Cake and Commerce

Gluten-free Double Chocolate Salted Oats* Cookies

*That is, if you can eat oats. Or can tolerate certified gluten-free oats.

I've been loving a chocolate oat cookie made by Kayak Cookies, a small one-woman operation producing the salty, crispy, chocolately cookies on Cape Cod (according to this article, they were first produced in DC at a joint called Teaism). 

The cookie is different from your standard oatmeal cookie: it is plump and, when fresh, moist in the middle. It is a bit crisp and is more crumbly than chewy. There's a liberal dusting of sea salt on the top of the cookie (I use Maldon, from the UK).  But I can't eat these cookies, at least not often (probably not a bad thing) - the second ingredient on the label is wheat. So I set out to make a version that I could eat. Not a vegan version. Not yet. First I just wanted to get the texture right.

I experimented twice with the recipe. I didn't love the first version, a slightly-too-oaty cookie that was soft and chewy (oops). I gave up for nearly 6 months. And then this morning I tasted Kayak's cookie again. And decided to give it one more try. And finally it worked.

Unlike the last time, I decided to use no other grains except oats in the recipe. The flour is derived from coconut, something you can find on Amazon or in your local natural food retailer.

Usually I'd use organic oats in the recipe, but I had on hand a couple pounds of Bingo's amazing sprouted oats. The oats are grown in Quebec, unlike most oats that I believe are grown in Manitoba. Bingo, located in Brattleboro, Vermont, focuses on granola but also sells their organic, sprouted oats at the farmers market. They'll also ship some to you if you call them. They're a bit of a luxury, but I think they're worth it. After all, decadent chocolate oat cookies aren't an every day item, right?

 

Cake and Commerce's Gluten-free Chocolate Salted Oats Cookies

Yield: approximately 3 dozen 1.5 oz cookies

• 8oz (2 sticks) butter
• 7 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 8 oz chocolate chunks or chips
• 1 C Rapadura
• 2 eggs
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 3 C oats (I prefer sprouted oats; rolled oats will also produce a great cookie)
• 2/3 C Organic Coconut Flour
• 2/3 C unsweetened shredded coconut 
• 1 t Agar Agar powder (guar or xanthan gum may be substituted)
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t fine sea salt
• Approximately 1 T Maldon Sea Salt (or other flat pressed salt)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 4 oz (1 stick) butter with the 7 oz of bitter chocolate (or 5 oz for a softer cookie). Allow to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine rapadura, remaining stick of butter (at room temperature). Mix until lighter and creamy.

Add in eggs and mix until completely combined. Add vanilla. Mix.

Add in cooled chocolate and butter mixture. Mix for about 10 seconds, scrape down, and mix for 10 more seconds.

In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the remaining chocolate chips (you'll add those at the end). Note: if you want softer cookies that spread a little more, reduce oats by 1/2 cups.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in bowl and mix until cookie dough comes together. Scrape down bowl and mix for about 5 more seconds. Add the 8 oz of chocolate chunks or chips. IMPORTANT NOTE: if you like chocolate chunks in your cookies, feel free to add more. It will make the cookies more...chocolately!

With a 1-1/2 oz ice cream scoop, scoop cookies onto parchment or Silpat. There doesn't need to be much space between the cookies, they do not spread much.  Push down tops a little, if desired.

Sprinkle tops of cookies with Maldon sea salt. Press down gently on salt flakes so they won't fall off after baking.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until shiny on top, crinkles appear, and bottom is slightly colored. Bake longer for a drier cookie. It will harden significantly when cooled, so try to avoid overbaking unless you love a more crumbly cookie.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies: 2 new yummy recipes

Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies...held by mom

Gluten-free Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today: two new recipes - Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies and (certified!) Gluten-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. And they are tasty.

(And the video from my friends at How2Heroes.com is there for all you A/V learners. It is embedded just past the recipe for the first cookie).

A few years ago I developed a recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that had a distinctly beany flavor. That's probably because I used a flour that I now generally avoid - garbanzo. The flavor is too overpowering and 'green' tasting. Great in hummus, not so great in chocolate chip cookies.

I've learned a lot in the last few years about gluten-free flours. As I've explained before, I don't use potato starch (nutritionally useless) or corn starch (I avoid using corn as much as possible) or sorghum (it makes me sick) or most rice flours (the texture is wrong). I've fallen in love with teff, the 'smallest grain in the world' that has a neutral flavor and a similar composition to wheat flour and a flavor similar to whole wheat. I also love light buckwheat flour because it has a slightly lighter flavor than regular buckwheat and the color is more attractive in baked gooods. I also use tapioca because it adds sponginess and crispness. And finely milled sweet brown rice flour absorbs moisture, adds a bit of starch and tastes more neutral than other flours.

