Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans

that don't taste gluten-free

adapted from King Arthur Flour by My Little Blue Heron

Blue Heron Kitchen has been on extended leave. As soon as I figure out how the Heron can move over to my new domain, this site will remain intact, but Blue Heron will migrate to its new nest. In due course, Blue Heron Kitchen will be christened, My Little Blue Heron. 

My Little Blue Heron will feature gluten, dairy-free and low FODMAP diet-friendly recipe that don't taste chalky or gritty or wrong. Gluten and dairy-free cookery has come out, and I'm excited to share recipes for artisinal breads that have crust(!), cookies that don't have grit, recipes that aren't dominated by coconut oil, and a vegan parmesan cheese that may not taste like "Reggiano", but the nutritional value and texture will have you sprinkling it on your pizza, pasta dishes and on your salads. I'll share some of my new Japanese recipes. Japanese cuisine is so welcoming to those who are gluten and dairy free. (And it's not all about Tamari. Kikkoman and other soy sauce companies are producing gluten-free soy sauce. And if you stay away from soy, coconut aminos are your friends.) There are alternatives to alternatives, and I'm going to share as much as I know with you. 

It's beginning to look a lot like gridlock alert days. I'll begin with some holiday-friendly recipes. You can't make enough cookies around this time of year...cookies for giving, swapping or slinging, here's a great chocolate chip cookie recipe that gluteneers will love, too.

Get in the kitchen, get baking, take care of yourself and others.  

peace and love,

jane

I bucked convention and converted these from drop to rolled cookies. I made these with butter (the only dairy I incorporate into my cooking), but you can use a non-dairy substitute. If you use one that is salted, omit additional salt. When you roll your own cookies, you can bake as many or as few as you'd like .. on demand. If you don't own a kitchen scale, please get one (already.) Here's a great one. (I own three, and it's my fave.) Weighing ingredients will bring consistent results! 

Xanthan gum is expensive. (I think it's part of we got em by the GF balls conspiracy.) I buy Bob's Red Mill by the bag. As almost always, vitacost.com offers great prices (and variety!)

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

227 g. (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter, room temperature

213 g. (1 c.) brown sugar (If you're measuring it, pack it firmly.)

100 g. (1/2 c.) granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. powdered vanilla (Authentic Foods .. here's the link .. and yes, you can use 2 tsp. regular 

         vanilla extract, but beware: many vanilla extracts contain GRAIN alcohol and aren't GF.)

1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt

2 eggs, size large, room temperature

347 g. Multi-purpose GF flour of your choice*. IMPORTANT: If your flour has xanthan gum in it,                 omit the xanthan gum.

2 tsp. xanthan gum (See above: if your GF flour blend has xanthan gum, omit this.)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. aluminum free baking powder

340 g. (2 cups) chocolate chips (GF .. and if you're dairy-free, the same.)

175 g. (1 1/2 c.) chopped pecans

Procedure:

1. Whisk together the flour blend, xanthan gum (if adding), baking powder, baking soda and salt and 

     set aside.

2. In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid or electric mixer, beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Add vanilla 

    powder (or extract) and beat until incorporated.

3. Add eggs, scraping down the bowl as needed. Make sure all ingredients are well combined.

4. Add dry mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture until blended. 

5. Dump in the chocolate chips and pecans, blending until just incorporated.

6. Using parchment paper or plastic wrap, separate into 3 portions. Roll each into a log about 10"-12"      long, depending on how big a cookie you want. Place the logs on a small cookie sheet and                  refrigerate until firm .. a few hours, or overnight. You can freeze the logs and slice and    

     bake them frozen. Just add additional bake-time.

7. Preheat oven to 350º F.  and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

8. Slice cookies approximately 1/4"-1/2" desired thickness and place on sheets approximately 1"             apart (they don't spread, but they need their personal space.)

9. Bake time depends on your oven, where in the oven you've placed them, if they're cold, room             temperature or frozen, how thick you've sliced them, and like that. But figure about 10 minutes,           more or less. They're ready when they're golden brown.
10. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes before removing from parchment. Cool on racks.

Yield will vary, but figure about 3 dozen.
These will keep for a couple of days, but they're best eaten the day they're baked.
They freeze magnificently.

