If you subscribe to the King Arthur Flour (KAF) baking newsletter, you know that the 2015 Recipe of the Year was for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. They looked great, but I didn’t get too excited until a day or two later, along came the recipe for KAF’s gluten-free version of Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.
Neither recipe looks all that different from the one you find on the bags of chocolate chips, I thought, but for G/F bakers, that’s a nice change from complicated flour blends and unusual ingredients, so I thought it would be a fun and easy Weekend Cooking post to
make the recipe exactly as is, report on the results, and post a photo.
In typical fashion, however, the box of KAF multi-purpose flour I was picturing in the cupboard had been used up over the holidays, so I had to substitute Bob’s Red Mill G/F All-Purpose Baking Flour.
I also forgot to bring the egg to room temperature before starting.
I had all the other ingredients, though, and baked up a batch of cookies that came out fine, except for spreading a little more than expected – which at least one of the zillion commenters on the recipe mentioned also. They were good, but not great. I brought them to an event and they all went.
(Parchment paper! Where has it been all my life? It’s great stuff! I had plenty of it on hand, because it’s used a lot in gluten-free baking.)
I’m going to order a box of the flour the recipe calls for, and try it again. I think the KAF flour might make a big difference. Watch this space for another (hopefully, better executed) experiment!
Tips for Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies, G/F or Regular
- Never ever use “artificially flavored” chocolate chips
- Always use real butter if you can (use half shortening, half butter to reduce spreading, but that will reduce buttery flavor)
- Don’t taste cookie dough before adding all the ingredients (messes up proportions)
- Use KAF’s Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract or another good vanilla extract
- Substitute a small amount of KAF’s Princess Cake & Cookie Flavor for part of the vanilla, if you don’t mind mystery ingredients in your food
- If you add nuts, toast them in the oven first
This post is linked up to Beth Fish Reads weekly Weekend Cooking feature. Check out more foodie posts here.