I also wanted to improve the quality of sweetener I was using. Instead of using white sugar and brown sugar, I used a combination of maple syrup and Rapadura, which is granulated unrefined evaporated cane juice. Considered 'healthier' because it is high in dietary non-heme iron, it still spikes blood sugar.

I decided to keep butter and eggs in the recipe. I don't have an issue with casein, but if you do, you can substitute your favorite non-animal based shortening (margarine etc). You cannot substitute oil one-for-one or the recipe will come out very oily. Reduce oil by 1/3. Eggs can be substituted with 1 t ground flax combined with 2T water.

The key to success with this recipe is to make the dough and allow it to rest, in your refrigerator, for at least 24 hours. This isn't an option. This is a requirement. When allowed to absorb the liquid ingredients, the dough becomes firmer and drier and bakes up like a dream. The edges are crisp and the centers are soft and chewy. Apparently, according to this New York Times article, that's the chocolate chip cookie ideal.

I don't use gums in this recipe, but if you like using guar or xanthan, you can add a 1/2 teaspoon to the recipe.

You'll need a scale to execute this recipe properly. I use My Weigh KD-7000 Digital Stainless Steel Kitchen Scale.

I use certified gluten-free oats in my baking. To read more on oats and celiac, check out this great reference from Health Canada. Oats ARE gluten-free and are tolerated by most, but not all.

Here's what Health Canada says:

"...the safety/benefit evaluation for the introduction of oats in the gluten-free diet of patients with CD indicates that moderate amounts of pure oats are well tolerated by the majority of individuals with CD and dermatitis herpetiformis.The term "pure oats" is used to indicate oats uncontaminated with gluten from other closely related cereal grains, including wheat, barley and rye as detected using current test methods. Based on clinical trials in the published literature, the amount of pure oats considered within safe limits is 50 to 70 g/ day for adults and 20 to 25 g/day for children."

Enjoy!

Cake and Commerce's Gluten-Free Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies
(recipe based on ratios from the New York Times recipe, 7-9-2008)

Combine dry ingredients and set aside:

• 3.5 oz Teff Flour
• 2 oz Light Buckwheat Flour
• 2 oz Sweet Brown Rice Flour
• 1 oz  Tapioca Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

In bowl of stand mixer or, if you don't have one, in a bowl combine:

• 5 oz butter (1-1/4 sticks) (substitute vegetable shortening)
• 7 oz Rapadura (you can substitute 5 oz brown sugar and 3 oz white sugar for the Rap & Maple)
• 1 oz Maple Syrup

Mix until uniform. Add:

• 1 egg (substitute 1-1/2 t egg replacer + 3 T water)
• 1 t vanilla

Mix until egg is completely incorporated. All at once, add the dry mixture.

When flours are incorporated, mix in:

• 12 oz chocolate chips or 1 bag of chocolate chips of your choosing

Once the chips are mixed in, spread dough out in roughly a straight line on a sheet of parchment and roll it into a cylinder.Alternately, individually scoop the dough into 1.25 ounce portions and refrigerate inside a plastic bag. Refrigerate it for at least 24 hours.

Once the dough has been refrigerated for 24 hours (it can spend up to 3 days in the fridge or be frozen for up to a month if wrapped in plastic) you can bake it off.

Preheat your oven to 350.

Place cookies (cut from the cylinder or whole 1.25 ounce scoops) on cookie sheet with about 3 inches of space between each cookie. Press each cookie down and flatten a bit for better baking.

If you are feeling trendy, you can lightly sprinkle the cookies with coarse sea salt (such as Maldon).

Place in center rack in oven and bake for about 10 minutes for a chewy, soft cookie up to 15 minutes for a crisper cookie. Allow to cool completely before handling.

Eat immediately, store in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze cookies.

And then there's the video, courtesy of my friends at How2Heroes.

Here they are, working in the house:

And here's the video:

So let's just say you don't want to eat a plain old chocolate chip cookies. You want something with texture. For you, I have gluten-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, made with certified gluten-free oats.

Cake and Commerce's Gluten-free Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the bowl of a mixer, combine:

• 5 oz butter (substitute vegetable shortening)
• 7 oz rapadura
• 1 oz maple (substitute 5 oz brown sugar and 3 oz white sugar for Rap and Maple)

When evenly mixed, add in:

• 1 egg (substitute 1-1/2 t egg replacer + 3 T water)
• 1 t vanilla

Add the following to the bowl and stir until evenly mixed:

• 1.5 oz Light Buckwheat Flour
• 1 oz dried unsweetened coconut
• 8 oz CERTIFIED GLUTEN-FREE rolled oats (NOT instant)
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt

Once mixed, stir in:

• 1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips (10 oz bag fine too)

Portion out the cookies using a 1.25 oz scoop (small-sized scoop) and place each scoop on a parchment-lined sheetpan. Chill in a refrigerator until hardened. Place scoops in an airtight container and allow to chill for at least 24 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Press down and flatten the tops of each cookie. Place on a baking sheet leaving about 3 inches between each cookie. Sprinkle flat sea salt (like Maldon) sparingly on each cookie. Bake 10 minutes for a soft, gooey cookie. Bake up to 15 minutes for a crisper cookie.

