The best Gluten Free Cookie I've EVER eaten!

(This is not my photo... but no joke, our cookies looked just like this!)

My friend Brynnley has a daughter with Celiac... she has been learning to cook gluten free lately. She said that she has discovered that brown rice flour tastes less dry, especially in baked goods. I've also read that same thing here and there on the web... plus brown rice flour is a whole grain, so we decided to give it a try :)

WOW... seriously... I made Alton Brown's GF chocolate chip cookies recipe and I can say hands down that I have never made, tried or eaten a better gluten free cookie. They are SO good, they taste just like regular chocolate chip cookies and they have such a good texture! These are seriously fabulous... and I just had to share this recipe:


The Chewy Gluten Free

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007

Ingredients
8 ounces unsalted butter
11 ounces brown rice flour, approximately 2 cups
1 1/4 ounces cornstarch, approximately 1/4 cup
1/2-ounce tapioca flour, approximately 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup
10 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 1/4 cups
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Once melted, pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.

In a medium bowl, sift together the rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca flour, xantham gum, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Add both of the sugars to the bowl with the butter and using the paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the whole egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm, approximately 1 hour. Shape the dough into 2-ounce balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes, rotating the pans after 7 minutes for even baking. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the pans for 2 minutes. Move the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Store cooked cookies in an airtight container.

***We have a cookie scoop that shapes them into balls for you and our scoops weighed 1 ounce, I could fit 8 on my cookie sheet like that and only had to cook them for 12 minutes, rotating the pans after 6 minutes... they ended up being a good size for us, but everyone's oven is different so you'll have to play around and figure out what works best for you :)***

Don't forget to use soy free chocolate chips if you are making these soy free :)

Oh and one more thing... Costco's Kirkland brand pure vanilla extract is gluten free... you'd be surprised how many are not because they use a wheat/barley based alcohol, I was excited to find that because we never use imitation vanilla, so it is great to find one that tastes really good in recipes and it is also gluten free!!!

Another Note About Gluten Free Oreos

I received this email from Becky this morning:

I made GF Oreos last night. I used the original recipe that the GF girl adapted hers from (Kitchen Lab Homemade Oreo Cookies) because I didn't have sweet rice or teff flour on hand... I just had rice, tapioca and potato starch, so I went to the original source and used my GF flour mix (Bette Hagman's GF Mix) cup for cup and made them. They turned out SO good and LJ and Saxon love them... so that's a good thing, and I usually have everything on hand that I used last night. As for the filling... I still couldn't bring myself to use shortening, it always leaves a weird feeling in my mouth. I bought some Coconut Oil, it's not too expensive and I thought it would be nice to have on hand, but I didn't end up trying it. I followed their recipe for the filling but instead of using the shortening I used a 7 oz tub of Marshmallow Creme (I also doubled the recipe for the filling because I made a batch of GF and non-GF)... I think they turned out really great with that, they have a good consistency and taste, with no oily after taste. So I just thought I'd share that little experiment with you!!! From what I saw it doesn't look like the Marshmallow Creme had any soy in it. So anyways, I was pleased.

Oh I should also note that at first I thought the mix was WAY too dry, but the GF version said to just keep mixing so I did and eventually it did come together in a clump.

Gluten Free Oreo Cookies

Adapted from Top Secret Recipes

1 package gluten free chocolate fudge cake mix -- 18.25 ounce
3 tablespoons shortening -- melted (I usually use regular safflower oil)
1/2 cup gluten free flour mix -- measured then sifted
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
Wendy's Buttercream Frosting Recipe or filling recipe on Top Secret Recipes

Combine the cookie ingredients in a large bowl. Add the water a little bit at a time until the dough forms. Cover and chill for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  On a lightly floured surface roll out a portion of the dough to just under one 16th of an inch thick. To cut, use a lid from a spice container with a 1 1/2-inch diameter.  Alternately, I like to roll the dough in balls and flatten. Arrange the cut dough rounds on a cookie sheet that is sprayed with a light coating of non-stick spray. Bake for 10 minutes or until done. Remove wafers from the oven and cool completely.

As the cookies bake, make the filling with Wendy's Buttercream Frosting recipe (I think I made a half batch of frosting, but I'm not sure) or Top Secret Recipes filling.  If you are going to fill the cookies instead of frost them, you may want to make the Wendy's frosting thicker than the recipe calls for.

When the cookies have cooled, roll a small portion (heaping 1/4 teaspoon) of the filling into a ball (just over 1/4-inch in diameter), and press it between two of the cookies. Repeat with the remaining cookies.  Alternately, you can just frost the cookies if you would like.

TO MAKE CANDY CANE OREOS: When making the filling (frosting), omit the vanilla and add peppermint extract to taste.

To make these SOY FREE and DAIRY FREE make sure your cake mix, shortening, flour, and filling (frosting) is soy and dairy free.  To make these EGG FREE use an egg replacement.

JEN'S NOTES: I used Cherrybrook Kitchen Gluten Free Dreams Chocolate Cake Mix and Pamela's Baking and Pancake gluten free flour mix.  The cake mix wasn't quite 18.5 oz so I added a couple tablespoons cocoa powder and flour mix.

Buttercream Frosting (Wendy's)

You can find Wendy's delicious recipe for Buttercream Frosting recipe here.

To make this frosting soy free, make sure to use soy-free shortening and butter. Also, a lot of times soy (and gluten) will hide in "natural flavoring" so make sure the butter doesn't contain natural flavoring.