*A simple GF blend (make sure you use SUPERFINE rice flours for baking. Both white and brown superfine rice flours are sold by Authentic Foods. Vitacost.com is your best and least expensive resource for these (and so many other ingredients. Vitacost.com produces their own house brands that are great and are less expensive than Authentic Foods.): 

6 c. superfine brown rice flour, 2 cups corn or potato starch (I like one of each, but either will do), and 1 cup of tapioca starch. Whisk together, combine them WELL; and keep in a tightly lidded container. I suggest you buy Cambro containers for flour mixtures. They will do you a solid for storing flour mixtures and later on, dough mixtures! I have them in many sizes.

If you want to buy a GF flour blend, here are a couple of good quality blends:
Authentic Foods

Cup4Cup (pricey but good - very 'soft' blend, but there are now different varieties .. check it out!)

Better Batter (has xanthan gum)

99% Chocolate Chip Cookies (Nutella Stuffed, Brown Butter, Sea Salt)

99% Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Nutella Stuffed, Brown Butter, Sea Salt)

Adapted from NPR’s Leonard Lopate Show with Melissa Clark by Blue Heron Kitchen

(But really from “Monique” at ambitiouskitchen.com)

This chocolate chip cookie will elicit moans and omg's from the snootiest chocolatechipinado. Merging round and nutty browned butter (so all over cookies) with every chocolate flavor - dark, semi and moo (you can change any of these to your liking) with beloved Nutella (on sale last week for $2.99, American!) - finished with a sprinkle of Maldon salt. 

I know this one sounds like a signature cookie for the Jeb Bush campaign and the richest 1%, but once one of these occupies your taste buds, you'll understand that abundance doesn't translate to horror (and stock up on Nutella when it's on sale.) I'm going to deem these the official 99% Chocolate Chip Cookies and maybe they'll be Bernie Sanders' signature cookie! (A girl can dream.)

There's some labor to making these .. they're not drop cookies. But truth is this batter is like ... butter. The extra yolk softens the batter (before and after the bake) and makes it entirely enjoyable and easy to work. The refrigerated Nutella is kinda hard and if you're going to do battle, it'll be with the Nutella.

You'll work it out. You're the boss.

The only thing I'd suggest tweaking is perhaps lightening up some on the quantity of chips. Next time, I'll remove half the chips and toast and chop up some nuts - either hazelnuts or pecans. I like nuts. And it wouldn't hurt to stuff it to the 1%, now would it?

with a smile and a song,

jane

Ingredients:
2 ¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. Kosher salt
1 c. (8 oz.) unsalted butter, preferably European style
1 ¼ c. packed dark brown sugar
¼ c. granulated sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, size large, room temperature
1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract  (Baldwins, highly recommended)
1 Tbsp. plain Greek yogurt
¾  c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is a good choice for all chips in this recipe)

½ c. milk chocolate chips
½ c. dark chocolate chips
1 -13 oz. jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator 

Coarse sea salt for finishing (Maldon flaked salt is perfect! - the link is for Amazon, but I've seen it for less in local markets - specifically, hMart, an Asian (Korean) supermarket.)

Procedure:
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

To brown the butter:

In a 1 to 1 ½ qt. saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. The butter will begin to foam. 

Make sure to whisk constantly during this process. 

The foam will subside and the butter will ‘cook.’ 

After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to foam again and then begin to brown.  During this process, breathe deeply – the smell is DIVINE! And .. of course, whisk continually. When the aroma and color are both ‘nutty’, remove from the heat and immediately transfer to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment or Beater Blade, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Beat in the whole egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Scrape down, as necessary.

Add the dry ingredients; and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips. Transfer to the medium bowl in which you’d mixed your dry ingredients.

Flatten dough and cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour to two hours. The dough should be cold, but pliable. This is a very pliable dough. When you remove it from the fridge, if it’s too stiff, allow it to soften up until you can work with it. 

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set racks to upper and lower third of oven

Measure about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand.

Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle 

and fold dough around it; 

gently roll into a ball – No worries .. it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled, but make sure that the Nutella isn’t peeking out of the dough. (If it is, you may add more dough to tuck in the Nutella.)

Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand with GREAT CARE. (Just the tops need to be flattened.)

