“I never thought I’d say this, but I LOVE these gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies!” I am so relieved and happy to be able to say that. I’m telling you, it’s not all “sugar and spice” creating recipes. You see, I have been arm-wrestling with different Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes and just wasn’t happy with them… until now.
I feel like I have made MILLIONS of batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies to find a great cookie. Man alive, every week I was running to Costco to buy more butter, eggs and chocolate chips. That was the easy part.
The challenging part was finding competent cookie testers every time I made a new batch of cookies. Now that seems like it would be easy. However, this was actually much harder than it seems, because first of all; I had to rule out all gluten-free people to test the cookies.
Why did I make that decision? Am I prejudiced against gluten-free people? (Heck no! I am a gluten-free person myself!) It’s because generally speaking, gluten-free people have a jaded palate because they are desperate for cookies. Have you noticed how a gluten-free person actually gets to the point where they think “anything” tastes good? Yeah, problem.
So, I know you will think this is crazy, but I actually baked cookies, loaded them on a plate then went outside and walked around until I found some people willing to try my freshly baked cookies! Then, I asked them to compare these cookies to Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies and let me know what they thought. Well, after eating at least two cookies (they said they needed to eat more to be sure) everyone loved them and some folks even said, “I like these more than regular cookies!” Wow, that’s good news!
Then, I tested my gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies on my neighbors who are wheat eaters and they loved them! However, in spite of these affirmative comments, I felt these cookies needed to be tested further, by someone who would be completely honest in their opinion.
Yes, my final cookie taste-test was to be with my wheat-eating, very picky (but adorably cute) teenage neighbor, Miss Discriminating. “She hates everything unless it’s gourmet,” her mother told me.
I baked a fresh batch of cookies and “just happened” to bring them over to my neighbors house when school got out. I offered Miss Discriminating a cookie. “Gluten-free?” she said with one eyebrow raised skeptically. This was followed with a roll of the eyes, then a dramatic sigh, “Okay, fine.” She took a cookie from the plate, but held it limply in her hand and stared at it, as if she was afraid of over-commitment. Finally she took a tentative, small bite.
I didn’t want to stare (you know how teenagers hate that) but I couldn’t help myself. Then I realized that in addition to staring, I was holding my breath in, waiting for her response. Talk about being completely uncool… CHILL! I forced myself to look away, but I was thinking, “C’mon… what do you think about the cookie?!”
I looked up, and was surprised to see that Miss Discriminating looked rather shell-shocked, but finally she said, “These taste like Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. Are you SURE these are gluten-free?”
I smiled and assured her that they were completely gluten-free. She quickly polished off the cookie, then said enthusiastically, “I love these Chocolate Chip Cookies! You can bring these over any time!”
“YES!” I punched my arms up to the sky, not caring anymore if it was cool or not! YES! YES! YES!!
She laughed with me and reached for another cookie; but her mother blocked her and bellowed, “Over my dead body! Those are MY Chocolate Chip Cookies!”
When these delicious buttery, gluten-free, chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are fresh out of the oven, the edges are crisp. If you are lucky enough to have left-over cookies, the next day they will be wonderfully soft and yummy. Oh my gosh ~ these cookies are downright irresistible! Ingredients
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled ~ Dairy free: Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups of my Gluten-Free Party Cookie Mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt)
1 cup (6 oz. package) real chocolate chips1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Farenheit
2. Combine melted, cooled butter, brown sugar and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add egg and vanilla. Continue beating until creamy and well mixed.
3. Add my Gluten-Free Party Cookie Mix, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low and beat until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips ~ Note: If you like less chocolate chips, stir in 3/4 cup. I have one son that likes less chocolate in his cookies… whatever!
4. Drop dough, about a rounded tablespoonful (I use a small ice cream scoop) onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 10-14 minutes (depending on how hot your oven bakes) or until the cookies are a light golden brown. The middles may not look completely set – this is how you want it! The cookie will finish baking as it cools. Let cookies cool completely (if you can stand to wait that long) before removing from your baking sheet. ENJOY!
- I recommend that you line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Parchment paper makes clean-up a breeze and the cookies are incredibly easy to remove from the pan.
- You can grease your cookie sheet like normal if you don’t have parchment paper.
- You can find parchment paper in the foil/wax paper section of many grocery stores, kitchen stores and natural food stores.
- Do NOT substitute waxed paper!
Chocolate-chip kisses to YOU, Lynn
Hi Bob!
A blind test! What fun!
