12. 2021
GLUTEN-FREE OAT FLOUR CHOCOLATE AND TOASTED PINE NUT COOKIES
Made with Gluten and Lactose-Free Products
We think these yummy cookies are perfect. No, they are not toll house cookies, but they are better than any chocolate chip cookies that I have purchased.
We like them to be dippable so I bake them a couple of minutes longer to achieve that effect. Also, as the cookies are ‘set’ they are easy to freeze. Eat them straight out of the freezer or let them thaw out on the counter and you are good to go. Don’t forget to dunk them, milk or tea or coffee, they do hold up.
However, if you would like them to have crispy edges and chewy middles, cook them a few minutes less. I experimented with the baking time starting at about 12 minutes to see what we would like best. (I removed one cookie at a time with a pancake turner to check for doneness. I did this ‘Quickly’ so as not to let the oven temperature drop).
Pine nuts toast very fast, so please watch them. You can use any sort of nut you like or leave them out if you wish, but I hope you use toasted pine nuts.
To keep the sugar content down, I use ‘Splenda Naturals’ or ‘Stevia in the Raw’ which need to be measured by volume NOT weight.
I sift the brown sugar through a sieve so I don’t have lumps to deal with in the dough. The lumps are in the sieve and easier to crumble in the sieve.
Nicole Hunn of ‘Gluten Free on a Shoe String’, the originator of this recipe that I riffed says, “they're made entirely with standard grocery store ingredients” which is true. I say, “they are made with stuff I have in my pantry all the time”!
As I make the dough into balls and freeze all at one time, I bake them as I need them 6 or so at a time, or if I want to bake all the cookies at one time, I let the cookie balls thaw for about 10 minutes for the first batch and the cookie balls for the next batch to bake I remove from the freezer about 5 minutes before it is time to remove the first batch from the oven.
I found if I bake solidly frozen cookie balls, they come out dome shaped, cooked through at 15 minutes, but dome shaped.
I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oat flour and cornstarch.
Measure and prep:
Gluten free oat flour - 210 g option grind your own from gluten-free rolled oats
Gluten free cornstarch – 140 g
Baking soda – ½ t
Diamond crystal kosher salt – ½ t
White sugar 100 g (½ c) If you use Splenda Naturals or Stevia in the Raw remember, to measure by volume
Brown sugar – 109 g (½ c packed well)
Butter - 96 g, unsalted melted and cooled to room temperature. I used Earth Balance soy free vegan butter as I didn’t have enough Ghee.
Eggs - 100 g (weighed out of shell) beaten, at room temperature
Pure vanilla extract – 2 T
Chocolate - 6 oz your choice. I chopped up Hershey's Special Bars into uneven sized chunks, chips of any kind you like is fine to use
Toasted pine nuts – 6 oz
Let's bake some cookies:
Line a rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set aside. I used a ½ sheet, (18”x13” aluminum), 12 cookies per sheet.
Measure out into a large bowl; oat flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and white sugar and whisk well to combine. Sift the brown sugar through a sieve into the dry mix and whisk again to combine.
Make a well in the middle of the dry mix and add the wet mix, (butter, eggs, and vanilla). Mix with a stiff spatula or a wooden spoon. Cookie dough is thick and heavy so keep mixing, pressing the dough to the sides of the bowl until the wet and dry is well combined.
Add the chocolate and toasted and nuts (if larger nuts are used, chop after toasting) and mix until they’re evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.
Chill the dough for 15 minutes in the freezer or 40 minutes in the refrigerator.
Scoop out the dough in 1 1/2 T size lumps and roll each lump into balls. Place close together and freeze for 10 or refrigerate for 30 till the balls are firm but not hard. Wetting the measuring spoon and your hands will help in this endevor.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Place the dough balls 2" apart on the lined baking sheets. Use the balls you rolled first, first.
Do not flatten the balls of dough.
Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven and bake just until the balls of dough have melted and spread, and the cookies are brown around the edges (10 to 12 minutes). Be careful not to overbake them. I like to bake for them for 15 minutes. Check the cookies and bake to your taste.
Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet or until firm, then, transfer to a cooling rack to cool entirely. If you baked for 15 minutes, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack straightaway.
I place cooled cookies into a freezer bag and then into the freezer once we have had what we want for the first round! Remove and let thaw on the counter or pop in your toaster oven as many as you need when ready to use those you froze.
Serve with, milk, tea, coffee, depending on your choice.
Beware, you will absolutely not be able to stop at ONE they are that good!
Enjoy!