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes, transferring sheets front to back and top to bottom half-way through the bake, or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but they'll continue firm up once cooled. 

Truc: While these are baking, prepare the next batch. You can bake them or place them on a sheet, lined with waxed or parchment paper and freeze the formed cookies. Once frozen, wrap them and store them. Bake them freezer to oven (DON'T DEFROST THEM!), adding baking time as needed. If you choose this method, I recommend you bake them one sheet at a time, in the center of your oven. 

Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes and then sprinkle each cookie with a little coarse Maldon flaked salt.

Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough (or freeze.)

Yield: 2 dozen large cookies (with leftover Nutella for your toast!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Mesquite Flour and Guajillo Chile Butter - Gluten Free

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Mesquite Flour and Guajillo Chile butter

Gluten Free

My Little Blue Heron

Mesquite “flour” from Peru, is from the pods that grow on the Mesquite tree. The beans are ground, rendering a fine, sweet, warm and “smoky” flour. It’s great for baking. Pairing well with chocolate, coffee and cinnamon, it’s gluten free, high in fiber and iron and everyone together: “Amazon sells it”. I love it (the flour). I paired it with arrowroot, my preference to tapioca; and combined Muscavado and brown sugars. You can sub coconut sugar and any other sugar you like. I wouldn’t use too much, if any white sugar in this recipe. I use very little white sugar. 

Chocolate chips are up to you. I recently bought Guittard organic bittersweet wafers and they rock my world. But they rock my wallet, too. If you want to cut down on sugar, try Pascha sugar free chocolate chips. They’re also expensive. It’s worth the extra for excellence. Use quality ingredients, and you’ll have fine results. 

If you’re not adding nuts, try some chopped up dark dried cherries – that’ll work nicely. Trader Joe’s sells them without added sugar.

I had been topping these off with coarse salt and Turbinado sugar. I stopped – too many tastes going on. But if you love salt/sweet/hot altogether, give it a whirl!

Be sure you don’t under-bake these. If they’re not completely baked, they won’t hold up (gluten-free’ll do that.)

Here’s to opening our borders for those who seek asylum, safety and freedom. Here’s to freeing detainees (children!) from our concentration camps. Finally, here’s to the swift removal of a truly sick man who wears the cufflinks of a president and to establishing some dignity, intellectualism and sanity (yes, there isa sanity clause) in America if it isn’t already too late.

To love, peace, good health and happiness for all beings. To chocolate chip cookies.

peace and love,

jane

मेत्ता

Mesquite Flour/Guajillo Chile Butter 

Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Ingredients:

84 g. toasted/cooled and chopped pecans (or walnuts)

113 g. Guajillo chile butter (see below – recipe will yield more than needed)

½ tsp. vanilla powder (or 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract)

100g. Muscavado sugar

50 g. light brown sugar

130 g. mesquite flour

45 g. arrowroot flour

1 tsp. kosher salt

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 egg, size large, room temperature

170 g. bittersweet (very dark to unsweetened) chocolate, coarsely chopped

Procedure:

To make the browned Guajillo Chile butter: 

Melt 226 g. (2 sticks or 18 Tbsp.) unsalted butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan with 2 Guajillo chiles. Skim foam and discard. Cook butter until ‘browned’. Optional: For real picante, add chipotle powder (to taste). For this recipe it’s not necessary to strain but if you’re using this for recipes that will reveal the butter, please strain through a fine mesh sieve. Set aside to cool.

Sift or whisk together mesquite and tapioca flours with salt and baking soda. Set aside.

MLBH truc: Mesquite flour will puff out like a cloud of confectioner’s sugar, but worse. When adding this to the batter, throw a dish towel over the mixer before you power up.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the cooled butter and sugars. 

Add the egg and mix on medium speed until lightened.

Dump in the dry ingredients and mix until combined. (see above MLBH truc!)

Add the chopped chocolate and nuts and mix until combined.

At this point, you can roll into logs (parchment or waxed paper) and refrigerate or freeze for slice and bake cookies. Or, you can proceed and bake these as drop cookies.

If batter is too soft, refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

For drop cookies, use small cookie scoop and flatten to ½”, using fork tines, crisscross. 

Bake until browned, about 8-12 minutes.  Cool on racks before removing from parchment. Store in airtight tin or freeze.