Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Craveable cookies
These five recipes won’t dip into a cook’s stash of all-purpose flour.
The gluten-free flour blend was leftover from recipe testing. The chickpea flour was bought for a specific recipe I made a few times, then promptly forgotten in the back of the freezer. The graham flour was for the batch of homemade Mallomars I never got around to making. The barley flour was an impulse, curiosity purchase. Almond flour is something I keep on hand so I can make my favorite snack cake whenever the mood strikes.
But never mind how I ended up with all these alternatives to all-purpose (wheat) flour. There they were in my kitchen.
And there I was on my couch craving chocolate chip cookies.
The barley flour and the graham flour seemed the obvious choices. And of course the gluten-free all-purpose flour. But what about the others? Could a decent cookie be made with ground-up chickpeas? And would my beloved almond flour make as good a cookie as it does cake?
Yes, dear reader, I realize I could have used regular all-purpose flour, but I’m stubborn and maybe a little bit paranoid and wary about using all-purpose wheat flour for something frivolous like chocolate chip cookies. With certain necessities still MIA and others becoming harder and harder to find — toilet paper, yeast, all-purpose flour, dishwasher detergent, to name a few — it felt careless to use even 2 cups of my precious all-purpose flour on an indulgence like chocolate chip cookies. But I really wanted those cookies.
Poking around the internet I found tons of recipes for chocolate chip cookies that don’t use all-purpose wheat flour; instead, they use chickpea flour, almond flour, even coconut flour. While I do have some coconut flour in my pantry, after
reading through the reviews on those recipes I decided against using coconut flour. But the chickpea and almond flour recipes looked promising.
For the barley and graham flour versions, I was fairly confident I could riff on my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe. But for the chickpea flour, almond flour and gluten-free blend, I turned to cooks more experienced with alt-flours.
My go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe — basically a tweaked version of the recipe on the back of the Toll House package — uses both butter and shortening. I’ve found that combination works best for my ideal cookie texture — crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. As a general rule, cookies made with butter will spread more and be crisper. Cookies made with shortening have less flavor but are more tender. Whether you use all one or the other or a combination is really a matter of personal preference. I prefer a 50/50 blend or two-thirds butter and one-third shortening.
The type of sugar also makes a difference. I prefer a blend of brown and granulated (white) sugars. If you want chewy cookies, brown sugar is your best friend.
And so my adventure began.
First up were the barley flour cookies. Enjoyed warm from the oven the day they are baked, these cookies taste almost exactly the same as their wheaten counterparts. The most noticeable differences being crispier edges and a slight, but pleasant barley flavor. Unfortunately, these cookies don’t store as well as regular chocolate chip cookies. I recommend storing them in an airtight container for no more than 48 hours.
Note: Barley, along with wheat and rye, is one of three grains that contains gluten. These cookies are not suitable for people with gluten-intolerance.
Barley Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
½ cup butter, at room
temperature
¼ cup shortening
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar 1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups barley flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugars until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. In a separate bowl, stir together the barley flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed butter-sugar mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Drop dough by tablespoons, spaced 2 inches apart on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until light brown. Let cookies cool 3 minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Sophia, the author of the blog where I found this recipe, warns bakers not to taste the uncooked dough. And she means it. Seriously. Don’t. But if you, as I did, ignore the warning, don’t worry, the finished cookies do not taste like the uncooked dough.
But really, don’t taste it. In fact, I don’t recommend tasting any of these cookie doughs before baking. Aside from the safety concerns (raw flour and raw eggs sometimes contain bacteria that can cause serious illness), they won’t taste anything like regular, traditional chocolate chip cookie dough. It’ll just make you sad.
Baked, these cookies have a cakelike texture and an ever so slight, but not unpleasant, vegetal flavor. They’re not very sweet, but they are sweet enough.
Under no circumstances would these be mistaken for a chocolate chip cookie. They are something else entirely.
These cookies are gluten-free.
Chickpea Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
¼ cup butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (see note)
1 cup chickpea flour ¼ teaspoon baking powder Pinch salt
½ cup chopped dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. In a separate bowl, stir together the chickpea flour, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. Stir dry mixture into the creamed mixture. Drop by large tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, rotating pan halfway through, or until golden brown on the edges. Cool cookies on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 8 (2 ½- to 3-inch) cookies. Note: If I were to make these again, I’d double or even triple the vanilla.
Recipe adapted from realsimplefoodblog.com
Finely ground almonds, aka almond flour, form the base for this cookie. Warm from the oven they taste amazing. Nothing like traditional chocolate chip cookies, but still amazing. Sadly, within a few hours they lose their appeal and turn quite soft and chewy. Almost soggy. However, if you freeze them and serve them from the freezer their texture is much improved. They make excellent ice cream sandwiches. I can’t say I’ll make these again, but I will try adding a cup of almond flour to my next batch of traditional chocolate chip cookies.
These cookies are gluten-free.
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup shortening or coconut oil
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups almond flour/meal
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups chocolate chips or chunks
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until creamy. In a separate bowl, stir together the almond meal, baking soda and salt. Add almond flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough 30 minutes to 1 hour. Drop chilled dough by tablespoonfuls spaced 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake about 10 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and set. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Recipe adapted from meaningfuleats.com
Graham flour is a specific style of whole wheat flour, so these cookies aren’t terribly different from traditional chocolate chip cookies. Well, other than a definite coarseness — some might even say they’re gritty — and the hearty flavor of whole wheat, they’re not all that different.
They are an acceptable, but not necessarily satisfying, substitute for the real thing.
These cookies contain gluten.
Graham Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup shortening
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups graham flour OR whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
1 cup chopped nuts, optional
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. In a large bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugars until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat until creamy. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate chips (and nuts, if using). Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls spaced 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are browned and cookies are set. Cool on pan for a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen, depending on size.
This recipe is one I adapted from a friend who is an excellent gluten-free cook. It makes a delicious chocolate chip cookie, if you can get past the texture. There’s a reason wheat has been the preferred grain for baking for millennia. Non-wheat flours can do the job, but they don’t do it quite as well.
My recipe differs from my friend’s in that she uses all butter and makes her own gluten-free flour blend. I use gluten-free flour from the grocery store. I also up the vanilla to a tablespoon.
These cookies are gluten-free.
Gluten-Free Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup shortening
¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups gluten-free allpurpose flour (such as Cup 4 Cup or King Arthur)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly beat butter, shortening, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well; set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using). Drop by rounded tablespoons, spaced 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cookies cool slightly, then use a spatula to transfer cookies to wire racks to finish cooling.
Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies.