Double Chocolate Cookies

     Today I baked a few batches of cookies, getting my Valentine's package ready to mail off to the grand kids. I made a batch of Snickerdoodles and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, their most favorite requests. I will get the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip recipe posted later. The double chocolate cookie is a new cookie I will surprise them with. 

     After much research I finally decided on which gluten free flours I would like to work with. We have only a few limited options here on island so the next step is to decide where I will be ordering the flours from. Yesterday while at one of our grocery stores (Micronesian Payless for my local friends) I discovered they are carrying two new gluten free flour blends. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour has been available but I find it limiting to work with since the bean flour in it can be over powering in some baked items. It is just fine to use when making pancakes, dense breads like pumpkin or chocolate items. I was looking for something to use for more delicate items like cupcakes. I wanted to order the King Arthur MultiPurpose Flour and was happy to see our store now carries it. What excited me even more was finding the bag of Namaste Foods Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend! It was twice the quantity as the other two options for about the same price. The ingredients were pretty straight forward: sweet brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, sorghum flour and xantham gum. The brown rice and sorghum flours told me this would be a good all purpose baking flour. For those that have food allergies, this flour mix is made in a dedicated facility free of: gluten, wheat, soy, corn, potato, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and casein. Sensitive allergy folks will appreciate this companies efforts to not have cross contamination! Please keep this in mind if you are baking gluten or allergy free for a friend or family member. Namaste Foods Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend really was a nice flour mix and didn't let me down in this Double Chocolate Cookies recipe!

Double Chocolate Cookies

dairy-egg-soy-nut-gluten free

Makes 2 ½ dozen cookies

printable recipe

Ingredients:

1 c. Namaste Foods Gluten Free Perfect Flour Blend

1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

½ t. instant espresso coffee (optional)

1 c. sugar

1/3 c. Spectrum shortening

2 tsp. vanilla

1 T. ground flaxseed combined with 3 T. warm water (replaces 1 egg)

½ c. dairy free chocolate chips

½ c. pumpkin or sunflower seeds (optional)

*If you don’t want this to be gluten free then use an equal amount of wheat flour. 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

1. In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and shortening with an electric mixer on high until well blended. Beat in the vanilla and flaxseed mixture. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the flour mix, chocolate chips and seeds just until blended.

3. Drop by level tablespoonfuls, on a lined baking sheet with parchment paper. Flatten the cookies a little with your fingers. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Center should be puffed but just barely set. Remove from oven; cool on pan for 2 more minutes, then remove and completely cool on wire racks.

Flour Note- Depending on the gluten free flour blend being used, you will probably have to add 1-2 T. water or non-dairy milk to help the dough come together. Each type of gluten free flour absorbs liquid differently. Along with eliminating the egg, you have to carefully adjust the amount of additional liquid. Add 1 T., wait a minute or two and see how the dough is reacting. I needed 1 ½ T. when making this today. Your climate will also affect how much extra liquid will be needed.

Sugar Note- I chose to use the granulated white sugar for this recipe. I do not feel all sugars are equal substitutes when it comes to baking. Putting aside the nutritional qualities of various natural sugars, I look for how each sugar will affect the texture of a baked item. I also consider how the flavor of a sugar will go with the item being baked. If you are wanting a natural substitute for the white sugar then for this recipe I would suggest something like Succanat. It melts similar to the white granulated sugar and the mild molasses flavor would go well with the chocolate. I am not going to experiment here with any of the other sweeteners because I would then have to readjust other quantities in the recipe. For this recipe I wanted a slightly crisp cookie with a soft center and I knew a granulated sugar combined with the shortening would give me this desired texture.