Saturday, 20 May 2017

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.

There are not enough words in the English language for me to adequately express how gleefully happy I am that I have finally perfected a gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe. I. AM. THRILLED. These past few months, creating this particular recipe has been my pet-project and I've struggled so much to get it right, but FINALLY, yes finally I HAVE SUCCEEDED. You cannot begin to fathom the staggering quantity of cookies that I have eaten in my efforts to bring this gluten free cookie perfection to you, but it was not a futile effort, for we now have resounding success! I'm also not going to complain about all that cookie consuming because I like to think I'm daring enough to put my body on the line for the greater good (cookie recipe creation obviously constitutes 'greater good'), so endlessly making and consuming cookies was a challenge I was happy to accept. 

You might wonder why I've been fixated on this particular recipe. Well. STORY TIME. 

Without giving you too much information and thereby grossing you out, the past few months I've had some less than pleasant digestive issues. Because of that, I've decided that there is no harm in trying to eliminate a few things to see if I can find the issue, and after elimination, if the issue persists then I can just go back to eating unrestricted vegan again because obviously the eliminated food wasn't a problem. Anyway. Thus far, no success on working out what is causing the problem, BUT, gluten is the big thing I've yet to try eliminating. It's not exactly an easy undertaking to cut gluten out, and flour is definitely one of the biggest issues in going gluten free. Flour is also, coincidently, a core ingredient of cookies. Obviously I simply cannot live without cookies, so I was left with the dilemma of needing to make an adequately delicious gluten free cookie before I could actually try eating gluten free. 

I'm currently day 7 into being gluten free and so far so good. I'll keep you all updated as to whether or not the much hyped gluten free diet actually does anything beneficial for my digestive system, and if not, then rest assured, I'll return to being a gluten-consuming, cookie-loving person. But, in the meantime, let's rejoice that I, and also you, can remain a cookie-loving and consuming person, albeit gluten free!




Ingredients;
100gm vegan butter/dairy free margarine (I use Nuttelex)
1/2 cup unrefined sugar (I used raw sugar, coconut sugar also works, though will give the cookies a darker colour)
1 flax egg (1 tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water)
1/2 cup quick oats (or regular rolled oats, blended briefly so they're all chopped up)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal/almond and flax meal (either works)
1/4 cup maple syrup
100gm dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100gm vegan white chocolate (optional, though if omitting, I'd recommend adding some extra dark chocolate)

1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees (fan forced) and line a baking tray with some baking paper/parchment.
2. Place the vegan butter/margarine and the unrefined sugar in a bowl. Use an electric mixer to cream them together (i.e. mix them till they go light and fluffy!). When fully combined, add in the maple syrup and your flax egg. Mix everything together.
3. Add the quick oats, coconut flour and almond meal to the mixture. Use your hands to mix everything through into a dough. It should combine into a nice consistency that is not crumbly, but if it won't hold together, add a (very) small amount of melted coconut oil. Add your roughly chopped chocolate into the dough and mix through well using your hands.
4. Take a small handful of dough (approx. 1 tbsp) and roll it into a ball. Place it on the lined baking tray and press down lightly so the dough forms a cookie-sized shape (these cookies won't spread very much, so make them into the size/shape you want them to be when cooked). Repeat until you have used all the dough.
5. Place in the oven to bake for approx. 15/20 minutes, or until they just begin to turn golden brown. When cooked, remove and allow to cool. Enjoy!!



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