By Angela Bates A Recent ASU Nutrition Student
For someone with dietary restrictions, like celiac disease sufferers, food can be a sad experience. Imagine no longer being able to bake and eat your favorite chocolate chip cookies anymore, but everyone in your family can. Remembering the delicious crisp edges, melty chocolate chips, and chewy sweet center… You could cry.
Well, sometimes, you just have to kiss a hundred toads to find your prince and sometimes, you have to bake a hundred gluten-free friendly recipes to find one that’s not only edible but delicious. Let’s not forget how expensive gluten-free baking is. The flour can be upwards of $10 per pound, depending on the mixture, so a single recipe can set you back quite a bit.
Luckily for anyone who cannot have gluten, or for those of you who just really love getting fiber in any way possible, my tests have presented a winner. A not-cloyingly-sweet, fiber-filled, easy-on-the-wallet knockout of a cookie that you can feel at least a bit better about eating!
The base of these cookies is oat flour, which can be purchased, but at about double the price of making it yourself. Using a food processor or blender, you can simply put the same amount of quick cook oats or old-fashioned oats in and blend until fairly fine. It will be a bit more coarse than normal wheat flour, but the final product will still be great. I always remeasure my oat flour to be sure it’s the right amount after blending and adjust a bit if needed.
The salt can be adjusted to your own preference or based on the type of chocolate your chips or chunks are. For a more dispersed chocolate effect, try mini chips! The resting of the cookie dough is kind of non-negotiable, so do not skip that! I make my dough in the evening and leave it overnight for best results! You may try dairy free butter substitutes, but due to the crumbly nature of gluten-free baking, replacing the egg may have bad results. On to the main event!
Oat Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields approximately 2 dozen 2-inch cookies
Ingredients:
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 TBSP) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups oat flour (certified gluten-free if needed)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
10 ounces of chocolate chips
Instructions:
Cream butter and sugars together until very smooth. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Combine oat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix well.
Stir dry ingredients into wet. The mixture will be firm and sticky. Add in chocolate chips and stir to combine.
Cover the dough in the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours, up to 24.
Preheat oven to 350℉
Place rounded tablespoons of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for approximately 9-10 minutes or until edges is golden.
To avoid crumbling, let sit on cookie sheet 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack for 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
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