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*

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Sugar Glaze

Sometimes things are best left untouched. I can never resist messing with a recipe that I already love, making it vegan, gluten free, or otherwise "alternative". Some of these attempts are more successful than others, much more successful.
Take, for example, the humble pumpkin cookie. These classic cakey treats are the epitome of an adaptable recipe. They're also the epitome of delicious. This past weekend, I was home from school for fall break and I decided that pumpkin cookies were needed, and that they would be made without eggs, any form of fat, and minimal sugar.

Needless to say, they came out tasting exactly as you would expect a cookie that was essentially flour, spices, and pumpkin puree to taste. They had the texture of rubber cement and tasted of somehow overly sweet pumpkin skin.
They were bad.

Luckily, I didn't use all the pumpkin puree, so I was able to whip up a batch of the highly favored original recipe. Unlike my little mounds or orange rubber, these cookies are cakey, surprisingly light in texture, and so fragrant you're going to wonder how you can use them as air fresheners (all you can do is bake more). They're deeper and darker than a standard pumpkin cookie because of the brown sugar and molasses. These burnt orange beauties are a fall classic, tying together the holiday taste of gingerbread and the homey taste of pumpkin, perfect for an afternoon treat with a cup of coffee, milk, or hot cider.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Brown Sugar Glaze
Makes 24 cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup molasses
6 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the cinnamon, ginger, flour, salt, and baking powder. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, and egg and stir until thoroughly combined. Add the flour mixture and stir mix well, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Drop by rounded tablespoon-and-a-half-fulls on your lined baking sheets and bake until the edges are firm, about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack for glazing.

Glaze:
3 Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup powdered sugar
Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil in a small pan, stirring. When the mixture deepens in color, after about 2 minutes, remove from the heat and add the powdered sugar and stir until it cools slightly. When the glaze is still warm, drizzle it over the tops of the cookies.

Vegan, Flourless Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

It's fall, and I'm excited. I'm super psyched for sweater weather, crunchy leaves, the pretty contrast of orange leaves against a blue sky, and pumpkin. I'm excited for pumpkin.
I go a little crazy in the all, adding pumpkin and cinnamon to just about everything I bake and eat. Pumpkin and spinach curry, pumpkin mousse, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup. I especially love adding it to chocolate.
The sweet earthy flavors of chocolate and pumpkin are surprisingly similar and go together beautifully, especially with a healthy splash of vanilla and a healthy dash of spice.
These cookies are vegan and flour-less, but that's not a matter of them being trendy, it's a matter of getting the best texture possible. They're like loose fudge and the oats provide just enough texture to keep these guys in the cookie category.
I hope you love them as much as I do, and share them with your vegan friends who have Celiac's (I really hope that's not a thing, it would just be too sad.)

Flourless Pumpkin Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 24 cookies

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 fake egg (mix 2 Tbs baking powder, 2 Tbs water, and 1 Tbs oil of choice)
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger


In a bowl, mix the oats, cocoa, spices, baking powder and salt.
Combine the "egg", pumpkin and sugar and mix well, until slightly fluffy.
Add the oat mixture to the pumpkin and mix until thoroughly combined.
Scoop 1 Tbs rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350ºF

Hug in a Mug Brownie Pudding (single serving)

A single girl molten chocolate pudding cake for when you need a chocolate hug.

I'm going to keep this post short because I know you don't need an anecdote, or bossy directions. 

Good.

You need help.

You need a hug.

You need chocolate.

You need all this things now.

Here it is, a Hug in a Mug:

Better with Warm PB Sauce

Hug in a Mug:
Serves 1

5 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1 1/3 Tbs all purpose flour
2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 Tbs heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Because some colorful sprinkles will make you smile

Preheat oven to 325ºF and grease 1 ramekin or oven safe mug.
Beat the egg and 1/4 cup sugar until very thick and pale yellow in color (5-10 minutes)
In a pan, bring 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tbs water to a boil. Cook, not stirring until dark caramel in color. Remove from the heat and add 2 tbs butter and heavy cream, whisking well to incorporate. Add the vanilla extract and salt and reserve 1-2 tbs caramel.
Whisk together the flour and cocoa powder until there are absolutely no lumps. Slowly add the butter and flour mixture to the eggs, folding together with a rubber spatula, fold in the caramel still in the pan.
Pour into a greased ramekin and bake  for about 20 minutes (the top should be cracked but the inside should be fairly liquid)
Cool for 5-10 minutes before eating, while still very hot, topped with the reserved caramel.

Soft Earl Grey Shortbread Biscuits

I don't think of myself as an elegant person. I have yet to master any sort of glide, I don't own a hair dryer, and I have been known to wear yoga pants for more than 24 hours in a row.
I have my elegant moments, though.  I'm a bit of a mascara pro, I don't cry in public, and I firmly believe that you must wear heels to work.

