makes about 2 dozen

The second recipe was made this morning and I tackled muffins.  Again, they were AMAZING!  I don't know where I got my original recipe but here's what I did today.

Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour

2 cups chickpea flour

3 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup melted butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 portions of egg replacement (or 2 eggs)

Combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.  Mix the remaining wet ingredients.  Add the wet to dry and mix until just moistened.

Add to muffin tins (makes about 24)

Sprinkle tops with a mixture of 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon if desired.

Bake at 400* for 17-20 minutes