Chewy Brownie Cookies

So, I like a challenge.  There are plenty of gluten free cook books out there that have plenty of already gluten free recipes in them.  But that doesn't satisfy my needs!  So...I often take recipes that are NOT gluten free, and convert them.

I found this recipe, while following a group of friends on facebook.
http://pinterest.com/pin/86764730292438525/

My first thought was...that could EASILY be converted to gluten free...and guess what, it was!

 
My son Josh enjoying the cookies with some milk right out of the oven.

I know a lot of bloggers post all the pictures of the ingredients while they are baking it, but since this is my first actual recipe I am posting, and I just got this idea YESTERDAY to make a blog, you will have to just believe me, that I did make the cookies.

Ok--so I changed somethings, obviously, from the recipe above...

My recipe is as follows :

Gluten Free Brownie Cookies

1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup butter (now, if you can't have dairy, just keep it all shortening..I like the idea of having butter in my cookies)
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (make sure it is gluten free.  I use McCormick because it is clearly labeled GF)
1 tablespoon milk (now, you can use water like the recipe, or you could use almond milk if you are dairy intolerant)

Here is where it gets a bit tricky -

I made my version with protein powder...
1 scoop protein powder - dump it into a 1 cup measuring cup (is that grammatically correct?)
Fill the rest of that 1 cup measuring cup with Wendy Wark's gluten free mix (or whatever gluten free mix you like). If you do not want to use protein powder, just do one cup of gluten free mix

1/4 cup almond flour (remember, I make my own, so it is not finely ground, but I can't feel the almonds when eating the cookie)
1/4 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - I just use hershey
1/2 tsp baking soda - sometimes GF products need a bit more help with leavening
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I use ghirardelli chips.  If you want dairy free, you can buy semi-sweet ghiradelli brand and there is no dairy.  Always check the labels though, in case they have changed something).

Directions -
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I like to bake cookies and cakes at 350, not 375.

 2. Beat shortening, butter and sugar with mixer until smooth.  I use a kitchenaid mixer.  Add one egg.  Then add the other with the milk and the vanilla.  I usually mix my flour while butter and sugars are mixing..so do that.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet till blended. I have a great spatula that I use to fully mix my dough and batter, so I mix it around more after I put in the two cups of chocolate chips.
3. I use parchment paper on my cookie sheet.  I usually roll my cookies in a ball in my hands and put them on the sheet.  Depending on the size of your cookie, bake 10-18 minutes.  Bake until they are set and then cool on a wire rack.

Eat with milk...whatever variety you like, dairy, almond, soy etc.

The cookies will be sticky when you put them on the cookie sheets.  They will be thicker consistency than brownies, but not as thick as chocolate chip cookies.  It is just the added bonus of getting to lick your hands after you are done.

I happened to run upstairs while my first batch was baking, and came down to this gem -


Seems Josh got into the cookie dough a bit.

Let me know if you have any questions - and more importantly, how yours turned out!

Just a tease

Let's talk flours!

As much as I would love to dive into recipes and tricks, we need to talk about flours.

Now, if you have been eating gluten free, or just starting, you are probably intimidated by all the flours out there to use.  Unfortunately, you can not just use one flour to replace wheat flour.

I have a cook book called "Cooking Gluten Free!" by Karen Robertson that has a wonderful mix that I use that is very versatile.  I do want to warn you that the mix I use, has seven different parts to it...you read right, seven different flours.  Some of these flours may be difficult for you to get your hands on, depending on where you live.  I am fortunate enough to live near DC, so we get all sorts of grocery stores.  I buy three of my flours at a grocery store called "The Global Mart".  It is an international grocery store that may intimidate many Americans to walk into, as it has many Asian and Hispanic foods in it...but I promise you, if you have a store like that near by, it will be much better on your checkbook!

The mix I use, is a recipe called Wendy Wark's Gluten Free Flour Mix

1 cup brown rice flour
1 1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch flour
3/4 cup sweet rice flour (or glutinous flour)
1/3 cup corn starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum or guar gum.  I have only ever used xanthan gum, so I have no opinion on guar gum.

What my husband and I do is quadruple the recipe and store it in a airtight container, so we do not have to mix it all the time.  We store each flour in an airtight container clearly marked as well, so we can pull them out easily and store easily.

I don't worry so much about other allergies, but I know some have issues with corn...there is a more simple version of this recipe, which only uses three flours and cuts out the corn.
2 cups rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch

I have used this before when baking for people that have corn allergies.  It works just fine, but I find the seven flour mix to keep the integrity of a wheat filled recipe best.