Eat immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.'

Here's my 'scratch' pad. No disrespect intended, Edible Boston.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Graham Crackers...and they're vegan, too!

I was never one of those tots easily mollified by graham crackers and apple juice. I don't even think I liked graham crackers. There were more enticing choices. There were always more enticing choices. Except when in combination with chocolate and marshmallow. I've always had a soft spot for the s'more.

Sometime in my 20s I began to appreciate the simplicity of a graham cracker. They were slightly sweet and crunchy and versatile. When paired with coffee or tea, they were a pleasant - and dunkable! - counterpoint. I bought a box of organic graham crackers from time to time but almost never finished them.

When I started making my own I developed a genuine love for the graham cracker. I didn't have cravings, but when a still-soft graham worked its way into a s'more, I became aware of its subtle pleasures.

During the summer I lived on a goat dairy, I'd make goat cheese cheesecakes and sell them at the local farmers market for a couple dollars a slice. The crusts were always made with graham crackers. Nothing beats a graham cracker crust for cheesecake. I've had nut crusts before but they never met my expectations for texture and sweetness.

Now that I'm gluten-free, I decided to convert a graham cracker recipe I developed about 11 years ago. I removed the butter from the original recipe as well as the honey. It is now completely vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, corn-free and potato-free. It is also packed with good ingredients (organic extra virgin coconut oil, whole grains, brown rice bran, rapadura - evaporated cane juice). I wanted the recipe to be delicious, made in the spirit of the original graham cracker, and crunchy enough to be easily ground down into crumbs that I could use in a crust. I think I've accomplished that.

Graham crackers may be one of the easier recipes to convert - an ideal graham cracker has little to no gluten development and is made with whole grains. There's virtually no need for starches and almost any flour combination will work.

A few notes about this recipe:

1. You'll need a scale to make this properly.
2. Although I recommend specific flours (which tasted great), if you have a favorite blend you like, feel free to use it UNLESS it has a leavener in it.  You'll need 12 ounces total.
3. If you like a slightly less leavened cracker, omit 1/4 t Baking Powder and 1/4 t Baking Soda

Cake & Commerce's Gluten-free Graham Crackers...and they're vegan, too!

Dry Ingredients:

6 oz Light Buckwheat Flour
2 oz Teff Flour
2 oz Sweet Brown Rice Flour
2 oz Rice Bran Flour
2 oz Rapadura Sugar (or Brown Sugar)
1/2 t Baking Powder
1 t Baking Soda
1 t Salt, fine

Wet Ingredients

3 oz Virgin Coconut Oil, melted and slightly cooled
1/3 C Amber Agave Syrup (Honey or Maple Syrup will also work)
1/3 C Water, slightly warm
1 T Vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 (if convection, preheat to 300)

Combine Dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or mixer. Combine wet ingredients together and mix until blended. Pour wet ingredients in food processor over dry ingredients. Pulse until well combined. The dough will be a slightly sticky mass.

Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes for the flour to absorb some of the liquid.

If the dough is still wet, knead in a little more teff or buckwheat flour. It should NOT be wet to the touch.

Roll out to about 1/8th of an inch on a sheet of parchment. With a knife, score dough into a graham-cracker-sized grid (or cut with round cutters if looking for another look). Dock dough (make holes in dough) with a fork or docker (if you happen to have one). Transfer to a sheet pan.

Brush surface with water and sprinkle with rapadura or sugar. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until dry. Do not burn - it gets VERY bitter if overcooked.

If you suddenly realize you want to cut it into shapes, when it is still hot, cut with a shaped cutter or with a knife.

Cool. And turn off oven. For drier grahams (you'll use them to make crumbs), place back in oven when it is cool and allow to dry out.

Eat, use for s'mores, grind and use for graham cracker crusts etc.

Store in an airtight container in a cool place. They will keep for a long time, several weeks, but if stored in a warm place the fat may oxidize over time and make it taste slightly 'off'.

If they get stale, place in 250 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes.

If you want to see how I do it, watch this video made by my friends at How2Heroes.com:

(CERTIFIED) Gluten-Free Oaty Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies

There's not a long story behind this cookie. I was going to movie night at Nell and Doug's house on Monday night when I realized that I had nothing to bring them. The refrigerator was bare - well, except for the gross of Peruvian asparagus that I did not buy - and I wasn't feeling inspired by the vegetable crisper. No, it was time for cookies. Gluten-free cookies. Gluten-free cookies that didn't taste sandy (no rice flour) and didn't have a weird "celiac" flavor (that's the adjective we would use at my old job to describe the slightly off finish of many gluten-free and allergy-friendly foods).

I don't use some of the more neutral tasting gluten-free flours and starches  - potato flour or corn starch - in my baked goods. I, personally, do not like the flavor of potato flour and I eat very little corn and don't like how chalky corn starch can taste. So the flours I do end up using - mostly tapioca, buckwheat, certified gluten-free oat, the occasional brown rice and, rarely, garbanzo flour - have to be balanced out to limit their flavor or texture. Alternately, they can be exploited for their flavor. I don't believe in all-purpose flour mixes - I can't control what is in them and my ratios change all the time. I don't believe any single GF mix can be a 1 for 1 substitute for wheat flour - different flours have different properties and can be mixed and matched depending on

the type of recipe you're making. I also don't like to use gums unless there's need for springiness - breads and muffins and some cakes benefit from gums, ground flax, ground salba or ground chia. They need to be used with some caution - too much can cause a gummy net that collapses when the product cools.

[And yes, doubters, for most with CD, CERTIFIED GLUTEN-FREE OATS can be tolerated. Don't believe me? Check out the findings from Health Canada, who have summarized human trials and a number of studies on this website. Their conclusion?

"...the safety/benefit evaluation for the introduction of oats in the gluten-free diet of patients with CD indicates that moderate amounts of pure oats are well tolerated by the majority of individuals with CD and dermatitis herpetiformis.The term "pure oats" is used to indicate oats uncontaminated with gluten from other closely related cereal grains, including wheat, barley and rye as detected using current test methods. Based on clinical trials in the published literature, the amount of pure oats considered within safe limits is 50 to 70 g/ day for adults and 20 to 25 g/day for children."]

Anyway, so I wanted to make cookies that would 'pass'. I mean, I wanted them to taste so good no one would think there was anything different -ahem, gluten-free - about them. So I started with a chocolate chip base recipe that I really love - from the Village Baker's Wife. I then altered it completely. I added unsweetened melted chocolate and a combination of -what else - buckwheat and tapioca flours, hydrated oats, and dry oats. And chocolate chunks. The results - a completely different cookie that is tender, chewy (if you don't overbake it) and very, very oaty. So you better like oats. A lot.

When I brought them to the party later that night, I told only a couple people the cookies were gluten free.  They were a big hit. Many had no idea the cookies were gluten-free and along with everyone else, took seconds. The next day, after they'd been sitting out all night, my mother (the diabetic) tried them. And, as she chewed on her second cookie, she smiled and said (sarcastically), "Oh, they're gluten-free? Then I guess they're good for me."

I wish.

Cake & Commerce's Gluten-free Oaty Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• 2 sticks (8 oz) room-temperature butter
• 1-1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 1 cup of CERTIFIED GLUTEN-FREE hydrated oats  (combine 1 C hot water with 3/4 C + 2 T Oats)
• 1 C dry instant oats
• 2 c light buckwheat flour
• 3/4 c tapioca flour
• 1/4 c brown rice flour
• 2 t baking soda
• 1-1/4 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 C chocolate chips or chunks

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream together the the sugars and 1-1/2 sticks of the butter.
Add in eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl and mix a couple more times.

Melt the other 1/2 stick of butter with the 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate. Allow it to cool.

If you haven't already, pour 1 cup of boiling hot (or instant hot) water over 3/4 + 2 T oats and allow to hydrate. Stir occasionally. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, sift all of the dry ingredients together.

Once the chocolate/butter is cooled, add it to the batter, stirring as it is added. Follow with the hydrated oats. Once thoroughly mixed, add in the dry ingredients. Once the dry ingredients are completely incorporated, scrape the bowl and give a few more stirs. Add the chips.

Allow the dough to sit at least an hour or overnight. If you do allow it to sit overnight, you'd should pre-portion the scoops OR roll it into a cylinder.

Bake for 9-12 minutes. The less you bake them, the softer and fudgier they will be. I'm a fan of the chewy cookie, so I pull them around the 9-10 minute mark.

Some variations:

• For a softer cookie, leave out 1/4 C buckwheat and 1/4 C dry oats
• For a plain chocolate chip cookie, leave out the chocolate, but use the same amount of butter
• Add nuts of your choosing
• Replace vanilla with liqueur of your choosing
• Add in dry fruit like cranberries or dried cherries

Enjoy!