Amount of cookies: (Sigh) Bob, this is so embarrassing… I always eat so much cookie dough – I know it's wrong, but I do – so I actually don't know have an answer for you!
Hey! Maybe YOU could let us know how many cookies this recipe makes!!! That would be awesome!
Happy Baking!!! Thanks a million for writing!!!
Chocolate Chip Smiles! Lynn
Soo, apparently I never came back and gave a yield for this recipe. I made them without the choc chips, and added 1 tsp of ground ginger for a friend who wants ginger biscuits (what we call cookies in Australia). Using a Tbs scoop like you did, it made a scant 18 biscuits. So now others have a basic idea of how many it makes! I like cookie dough too, but it’s helpful to have an idea.
Thanks so much for writing, Bob! Ooooh, adding ginger sounds wonderful!
I am planning on making these soon, and also plan to 'blind test' these without telling people they are GF!
Just wondering though, approximately how many cookies does this recipe yield?
Thank you. I will try this recipe again with your tip. I will also try the other recipes and let you know.
Thanks
Hi Hi!
BIG HUGS and WELCOME to the world of gluten free baking!
I'm so GLAD you and your family are enjoying the recipes!
Coconut Flour Substitution: I don't think it will work well to substitute the coconut flour for another flour. Coconut flour has unique properties – it's super-high in fiber, and it absorbs liquid like crazy. If you leave it out or substitute a different flour, most likely your cookies will have a strange texture.
Cookies that didn't spread:
Here's a great method to get your cookies to look nice. When you spoon out your cookie dough – slightly flatten each raw blob of cookie dough to about 1/3 inch high before you bake them. That should do the trick!
And if you would like to try some recipes without coconut flour, try the peanut butter cookies and my Chocolate Chocolate Fudge Brownies.
Happy Baking! Lynn
Lynn
I am new to GF and discovered your blog. Love it. I have tried a few of your recipes and my non healthy family members did not even know the difference – got to love it. I made these cookies and they are really good, but I have a few questions. My cookies did not really spread so they don't look pretty and "Nestle Toll Houseish" Also, I am not a huge fan of cocount flour, for some reason I taste an aftertaste each time I use it, no one else does though. So I am wondering if I can substitute almond flour for the cocount flour?
Thanks for your recipes. My husband thanks you too. And my 4 year old actually ate these cookies. The last ones from a different site he took one bite and looked at me and said "mom you did not do it right" and refused to eat them. This time he asked if these were my real cookies, I said give them a try and he ate them up. YEAH Success!!!
Thanks, Lynn. I like the biscotti idea! I think I may shape them into traditional biscotti shape and bake them as you suggested. I've always wanted to try biscotti and never have, so this would be a good experiment. 🙂
Hi Pam!
Yes, exchanging the brown sugar with the erythritol/stevia combination would definitely change the texture (and the flavor also).
Brown sugar has molasses in it which gives a softer texture and adds a bit of moistness. Even if you had used regular sugar instead of the brown sugar, you would have a noticeable difference in the flavor and texture.
But what a great idea to grind the cookies and use them for a cheesecake crust!
Another thing you can do is bake the cookies again at a very low temperature (250 degrees) until they are hard and crunchy and then you have chocolate chip biscotti to dip into your coffee!
Thanks so much for writing Pam!!! YOU ROCK!!
Big hugs, Lynn
Lynn, I'd like your help in knowing what I did wrong. The only change I made to this recipe was to use erythritol/stevia combination instead of brown sugar. They turned out like hard little lumps. Would the sugar replacement do that or did I simply over-bake them? I did grind the cookies down to a flour and reused them to make a cheesecake crust – they worked beautifully for that! So nothing wasted, but I'd like to have the cookies turn out well.
Thanks, Pam
Hi Lynn T!
I love that you made this cookie recipe "your own!" And I completely understand about eating too many… Hee Hee!
Thanks a MILLION for writing!
Thank you for so many wonderful recipes! I've never commented before (not much of a commentator), but you have really helped me put out some yummy things. I've added quick oats to your cookie recipe to stretch them, and adjusted sugars…I was eating entirely too many.
Hooray Mary! I'm so HAPPY that your son loved these nut-free, gluten-free cookies! "Deliciousas!" I love that word! 🙂
Okay Lynn,
U are officially the most awesome gluten free baker! These cookies were a huge hit! They were deliciosas as we say in Spanish :). Best of all my son really enjoyed eating them as they are also nut free! I took a few pics so u could see him enjoying them, I will try to tag u on Facebook. Thank u very much for offering all ur gluten free yummy advice, we r very thankful.