Sunday, October 28, 2012

Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies were a challenge to myself.
I sometimes do that, set random challenges for myself when I am bored.

This time around, I wanted to make my favorite thing ever: A Chocolate Chip Cookie
The rules were: I needed to use up the rest of my glutenous rice flour, left from mochi making
                         I needed to make something totally gluten free without a trip to the grocery store
                         I needed to make something with browned butter. And 1 bowl. (Mix in the pot!)
                         I needed to make something that I would want to eat myself.
My chips were a little...huge

These cookies are chewy! There's really no other way of describing them, other than beautifully caramelized, golden with browned butter, and extra soft from extra brown sugar.
Really, though, they're the chewiest cookies I've ever had. I love it!
The recipe may seem a little confusing as they are gluten free cookies, made with glutenous flour. This description is just of the texture of the flour, not the actual gluten content.

I sometimes find the texture and taste of rice flour a little too starchy and just a little off, but the toastyness of the browned butter, the slightly caramelized sugar, and chunky chocolate (something I usually don't go for in chocolate chip cookies) meld so well together, and really counteract any white-starch taste that could otherwise lead to a pasty cookie.
Browned Butter and Brown Sugar

Gluten Free Browned Butter Cookies

1 stick of butter, browned
1 stick of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups + Tbs glutenous rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Preheat oven to 350ºF, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream the softened butter and white sugar until fluffy.
Brown the other stick of butter in a medium sauce pan. Quickly mix in the brown sugar and mix well, until some of the sugar has totally dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Beat in the softened butter and white sugar and add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk out any lumps in the flour, and to combine.
Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar, mixing well with a rubber spatula. Gently fold in the chocolate chunks.
Portion the dough into 1 inch balls and refrigerate for 1 to three hours. Place chilled dough on the cookie sheets and bake for 9 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges but still soft in the middle.

*These are slightly different from standard cookies, in that they can be under baked. I know, it's a great shock, but it's true. Rice flour has a slightly starchy consistency so if it's under baked the cookies will taste a bit off. Letting the dough sit and meld in the fridge will help a lot with this, so make sure it gets at least 1 hour to chill*

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