Oh so Elegant

These cookies are a bit like me. I identify with these cookies. I know that sounds super strange and possibly creepy, but I already know I have an abnormal relationship with food, so say what you please.
These cookies sound refines and elegant, but are super easy to make, and taste a bit like the crust of a PopTart (Thanks, Sis, for that observation)

They are complex in that the taste and texture are familiar, but also new, as the pepperiness of the tea sits in contrast with the simplicity of the white sugar and flour.
They're hard to explain, easy to make, and amazing to eat. They sound fancy, impress guests, but are also right at home clutched in a toddler's fist.
They're like people, they have many different moods, and sides, and they always have a place on the cookie platter.

Soft Earl Grey Shortbread
Makes about 24 cookies

4 oz cold butter, cut into cubes
6 oz flour
2 oz + 2 Tbs white sugar
2 Tbs Earl Grey Tea (from a tea bag is fine)
1/3 cup skim milk

Preheat your oven to 375ºF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a food processor, pulse the butter, sugar and flour until they form a dough with a texture similar to pie crust. Don't worry if your butter gets too small, it doesn't make too much of a difference in this recipe.
Pour your milk and 1/2 Tbs of the tea into a small microwave safe dish and heat on high for a minute to a minute and a half, or until the milk is just about to boil.
Allow the tea to sit and steep in the milk for just about 2 minutes before adding to the food processor in a slow stream, while pulsing.
As soon as the milk is incorporated into the dough, fold in the remaining tea leaves (you may have to transfer your dough to a larger bowl and crumble it up a bit for more even distribution.)
Chill the dough on the counter overnight.
Flour a board and roll your dough out to about 1/4 inch thick. Use a 2 inch round cookie cutter (or the size  of your choice) to cut the dough into your desired shapes, continually rolling out any dough scraps.
Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for about 15 minutes, or until the cookies are just getting a pale golden cast around the edges.
Enjoy!

Caramelized White Chocolate Cornmeal Macarons

Everybody Breathes

Everybody Sits
Everybody Sleeps
Everybody Eats Cornmeal/Grits/Polenta/Pap

Everybody likes Cornmeal/Grits/Polenta/Pap even if they don't like it by any other nam
Personally, I think it tastes just as sweet with any title.

Especially here. Thanks to the wonderful Clotilde at Chocolate and Zucchini, I have finally found the perfect corn meal cookie. I'm Italian, so I like my desserts either tooth-numbingly sweet and mushy or almost sugarless, crunchy, and dry. I adore cornmeal cookies. Usually, I group them into the latter category, but with the adjustments I made to her already-perfect-if-you're-looking-for-something-very-French recipe, these are a total mix of the two.
They remind me of the perfect slice of cornbread when you're a kid. Everybody knows what I mean, because I'm sure every person in the world gets nostalgic when presented with some form of corn meal--it's like a wrap, every culture has their own version. For me, it was the corn bread from Whole Foods, the Jewel stuff just didn't cut it. Like I've said, my mom isn't much of a cook.
The slight toasty butter taste of the caramelized white chocolate, the combination of crunchy exterior and chewy inner center have me melting. And then there's the combination of almond and corn meal, my two favorite cookie texturizers.

Caramelizing, cooling, and grating the chocolate may seem like a lot of work, but do not skip it. I repeat, do not skip the caramelization  process. Don't. Promise me. Good.
The rest of the cookie comes together in almost literally no time at all so the extra effort is more than well worth it. I'll promise you you won't regret it, if you promise me you'll do it.
Also, because you're really tampering with the structure of the chocolate, make sure you're working with a brand that uses 30% cocoa butter or over, like Green and Blacks or Scharffen Berger so it doesn't go all gritty on you. Also, use good quality vanilla extract. I'm really not too much of a snob about this and I have bought more than my fair share of the cheap stuff, but the vanilla in the white chocolate really needs to shine against the butteryness of the cocoa butter, and nuttiness of the almonds and corn. Pleas, again, you won't regret spending a little extra (Trader Joe's has good quality extract for much cheaper than any other specialty store).
Oh, and they're at their prime when served alongside just about any hot beverage, but they're also absolutely amazing on their own.

Caramelized White Chocolate Cornmeal Macarons
Makes about 30 cookies

1/4 c chopped candied (non crystalized) ginger
1 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup raw turbinado sugar
1/3 cup cake flour
1/3 cup coarse stone ground corn meal--I like Bob's Red Mill
3 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For Caramelized White Chocolate:
Preheat oven to 250ºF
Line a small plate with parchment paper.
Chop your chocolate into small, even sized pieces and spread across a small baking pan (I used a pie plate because the quantity is so small)
Bake the chocolate on the center rack for 10 minutes, ten stir
Return to the oven for 10 more minuted before stirring again. Repeat this process for 30-40 minites, or until the chocolate is the color of caramel and very fragrant.
Using a rubber spatula, scrape all of the chocolate onto the lined plate and chill for at least 2 hours, or until solid.

In the mean time...

For the Cookies:
Increase your oven temperature to 400ºF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix together the almond meal, salt, flour, corn meal, and sugar. Add in the egg whites and vanilla and mix until a thick dough forms.
Grate your newly hardened caramelized white chocolate on the coarse side of a box grater. Fold the shavings into the dough very gently.
Spoon onto baking pans by the teaspoon and place in the oven. Immediately lower the heat to 325ºF and bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden around the edges but still soft and delicate.
Cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!