Embarking on a Gluten-Free Cookie Mission

The parameters:

1.  NO GLUTEN  This meant no wheat, no spelt, no barley, no rye.  Oats got the green light because I was addressing a gluten intolerance, not Celiac disease.  Oats do not contain wheat gluten but there is a risk of cross-contamination because they are grown and processed near wheat. 

2.  NO EGGS 

4.  FAST and EASY and SIMPLE   No getting out the Kitchen Aid for creaming the butter and sugar.  No sprinkle of sea salt on top.  Use vanilla instead of vanilla bean.  Don't worry about toasting the nuts.  Plain ole chocolate chips - nothing fancy.  No resting the dough for 2 or 12 or 36 hours.  These are "I want some chocolate chip cookies and I want them now" cookies.
    
3.  YUMMY  People not on a gluten-free diet needed to want to eat these.




A Few Notes on Ingredients

The Flour:
There are lots of options for gluten-free flours.  You can click here to find a nice long list.  The trick is finding the right combination of texture and flavor.   *Everything I read about gluten-free baking stressed mixing a number of different flours for the best result.  Bean flours like soy and chickpea were immediately crossed off the list.  I think they have too strong of a taste for cookies.  I've learned from experience that whenever too much soy flour is mixed into muffins or bread my own kids are quick to point it out its presence.  I love buckwheat flour and make pancakes with it all the time but that didn't make the cut either.  When we used it in our failed GF cookies they came out tasting a bit like pancakes and looking a bit grey so I let it sit this attempt out.  Tapioca starch works well but too much causes gummy cookies.  Nobody wants gummy cookies. White rice flour is boring and has too much crumb.  Brown rice flour has a darker color and can be a bit grainy in texture.  However, in my regular chocolate chip cookies I often add whole wheat flour and wheat germ so I thought it might work.   If I had had sorghum flour in the pantry I would have used it.  It isn't something that I normally keep but from what I have read, it produces great results.  I finally settled on a combination of oat flour, brown rice flour, and tapioca starch.

 I didn't have any oat flour on hand but I did have oats.  So I got out the spice grinder and fixed that.  Also, if you go looking for tapioca starch and only find tapioca flour don't worry because (in the US) they are one and the same.  

The Binders:
No gluten plus no eggs meant no binder.  This meant there was nothing to glue all the sugars and flours and chocolate chips together.  I solved this using two ingredients, both of which are new additions to my kitchen:  the Gel Egg and Xanthum Gum.

Behold the Gel Egg

1T flax meal + 3T water = 1 egg

Break out the spice grinder and use freshly ground flax.  Whisk the flax meal and water together and then wait 5-10 minutes for it to set up.

Do this step first and it will be ready when you need to add it.  I've found it mentioned in lots of places but you can go to Lexies Kitchen for some great tips.




What is Xanthum Gum?

This is the vital ingredient that really holds it all together.  It is natural product made from microorganisms that feed on corn (usually) .  It is very commonly used in all sorts of prepared foods from ice cream to salad dressing.   Regular xanthum gum is available in grocery store baking isles.  You can find GMO free xanthum gum online here.  It isn't cheap but a little goes a long way.  In most baking recipes I notice that similar amounts of salt and xanthum gum are often used.  Seems to be one of those ingredients that you really need to play with to get just the right   Other "gum" options are guar gum and locust bean gum.  They all behave a bit differently.  I think next I will experiment with locust bean (aka carob) gum.



The Fat:
I used butter because I reached for it out of habit.  Using a vegan spread (such as Earth Balance) in conjunction with the flax egg would have make these vegan friendly cookies.  I'm not fond of the taste of cooking oil in my baked goods so I didn't even consider it.  Usually, I cream the butter and sugar together when making cookies.  In this recipe, for ease of preparation, I skipped that step and used melted butter instead.  I think un-browned melted butter is rather blah.  I also think using the melted butter left quite a bit of oil on the baking stones.  The cookies themselves weren't greasy.

Nuts:
I like nuts in my chocolate chip cookies.  I chose pecans.  I often use walnuts but they can be a little bit bitter.  I thought the sweeter  richer flavor of the pecans would be a plus.



The Recipe (not to be confused with the final Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie  Recipe):
I took my favorite basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and the first thing I did was cut it in half.  If I was going to terribly botch something then at least I would do it on a smaller scale.  I swapped out the egg and flours, added the xanthum gum in proportion to the salt and started baking and taking notes.


Let the Fun Begin!!

Attempt 1.0 and 1.1
I wasn't sure how sticky the cookies would be so I compared using a stone to a silicone baking sheet.

The cookie on the left was baked on a silicone baking sheet.  It spread waaaay too much.  The cookie on the right was baked on a stone.  Less spreading but not exactly better.  Sticking wasn't a problem so I decided to cook on the stones.  I hoped the texture would help the dough grip and not spread as much.  Recipe note: Add 1/4 cup white rice flour.  I chose white rice flour because somewhere I read "Don't use more than 30% of each flour."  The majority of the flours were brown rice (would more make the cookies too grainy?) and oat (too cakey?) and I was worried that more tapioca starch would make them rubbery.  Unfounded?  Perhaps.  This is all new to me.    

1.2  With the additional rice flour I ended up with cookies that were still spreading too quickly.

1.3 Maybe that butter just needs to set up.  Will a bit of time chilling in the fridge help?

Looking better.  Not spreading but the center isn't rising or cooking.  Recipe note:  Add 1/4 cup of oat flour and 1/8 t xanthum gum.  This makes the proportion 1/4 t xanthum gum per 1 cup flour.

1.4 I should have tried cooking a batch with the added oat flour and xanthum gum and no other changes.  But then I thought about the fact that I'm cooking in a convection oven that automatically adjusts the temperature down 25 degrees.  So, what would happen if I turned up the heat at bit?

Not good.  Too much browning and not enough spreading.  Plus, they are too cakey.

1.5  Success at last!

Notice how the centers still look undercooked?  This is good.  They set up to have a very nice crunch to the exterior with a soft, gooey, chewy center.  Not cakey at all.  Delish.