Where I buy the different flours -

White Rice Flour - I buy at The Global Mart in the Hispanic section.  There is white rice flour in the asian section, but I found the Hispanic section was a bit cheaper.  I buy 4 lb bags. (Pictured below)

Brown Rice Flour - I buy at Wegman's and Bob's Red Mill brand

Potato Starch - I buy at Wegman's and also Bob's Red Mill brand

Tapioca Starch - I buy at the Global Mart in the Asian section.  The packaging is in another language, but it is .79-.99 for 1lb bags (Pictured below)

Sweet Rice Flour - I buy at The Global Mart in the Asian section.  The packaging is in another language and it is labeled glutinous flour (don't worry...it is glutEn free) but also the cheapest              at between .79-.99 per pound. (Pictured below)

Corn starch - I buy at BJs...the one option that is easy to buy in bulk!

Xanthan Gum - I bought a 5 lb tub off of TheGlutenFreeWarehouse.com.  This is by FAR the most
                        expensive hit on your check book, at about $50 for 5 lbs, but if you buy the 1/2 pound
 bag at Wegman's for 11.99(I think that is what they are going for), you are doing yourself a
                       disservice.

 

You want to make sure you buy flour that is the most finely ground.  If you have had gluten free items, you may notice that it can be a bit "grainy".  I find that with buying finely ground flour, the graininess goes away.


A couple of other flours I use -

Millet Flour - I just buy Bob's Red Mill brand.  My husband has a hard time with millet.  It is a good
                     source of fiber and is a healthy option, but I only have one recipe currently that has millet.

Sorghum Flour - Also Bob's Red Mill brand.  I am not too sure how awesome this flour is or not.  I wanted to experiment with it, and only put it one bread recipe I have

I have been trying to limit my carb intake - so coconut flour and almond flour are good low carb, high fiber flours with some protein

Coconut Flour - I just started using this.  I only use 1/4 - 1/3 cup in a recipe, as I have read it can
                         overpower a taste.  It is a very healthy flour---but expensive, which is why I haven't
                         experimented too much with it until now.

Almond Flour - I went to pick up a bag at Wegman's, saw the price tag of 9.99 and put it back.  I ended up buying almonds to grind instead.  I bought almonds without salt.  I blanch some, but that
really sucked and took forever, so I opted to just grind with the skins on.  I have a ninja grinder as well as a vitamix.  I can't get my almonds super finely ground, but even with the coarseness of the grind, I haven't had a problem with the texture of my flour in what I have used the almond flour with.

Protein Powder - Now, not a flour, but since I do try to balance my carbs and proteins, you will find that I use protein powder in some of my recipes.  Make sure the protein powder you use is                gluten free, since some may not be.

I do not use soy flour in any of my recipes.  I know that soy is a decent flour, and my sister in law uses it quite heavily in her recipes, but I know that many people have issues with soy, so I avoided using it when coming up with recipes, or modifying recipes I already had.

So there you have it...we got through that blog post...and it isn't a fun one..but important for your gluten free baking/cooking to be a success.

Also - please do not hesitate to leave comments on items you would like to know more about, or recipes you are dying to have.  It will help me know what people want for this blog too!

Sasha  

Introductions!

I want to start this blog by saying, that I do not have Celiac Disease, Gluten Intolerance, Casein Intolerance etc. Because I do not have these issues, I decided to name my blog The Gluten Free Imposter.  I do not eat gluten free all the time, though most of the time I do.  I do not eat gluten free most of the time because it is a "fad diet" either.  Celiac Disease does run rampant through my family and has hit many members of my family.  We ate gluten free in my family before it was cool.  We ate gluten free before all the wonderful resources became easily available.

We grew up making jokes about having celiac attacks, because my brother was born with it (it was the 70s-80s and no one knew what to do about diet to fix it), and making fun of siblings is surely the best way to show love in a family right?  I know it isn't funny to have celiac disease and I do take it very seriously, but a little poop between family members is funny...well at least in my dysfunctional family it is.

I know there are some serious gluten free bloggers out there and I hope that I don't offend them TOO much in my writing....but I am who I am, and I know for sure, that I have a resource at my fingers and a talent that is untapped and it is bursting to be let out.  My husband and I started a gluten free bakery from our home for about a year and a half.  I shut it down recently because I need my home to be a place of peace....and we were fighting quite a bit about said business.  I already work from home all day with my accounting business...that's right ladies and gents, I am a boring accountant, but that is another story for another blog, and he works all day as a Marketing Manager for a mid-sized apparel company.  Anyway--in our quest to create recipes that were delicious for our customers, I found out something...I am pretty dang good at gluten free baking.  Remember, I do not eat gluten free all the time, so my standards for what I was going to sell to my customers better be something that I would eat...because I do have pride. 

So Welcome to my blog!  I plan on doing all the fun jazzy things to make this blog more appealing visually, but I wanted to get this out there now so it pushes me to actually do it.

If you know someone who is gluten free, or just wants to balance foods they eat to cut out some gluten, send them to this blog.  I assure you, you will not be disappointed with my recipes.  My husband might kill me for posting some of them here, but I feel like people who are gluten free already have to pay so much more for their food...it is the least I can do to help them without monetary influence.

I plan on putting tips and recipes on this blog, so spread the news!

Enjoy!
Sasha