How To Make Soft And Chewy Gluten-Free Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Gluten-free cookies with a texture as soft and chewy as their traditional counterparts — not possible, right? Wrong. Delicious gluten-free cookies (and cakes, cinnamon rolls, etc.) really do exist, and making them simply requires some careful thought on the baker's part. Our friends at ChefSteps wrote in this week with some tips and a recipe to get you started.
So what exactly is in this cookie that will amaze even the staunchest skeptics? There's a slight tartness from cream cheese (which stabilizes the treat in the absence of gluten) and a nutty quality that only whole oat flour can provide. Check out a video demonstration and the full recipe below.
Ingredients
2 cups gluten-free rolled oats, for oat flour
1 stick butter
4 ounces cream cheese
7 ounces light brown sugar
6 ounces granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 ounce kosher salt, or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
10 1/2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
Directions:
Make Oat Flour
Place the rolled oats in a blender or spice grinder and blend on high for one to two minutes, until you have a fine powder.
Empty the powder into a sieve placed over a bowl and shake like crazy. Shake, shake, bang, mix and shake some more, until you have sifted out all the powdered flour from the larger bits of oat.
Place the larger bits back into the blender and repeat the process until you have enough oat flour.
Combine Ingredients
Place butter, cream cheese, sugars, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the paddle attachment.
Mix on medium-high speed until the dough is the consistency of whipped butter.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix again briefly if necessary.
Add vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Mix until fully incorporated.
Add egg yolks one at a time and mix on high to emulsify them into the whipped-butter mixture.
Add chocolate and oat flour to the butter mixture and mix until totally incorporated.
Portion and Chill
Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Scoop balls of cookie dough (about 65 g each) onto the parchment paper. Remember to space the cookies evenly in order to avoid baking a large morphed cookie blob (unless you're into that sort of thing).
Chill for about an hour. (Chilling the dough is optional, but it'll give your cookies a better shape when baked.)
Bake
Bake the cookies in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes.
Remove cookies once they are golden and delicious, and place on a cooling rack to avoid a soggy bottom.
ChefSteps comprises a team of award-winning chefs, filmmakers, scientists, designers and engineers focused on revolutionizing the way people cook by inspiring creativity and encouraging expertise in the kitchen. The site is currently offering a free online class called Cooking Sous Vide: Getting Started, as well as a $10 class called Cooking Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics.