GFCF Chocolate Chip Cookies

The first batch of GFCF chocolate chip cookies I made were a bit of a disappointment. Merry and the Gaffer had no complaints, but I thought they were greasy, flat, slightly gritty and had a starchy taste. But with help from America's Test Kitchen I was able to tweak the recipe and the second batch was a huge improvement. Excellent structure and texture, soft and chewy, wonderful chocolatey goodness. If you didn't know ahead of time, you'd never guess they were GFCF. Below the recipe I give a blow-by-blow of my changes.

GFCF Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook.

8 oz (1 3/4 c) GF Flour Blend (I like Pamela's or King Aurthur)
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp xantham gum (1/2 tsp if your flour blend has xantham gum in it already)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs canola oil
5 tbs coconut oil, melted
3/4 c light brown sugar
1/3 c granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbs almond or coconut milk
1 tbs vanilla extract (slightly less if using vanilla-flavored milk)
1 c chocolate chips
1/2 c toasted pecans (optional)

Whisk flour blend, baking soda, xantham gum and salt together, set aside. Whisk oils and sugars until smooth, then whisk in egg, milk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour mixture with rubber spatula and mix until a soft homogeneous dough forms (dough will be sticky). Fold in chocolate chips and pecans, if using. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and rest for 60 minutes.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper, drop about 1-2 tbs of dough 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden brown, with set edges and soft centers, 11-13 minutes. Rotate the sheet halfway through baking.

GFCF cookies do not last as long as regular homemade cookies, I usually freeze most of the batch and leave a few out to eat that day. You can also freeze the dough as individual cookie lumps and bake a few at a time, straight out of the freezer (increase baking time by 2-5 min).

• My original alterations were to substitute refined coconut oil for butter, almond milk for regular milk, and Namaste Foods GF flour blend instead of the recommended ATK flour blend.
• To correct the greasiness I thought about cutting back on the amount of fat, but I found that in other recipes ATK calls for a combination of butter and vegetable oil to prevent greasiness, so I tried a combination of coconut oil and canola oil.*
• The purpose of the milk in the original recipe is simply to provide more moisture, so I kept the almond milk as it was.
• ATK recommends a 30 minute resting period for the dough before baking in order to let it hydrate and stiffen in order to prevent grittiness and give the cookies better structure. I noticed that the last tray of my first batch turned out the best, and the dough had been sitting considerably longer while the other cookies baked, so for the next batch I increased the rest time to 1 hour.
• Because the flour blend I was using already included xantham gum, I decreased the amount in the recipe from 3/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon. No idea what happens when you get too much xantham gum, but I assume the minimum amount necessary for structure is best.

*I'm slightly confused as to why this worked. ATK's scientific explanation for the difference in baking with butter vs vegetable oil is that butter gives baked goods a greasier feel because butter's combination of fat and water does not combine evenly with flour proteins but remains in small clumps and pools. This problem is worse with GF flours because of the lower protein content. Oil, on the other hand, has no water and combines with flour particles much more evenly. There shouldn't be a difference between water content for coconut oil and canola oil, so I'm wondering if saturated vs unsaturated fats are important too.

GFCF Baking

I absolutely love to bake. Cookies, bread, muffins, pancakes, biscuits, popovers, anything and everything. So at the prospect of going GFCF it was only a matter of when, not if, I would figure out how to adjust making my favorites.

I knew from browsing Pinterest that the internet was a great source for ideas and recipes of various and unknown quality, but when the Gaffer found The How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook from America's Test Kitchen it was the key to cracking the code. I fell in love with the Best Recipe series from ATK several years ago because of their analytical, scientific approach to kitchen alchemy, and sure enough their GF cookbook is exactly what you need for a strong start in GFCF baking.

The first section provides the basic science of baking with gluten, the challenges presented in removing it from traditional recipes, and their solutions. There's tips for adjusting your existing recipes, analysis and reviews of commercial GF flour blends, and because ATK thought they could do better than any of them, a recipe for blending your own mix. Then there's reviews of various GF sandwich bread, pastas and an overview of the various ingredients you might need on hand for GF cooking and baking.  What's with all the different flours? And what in the world are xantham gum and pysllium husk? Your answers are here.

Then they get into the recipes. I've had excellent results with their peanut butter cookies and banana bread so far, just substituting coconut oil for butter to make them caesin free as well.

It is important to note that it's not a GFCF cookbook, and dairy ingredients are present in most recipes. The authors dedicate one page to suggestions for other dietary restrictions including dairy, but they fail to mention substituting coconut oil for butter, which has worked really well for me. Almond and coconut milk have worked so far, but I haven't even tried to work out a cheese substitute yet. Kind of suspect there isn't a good one, unfortunately.

This weekend I had slightly less success with their chocolate chip cookies and blueberry muffins. Both were tasty, but not quite excellent. I've been using a different flour blend and had to experiment with non-dairy yogurt, so I suspect one or two more tries will give better results.

Overall, I highly recommend The How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook. I'll try to post occasionally with which recipes work and which ones require a little more tweaking.

GFCF Fears

When we first considered putting Sam on a GFCF diet, I was terrified. Not just anxious or uncertain, but gut-wrenching, weak-kneed, "I can't do this" terrified at the very thought.

There was the initial fear of change--a special diet means extra work, more expensive food, and I was already feeling overwhelmed. But it was more than that. 

Because we hadn't had much luck getting Sam to eat meat, at least 50% of his protein came from dairy. How could I get him enough protein to grow and develop properly if we cut it out? And calcium, and all of the nutrients that he usually got from whole wheat products, would we be able to replace those?

Nutrition aside, I also worried about the long-term effects of removing gluten and dairy from Sam's diet. Would he loose the ability to digest lactose? Would I be inducing lactose intolerance in my son, on the off chance that this scientifically questionable diet might help? And I've heard stories from non-celiac moms who'd gone gluten free and claimed that they became more and more sensitive to the occasional slip-up or splurge the longer they were off gluten. What if just trying the experiment caused long term damage?

Some of it was a social fear. (and social anxieties run far too deep in my awkward psyche anyway) I didn't want to be "that mom", the one that insisted on special treatment, that threw a wrench in the smooth workings of snack time and lunch, making life more complicated for everyone. This is terrible, and I was ashamed to feel this way. For one thing, the bitchy entitled "no gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, meat, processed sugar, or the color red for my little darling" mom is pretty much an internet strawman as far as I know. Every woman I've met who had special dietary needs for herself or her kids has been wonderful about it, very helpful and accommodating, not to mention being unusually kind and helpful ladies overall. And for the kids with life-threatening allergies? Yeah, some things are more important than playing nice all the time. But it would be hard for me, personally. So, more fear.

However, I seemed to be the only one with these kind of deep-seated reservations. Sam's pediatrician gave us the green light, half the moms at school seemed to be doing it, and the Gaffer pointed out that if there was a possibility of improvement, how could we not at least try? What if part of Sam's problem was pain and discomfort that he had no ability to communicate? So I put the various fears into perspective and we jumped in.

So far, GFCF does seem to be helping. Sam's digestion is better, his behavior is better, and the switch turned out to be way less difficult than I expected. I'm not ignoring all my reservations; some are definitely worth considering and I'll write more about them later. But as with many things in life, the fear was far worse than the thing itself.