Category Archives: Chocolate

Slice ‘n’ Bake Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies (GFCF)

I hadn’t really planned to post these cookies until I was on Apartment Therapy/Kitchn and saw, to my astonishment, shortbread cookies that looked like the chocolate chip cookies I made with Carrie’s (Ginger Lemon Girl) recipe. It was an entirely different recipe but the texture looked just the same as these gluten-free cookies. When I adopted Carrie and made her chocolate chip cookies, you may recall this:

I doubled the recipe once and my measurements must have been a little off, as I ended up with a dough that was pliable and suitable for rolling for cut-out cookies. (It must be said, though, that I often eyeball some ingredients such as honey and sometimes my sense of a particular measurement can be a little more or less than the actual measurement.) I rolled the dough into logs and chilled them in the freezer for about 15 minutes, before slicing and baking in the oven for the same amount of time. What resulted was a cookie with a delicate and soft, sandy shortbread-like crumb. They puffed a bit, but did not spread since there was no baking powder used, I imagine. The cookie itself was mildly sweet; most of the sweetness came from the chocolate chips. No xanthum gum was used. I replicated it again, that time writing down the measurements (in weights) and they’re beautiful.

I’ve made those cookies again and again. I love that I can freeze the logs of dough so that there’s always something whenever someone needs their chocolate chip cookie fixing or just wants to munch on a cookie with substance. I had a log of cookie dough in the freezer for up to two weeks and they were still good. I’m sure it could have lasted even longer, perhaps a month.

The first time I doubled that recipe, I used cup measurements but I don’t generally fill the cup all the way to the top, sometimes I don’t even level it. I like and prefer preciseness to a scientific degree, though I won’t deny that I can be romantic and intuitive as well: a pinch of this, adding something until I feel it’s the right amount. I usually use a spoon to measure the flour into the cup, gently shake it to slightly level it off and it’s generally just short of the very top; it’s not packed – not exactly a scant cup but it isn’t what Fannie Farmer would call level either. I don’t sweep.

Anyway, I was able to replicate it again, remembering how full I measured the cup. Now I know that a visual memory of how full the cup looked is not an entirely accurate picture since it doesn’t account precisely how much flour could be in the cup but it’s good enough for me. After spooning the flour into the cup, I’d measure it on the scale, write down the number of grams, and proceed with the next.

Now every time I’ve made these cookies with the weight measurements, it’s been the same cookie: same consistency, same texture, every time.

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Carrie’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (GFCF)

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I’ve succumbed once again to that which is a cookie and that which is chipped in chocolate. Ah, chocolate chip cookies – what can I say? I’m only one of the millions who are in search of that perfect chocolate chip cookie. The funny thing is about this kind of quest is that that perfect cookie may be perfect to one person, but not so for another: and the quest continues, to infinity and beyond as someone once said.

With the exception of my Dad’s favourite chocolate chip cookies – a recipe I’ve yet to share here, in case anyone starts looking for it – lately I’ve been using a different recipe just about every time I roll up my sleeves to make chocolate chip cookies.

Thinking about it, my idea of a perfect chocolate chip cookie is variable, often shifting depending on my mood. Generally though I like firm and chewy chocolate chip cookies that have that pleasing and comforting density with chocolate chips that are spread throughout the cookie: an even ratio, more or less, of cookie and chocolate chips. I also appreciate crispy edges, when I can get them. All of this I found answered in Carrie’s (a.k.a. Ginger Lemon Girl) chocolate chip cookies, when I decided to adopt her for this month’s Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger hosted by Sea of Book of Yum, who created this event. You might even call these chocolate chip cookies famous.

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Two Versions of Alton Brown’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (GFCF)

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From almost the moment I woke up, I was on my feet – I had a baking agenda, though I didn’t do everything that I’d planned. I baked three batches of chocolate chip cookies, three different recipes – one a variation – and gingerbread – something that I’ll be sharing next year, since I think it would be off-kilter to post a recipe for such a thing after Christmas. The smell of chocolate chip cookies and gingerbread permeated the house. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, with more than enough food, family and friends, and Christmas cheer all around.

It’s those chocolate chip cookies that I baked that morning that I’m sharing here today. The third batch I’m holding on to a bit longer since I want to play with it a bit more and fine tune it, but I can already say that they’re my Dad’s favourite.

This particular chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from Alton Brown. To be honest, I had hardly a clue about who Alton Brown is – I confess I didn’t even recognize his name – until not too long ago and I’ve since come across a number of blogs singing praises to the heavens about his recipes and how they work. It was while I was researching, once again, the chemistry of chocolate chip cookies that I came across Mr. Brown’s three recipes for chocolate chip cookies. I don’t remember how it happened or started, but lately I’ve been having seemingly an obsession, for lack of a better word, with chocolate chip cookies. I pore over articles about them, including that New York Times article with the thirty-six hour dough that had food bloggers in a frenzy, and study all the varieties that are out there that are inevitably tied to Ruth Wakefield. Sometimes, my interest is not so much in eating them but learning about the chemistry that makes a good chocolate chip cookie. Such personal quests are sometimes a pain since I want to go right down to the very science of it and that can’t always be easily found or answered with a few clicks of a Google search.

Soon enough, I came to find Alton Brown’s recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Delving further into this recipe, it turns out that it is adapted from one of his three chocolate chip cookie recipes: the chewy, I believe. I made the cookie dough the night before, on Christmas Eve, and baked them on Christmas morning. They seemed promising, I was hoping I’d be one of the thousands standing and clapping in ovation, but once I tasted one, I wasn’t completely happy. The cookie itself was of a pleasing sturdiness, it was chewy, but all the while as I ate it I thought something was lacking. I became full after just one cookie – that in itself not a bad thing, except that this feeling of being full was not satisfied but ugh, like it was just sitting there.

Most of my gripes seemed to be idiosyncratic, however, as almost everyone else liked them. My aunt loved them – may I tell she ate four in a row? – even to the point of employing one of the oldest tricks in the book: to exclaim and point at something non-existent and, while everyone’s backs are turned, take the last cookie and run. Cheeky!